AstroFest

Tomorrow, Friday, April 26th, the telescopes will be open at 8:30 pm weather permitting. The current weather forecast is for clear skies, but the planetarium is down for an upgrade and will not be available for a show if it ends up cloudy. We hope you can join us!

There are clear skies in State College PA and the Davey Lab rooftop observatory will be open for stargazing from 8:30 until 10:30PM tonight, Friday March 29. Free and open to the public. Come join us!

Join us for a free public lecture where Marcia Rieke, principal investigator for the near-infrared camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope, will discuss the JWST, one of the most ambitious and complicated telescopes ever to be launched into space. She will share how new data collected since the telescope’s launch have already overturned traditional thinking about distant galaxies and other cosmic objects.

100 Huck Life Sciences Building from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 19.

Marker Lectures in Astronomy and Astrophysics scheduled for Sept. 19, 20, and 21 | Eberly College of Science Marcia Rieke, who works on instrumentation for the James Webb Space Telescope, will present the Marker Lectures at Penn State in Sept.

Looking for some *stellar* Friday night plans?? Look no further! This Friday night at 8:30pm, join us at Davey Lab for a talk by Dr. Joel Leja on the latest James Webb discoveries followed by stargazing with the telescopes on the roof (weather permitting)! All ages welcome! We hope to see you there!

Here is another view through our telescope on Davey Lab roof at AstroFest 2023 last night. There is one more night of AstroFest, today, Saturday, July 15. We hope to see you on the roof. Photo Credit: Thomas Gaudin

Here is one view through our telescope on Davey Lab roof at AstroFest 2023 last night. There is one more night of AstroFest, today, Saturday, July 15. We hope to see you on the roof. Photo Credit: Thomas Gaudin

It's not too late to attend AstroFest 2023. Here is our exciting program of activities and Featured Presentations for Saturday, July 15 from 8:30pm-11:30pm. We are located at Davey Lab on the Penn State University Park Campus. People of all ages are welcome to our free program, which also includes planetarium shows and stargazing at our rooftop observatory.

AstroFest 2023 continues tonight (Friday July 14) and tomorrow night (Saturday July 15) from 8:30pm-11:30pm at Davey Lab on the University Park Campus of Penn State. Please join us for a free program that includes stargazing from our rooftop telescopes, presentations, planetarium shows, tours and demonstrations and special activities for kids. This program is appropriate for adults and families alike.

We are excited to announce our program for this evening's AstroFest (Thursday, July 13 at 8:30pm-11:30pm at Davey Lab on Penn State's University Park Campus).

Our AstroFest T-shirt for 2023 features the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, a NASA mission that deliberately collided with an asteroid in September 2022, and altered its course. This test gives us hope that we would be able to deflect any asteroids that may come our way and threaten life on Earth.

T-shirts will be on sale for $10 at Davey Lab on the University Park campus of Penn State, tonight (Thursday July 13), Friday, July 14, and Saturday, July 15, at 8:30pm-11:30pm each night. Please join us for free stargazing, planetarium shows, featured presentions, and many tours and demonstrations for all ages.

We are excited to announce our program for this evening's AstroFest (Wed. July 12 at 8:30pm-11:30pm at Davey Lab on Penn State's University Park Campus).

AstroFest 2023 runs from tomorrow, Wed., July 12 - Sat., July 15 from 8:30pm-11:30pm each night. It will be held at Davey Lab on the University Park campus of Penn State. Planned featured presentations for tomorrow night include: 1) Planets, Planets, Everywhere! ; 2) Teaching Astro with Art & Games; 3) Crashing into an Asteroid; 4) Time Travel; 5) Why Did We Stop Calling the Sun a Planet?; and 6) The Universe is Trying to Kill Us. In addition there will be Planetarium shows all through the night and many other tours and activities, free for all ages!

AstroFest 2023 has many exciting astronomy demonstrations and activities for kids, as well as presentations for adults. Here you see us making a comet!

The event starts Wednesday, July 12 at 8:30pm - 11:30pm (note we are a night-time program because of the stargazing component). We are FREE and located at the Davey Lab at the University Park campus of Penn State, adjacent to the Central PA Festival of the arts. Our program runs every night through Saturday, July 15.

AstroFest 2023, four nights of free astronomy activities, presentations, planetarium, and telescope viewing, begins on Wednesday, July 12 from 8:30pm-11:30pm at Davey Lab on the Penn State University Park Campus. Please join us!

If you have attended AstroFest before please comment below about your favorite presentation or activity.

AstroFest The official page for Penn State Astronomy and AstroFest.

AstroFest 2023 begins Wed. July 12 and runs through Sat. July 15 from 8:30pm-11:30pm each night.

Learn more from our press release:

AstroFest 2023 offers four evenings of astronomy activities and stargazing | Penn State University

Come out to Davey Laboratory at 8:30pm tonight for our very first "Stars and Scientists" for a fun talk by Dr. Irina Mocioiu and some rooftop stargazing! Hopefully the clouds clear up, but in case of bad weather, the talk will be followed by a show in our planetarium. All are welcome, we hope to see you there!

You're invited to a new event series at the Penn State Astronomy Department, "Stars and Scientists"! This monthly event will feature a talk by one of our scientists, followed by rooftop stargazing with the telescopes (weather permitting).

Our first event is next Friday, June 16 at 8:30pm, and will be featuring a talk titled "I Spy with my Little Neutrino Eye" given by Dr. Irina Mocioiu. Come find out how we can use mysterious, tiny particles called neutrinos to learn about our universe, and join us for stargazing! All are welcome - we hope to see you there!

Join us for a free public lecture where John Mather, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2006, will describe the design and construction of the James Webb Space Telescope, and review some of its scientific achievements during its first year of operation.

Free public lecture by James Webb Space Telescope leading scientist on April 8 | Penn State University John C. Mather, senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, will present the Ronald M. and Susan J. Friedman Endowed Lectureship in Astronomy and Astrophysics at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 8, in 100 Thomas Building on Penn State’s University Park campus.

Unfortunately, the clouds are misbehaving and we can't see any stars from Davey, so star gazing is cancelled again tonight :( fingers crossed that the skies are clear on December 16!

We'll be stargazing tonight at 8pm!

Davey Lab rooftop observing is back by popular demand! We will be hosting a few Friday night stargazing events throughout the rest of the semester, so come out for an opportunity to use the telescopes and see some cool space objects!

Due to the storm today, the observing event tonight is cancelled. Be sure to mark your calendars for our next one on December 2, and hopefully the weather cooperates!

Tonight, Saturday, October 8, at Davey Lab on University Park Campus we are having a one night stargazing and astronomy outreach event for Penn State Parents and Families weekend. Members of the public are also welcome to attend from 8pm-11pm. The skies look like they are going to be clear so it should be a great evening.