The Department of Astronomy at the University of Maryland, College Park hosts Open Houses at the UMD Observatory on the 5th and the 20th of every month. On Open House evenings a guest speaker will give approximately a half hour talk about a topic in astronomy. The talk is followed by viewing of celestial objects through the observatory's telescopes, weather permitting. If weather does not permit viewing, the talk will still go on as scheduled.

Upcoming Speakers

  • Thursday, January 5, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Peter Teuben on "A Brief History of Dutch Astronomy"
    MC: Robyn Smith

  • Friday, January 20, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Joel Coley on "A Look Into High-Mass X-ray and Gamma-ray Binaries"
    MC: Zeeve Rogoszinski

  • Sunday, February 5, 8:00 pm
    Elizabeth Warner on "2017 Observing Highlights"
    MC: Jialu Li

  • Monday, February 20, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Drake Deming on "The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite: Searching for Habitable Worlds Orbiting Nearby Stars"
    MC: Rebecca Levy

  • Sunday, March 5, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Leo Singer on "Advanced LIGO: Hearing the Sound of Gravity"
    MC: Elizabeth Tarantino

  • Monday, March 20, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Regina Caputo on "Dark Matters: The Mystery of the Universe's Missing Mass"
    MC: Weizhe Liu

  • Wednesday, April 5, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Tess Jaffe on "Studying the Shape of the Universe"
    MC: Dana Louie

  • Thursday, April 20, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Alex Moiseev on "60 years since the First 'Sputnik' - Beginning of the Era of Space Science"
    MC: Carrie Holt

Get a sneak peek at our Summer 2017 schedule!