Upcoming Astronomy Events

As a service to our community, Sky & Telescope lists astronomy-related events, including star parties, observatory public nights, astronomy talks, and more. Star parties offer dark skies and astronomical fellowship and often cater to families and feature special activities for kids. Public nights give the general public a chance to view the sky through large telescopes, and public talks are a great place to learn the fundamentals of the science and the craft.
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New England Fall Astronomy Festival

September 30, 2022 @ 7:00 pm - October 1, 2022 @ 11:00 pm EDT

Free

The New England Fall Astronomy Festival is a free event, open to the public, and is for anyone who has an interest in astronomy. Local amateurs, like the members of the New Hampshire Astronomical Society, share their passion and enthusiasm about astronomy with the public. Families in particular are encouraged to attend NEFAF because astronomy can be such a great group hobby. NEFAF will cater to families of all ages, with activities like face-painting and stories for small children and hands-on activities and demonstrations for older kids and young adults.
For young adults as well as adults of any age there will be a series of short, informal science talks throughout the day on Saturday given by students, faculty, and other invited guests. There will be safe solar viewing and telescope clinics for scopes in need of a little TLC. On Saturday afternoon, we'll hold our famous AstroRaffle with great astronomy-related prizes like telescopes, binoculars, eyepieces and books.
Festival Activities
• Kids hands-on science activities
• Keynote talks on Friday (7 p.m.) and Saturday (5 p.m.)
• Laser pointer programs to identify stars, constellations, and planets (weather permitting)
• Stargazing through the UNH Observatory telescopes and telescopes staffed by amateur astronomers from various New England clubs
• Signing opportunities following the keynote talks
• Telescope Clinics
• Safe Solar Observing
• Rocket building and launching
• Face painting
• A weather balloon launch by meteorologists from Plymouth State University
• NEFAF's famous AstroRaffle (Saturday afternoon) Tickets will be on sale all during the Festival
• A demonstration of the new Unistellar eVscope (new digital telescope) by Professional Astronomer, Alex Filippenko
Friday evening’s keynote speaker will be Sara Seager, Class of 1941 Professor of Physics and Planetary Science at MIT. Seager’s current research interests are focused upon the discovery and characterization of exoplanets. She has two main goals: the discovery of another Earth and the search for signs of life by way of atmospheric biosignature gases. Thousands of exoplanets are known to exist with exoplanet atmospheres a firmly established field of research. Exoplanet atmosphere observations, are however mostly limited to giant exoplanets with puffy atmospheres. Seager’s group aims to understand the atmospheric composition and the interior structure of small rocky exoplanets, of the kind with potential to host life. Presentation starts at 7 p.m. on Friday

Saturday evening will feature Alex Filippenko who is a Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences, and a Miller Senior Fellow in the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science (UC Berkeley). His specialty areas include Active galaxies, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Black hole transients, Black holes, Cosmology, Galaxies at Cosmological Distances, Gamma-ray bursts, Neutron Stars, Supernovae and the expansion of the Universe. Presentation starts at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Details

Start:
September 30, 2022 @ 7:00 pm EDT
End:
October 1, 2022 @ 11:00 pm EDT
Cost:
Free
Website:
http://extension.unh.edu/new-england-fall-astronomy-festival-nefaf

Venue

University of New Hampshire Observatory
Spinney Lane
Durham, NH 03824 United States
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