Astronomy Observatory

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 2006 Speaker schedule)

• Friday, May 5, 9:00 pm
  Dr. Olivier Groussin on "Tempel 1: A 'Cool' Comet?"
  
  
• Saturday, May 20, 9:00 pm
  Matthew Knight on "Sungrazing Comets"
       -- ppt
       -- Search for sungrazing comets using publicly available data from SOHO:
            -- Sungrazing Comets
            -- SunGrazer main@SunGrazer.groups.io
  
  
• Monday, June 5, 9:00 pm
  Dr. Lori Feaga on "What is Spectroscopy?"
  
  
• Tuesday, June 20, 9:00 pm
  Dr. Doug Hamilton on "The Summer Solstice"
  
  
• Wednesday, July 5, 9:00 pm
  Elizabeth Warner on "Observing and Photographing Satellites"
  
  
• Thursday, July 20, 9:00 pm
  Dr. Anita Krishnamurthi on "Beyond Einstein: From the Big Bang to Black Holes"
  
  
• Saturday, August 5, 9:00 pm
  Greg Redfern on "A Cosmic Detective Story: The Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater"
  
  
• Sunday, August 20, 9:00 pm
  Dr. Matthew Burger on "The Cassini/Huygens Mission to Saturn and the Ice Volcanoes of Enceladus"
  
  

Get a sneak peek at our Fall/Winter 2006 schedule!