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

  • Wed, September 5, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Cole Miller on "Faster, Hotter, Denser: the Lives of Neutron Stars"
    MC: Kári Helgason

  • Thu, September 20, 9:00 pm
    Carole Downey & Erin Kisliuk on "The H-R Diagram"
    MC: Erin Grand

  • Fri, October 5, 9:00 pm
    Elizabeth Warner on "Clash of the Titans"
    MC: Maggie McAdam

  • Sat, October 20, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Ranjan Vasudevan on "Leviathans of the Cosmos: Supermassive Black Holes"
    MC: Erin Grand

  • Mon, November 5, 7:00 pm en Español; 8:00 pm in English
    Dr. Alberto Bolatto on "Exoplanetas en Abundancia/Exoplanets Galore"
    MC: Katie Jameson

  • Tue, November 20, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Doug Hamilton on "Moons and Rings"
    MC: Alex McCormick

  • Wed, December 5, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Laura Blecha on "Colliding Galaxies and Monster Black Holes"
    MC: Shaye Storm

  • Thu, December 20, 8:00 pm
    Elizabeth Warner on "Something Snarky about the End of the World"
    MC: Tingting Liu