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

(download a copy of the Summer 2018 Speaker schedule)

  • Saturday, May 5, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Hayes-Gehrke/A315 Students on "Asteroid Rotation Period Results from ASTR 315 Student Research"
    MC: Blake Hartley

  • Sunday, May 20, 9:00 pm
    Sean Terry on "Preparing for the WFIRST Microlensing Mission: Galactic Bulge Stellar Populations"
    MC: Weizhe Liu

  • Tuesday, June 5, 9:00 pm
    Elizabeth Warner on "Observing Exoplanets"
    MC: Kyle Shepard

  • Wednesday, June 20, 9:00 pm
    Dr Marc Pound on "Where in History is the Orion Nebula?"
    MC: Liz Tarantino

  • Thursday, July 5, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Elizabeth Ferrara on "Pulsar Timing Arrays: Using the Galaxy to detect Gravitational Waves"
    MC: Jialu Li

  • Friday, July 20, 9:00 pm
    Arnab Dhabal on "Balloon Astronomy"
    MC: Harrison Agrusa

  • Sunday, August 5, 9:00 pm
    Dr Tess Jaffe on "Magnetic fields in the Milky Way"
    MC: Mahmuda Afrin Badhan

  • Monday, August 20, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Ian Richardson on "Cool Science from Near the Sun"
    MC: Sergio Mundo