Universe @ Home

In summers past we’ve enjoyed the Universe in the Park summer telescope observing program sponsored by the U of M. But like many things this summer, this program has now been taken online and is called Universe @ Home.

We’re already a few weeks in to the program, but you can get caught up with previous events online through their YouTube channel.

Live events take place from 8 – 9 pm on Wednesdays. You can just watch the event online, but if you register you’ll also receive a reminder email with link and any accompanying materials (for example, a sky map or instructions on how to prepare for a craft).

Upcoming events include:

• July 29: Cosmic Rays and the Aurora
• August 5: The Extremes of Space
• August 12: Asteroid Adventures and Majestic Meteors
• August 19: Wildcard: Current events in astronomy

Universe @ Home is a summer outreach program run by the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics. The program is intended to engage people of all ages and backgrounds in the study of space and astronomy, and all of its events are free and online. It is headed by faculty member Evan Skillman and graduate student Nico Adams.

A typical Universe @ Home event consists of three parts. To begin, a member of the Institute presents a short public talk (about 20 minutes long) on a topic in astronomy or space science. Some example talk titles include “All of Time in 20 minutes”, “Asteroid Adventures and Majestic Meteors”, and “The Extremes of Space”. After the presentation, we set aside time to answer audience questions of all kinds. Finally, we wrap up with an activity, which may be a virtual tour of a constellation, a camera feed from a real telescope, or a space-related craft that you can do at home. Our events stream on YouTube Live once per week throughout the summer. Audience members can leave us questions using YouTube’s live chat throughout each event, and we’ll answer as many as we can!