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 Fall 2014 Speaker schedule)

  • Fri, September 5, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Cole Miller on "Death by Black Hole"
    MC: Alex Fitts

  • Sat, September 20, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Tony Farnham on "comet Siding Spring's close approach to Mars"
    MC: Alex Fitts

  • Sun, October 5, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Andrey Timokhin on "Pulsars: How Electricity Lets the Stellar Undead Live Again!"
    MC: Qian Wang

  • Mon, October 20, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Lori Feaga on "3-2-1 Landing: Comet C-G Here We Come "
    MC: Maggie McAdam

  • Wed, November 5, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Surjalal Sharma on "Making Sense of Big Data in Astronomy"
    MC: Tiara Hung

  • Thu, November 20, 8:00 pm
    Dr. John Trasco on "50 Years at an Urban Observatory"
    MC: Drew Hogg

  • Fri, December 5, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Chuck Higgins on "The Radio Sky"
    MC: Blake Hartley

  • Sat, December 20, 8:00 pm
    Elizabeth Warner on "Astronomy Events in 2015"
    MC: Arnab Dhabal