Penn State University's popular "AstroFest" program, a four-night festival of astronomy activities and stargazing during the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, will welcome visitors from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. each night Wednesday, July 13 through Saturday, July 16. All ages are welcome to participate in a variety of exciting and educational activities sponsored by the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Events are free and will occur rain or shine in classrooms and in the planetarium located on the fifth floor of Davey Laboratory on the University Park campus.
On clear nights, visitors can peer through telescopes at the Davey Laboratory rooftop observatory at the bright planets -- Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. "We are especially excited to show folks our newest telescopes, which we will use to observe deep-field objects like the globular cluster in Hercules and the Ring Nebula" said Chris Palma, senior lecturer in astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and co-coordinator of AstroFest.
Outside Davey Laboratory, visitors can walk on a simulated gooey alien planet surface called "oobleck" without getting their feet wet, and can also launch a bottle-rocket part of the way to the stars. In the lobby, visitors can learn about NASA's Swift satellite, which views the most powerful explosions in the universe and is controlled by Penn State. The lobby is also the place where young visitors can claim an astronomy-themed prize on their way out, as a reward for completing activities at the event.
Featured presentations vary from night to night, with subjects ranging from galactic trainwrecks, to black holes, to newly found planets, to comets and asteroids, to Hubble Space Telescope images. This year’s AstroFest will have a new, modern touch, with a special virtual reality activity presented by Joe Radak, an alumnus of the planetary science and astronomy major at Penn State. Radak said “this activity will allow visitors to use the HTC Vive Virtual Reality Headset to paint their own planet in Virtual Reality”. AstroFest attendees also can try out a demo from the popular video game version of the Astro 001 class that 2000 university students take each year for general education credit.
AstroFest demonstrations also include the cloud chamber, where visitors learn about sub-atomic particles and the chance to "make your own comet." Five-minute tours of a scale model of the solar system and of the history of the universe also are also available. A new set of activities for kids will be available this year, and artists of all ages will enjoy painting astronomy-themed “Astrogami” postcards.
"We always have new things to share with the public at AstroFest, and it is so exciting to see more than 100 volunteers come together to make this possible," said Jane Charlton, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and and co-coordinator of AstroFest. Faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, friend and volunteers from the community all work together to share their love of astronomy. “I feel that knowing where we humans are in the vast universe is relevant to everyone, and giving a sense of this to the public is what AstroFest is all about.”
Find more information at www.astro.psu.edu/astrofest, "like" AstroFest on Facebook, or contact the Penn State Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics by phone at 814-865-0418 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by email at planetarium@astro.psu.edu.