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 2005 Speaker schedule)

  • Thursday, May 5, 9:00 pm
    Grace Deming on "Are those meteors part of a shower?"

  • Friday, May 20, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Tony Farnham on "Comet Machholz 2004 Q2: Thinking about CN Jets and Pinwheels"

  • Sunday, June 5, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Suchitra Balachandran on "Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin and the Chemical Composition of Stars"

  • Monday, June 20, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Kevin Rauch on "Black Holes in Focus: Extreme Gravitational Lensing"

  • Tuesday, July 5, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Sylvain Veilleux on "Supermassive Black Holes"

  • Wednesday, July 20, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Melissa Hayes-Gehrke on "Stellar Activity in Sun-Like Stars"

  • Friday, August 5, 9:00 pm
    Nehanda Tankasala on "Island One: What Will the First Space Colonies Be Like?"

  • Saturday, August 20, 9:00 pm
    Elizabeth Warner on "Constellations"

Get a sneak peek at our Fall/Winter 2005 schedule!