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

  • Sat, September 5, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Cole Miller on "Crushed, Fried, and Spaghettified: Why You Shouldn't Get Too Close to a Black Hole"
    MC: Maxime Rizzo

  • Sun, September 20, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Silvia Protopapa on "New Horizons"
    MC: Jamie Cohen

  • Mon, October 5, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Ravi Kumar Kopparapu on "The Search for Potential Habitable Worlds"
    MC: Tiara Hung

  • Tue, October 20, 9:00 pm
    Dr. Robert Michell on "Radar and Optical Observations of Meteors"
    MC: Kyle Sheppard

  • Thu, November 5, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Chris Reynolds on "Why Do Black Holes Shine?"
    MC: Qian Wang

  • Fri, November 20, 8:00 pm
    Dr. Alex Moiseev on "Search for cosmic dark matter with Fermi gamma-ray space telescope"
    MC: Robyn Smith

  • Sat, December 5, 8:00 pm
    Asteroid Rotation Period Results from ASTR 315 Student Research
    MC: Maggie McAdam

  • Sun, December 20, 8:00 pm
    Andre Amarante Luiz on "Dissemination, Education, and Research in Brazilian Astronomy"
    MC: Dana Louie