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Summer Fun at Lowell Observatory

This summer, Lowell is pleased to offer Family Picnic Nights every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening. From 6 - 8 p.m., visit our beautiful campus and listen to the sounds of a local band while purchasing inexpensive Pluto Dogs, Pigs in Space Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Cosmic Cranberry/Turkey/Avocado Wraps, and more, supplied by Frank’s Daily Bread.

Following these activities, stick around and view celestial wonders through telescopes and experience our mini planetarium. Regular admission rates apply.

In June, our performers include:

Tuesdays: Big Willie and the Polka Meisters
Wednesdays: Pony Express
Thursdays: The Polka Katzen

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Enjoy Spring Break at Lowell Observatory

Lowell is pleased to welcome spring breakers to the Observatory. Experience tours during the day, telescope viewing at night, and family fun all the time. In March and April we are opened:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and
Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

For more information about our regular programs, look here.

In addition to our regular programming, we are also offering the following:

Sunday, March 13 Spring Break Star Fest (5:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.) This special event will feature indoor programs and telescopes set up for viewing celestial objects. Experience our mini-planetarium and enjoy indoor programs about our universe.

Sunday, March 20 Spring Break Star Fest (5:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.) This special event will feature indoor programs and telescopes set up for viewing celestial objects. Experience our mini-planetarium and enjoy exciting multimedia programs.

Sunday, April 3 Spring Break Star Fest (5:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.) This special event will feature indoor programs and telescopes set up for viewing celestial objects. Experience our mini-planetarium and enjoy exciting multimedia programs.

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Kepler mission discovers six planet system

On Wednesday NASA’s Kepler mission scientists announced the discovery of a system of six planets orbiting a star.  Lowell astronomer Ted Dunham, a Co-Investigator on the mission and now serving as Science Team Lead said that the system is interesting because “two of its six planets are strongly interacting, causing their transit times to shift around.  Furthermore, three of the others are also interacting with each other, causing a more complicated version of the same thing.  This is in fact how we are certain that these are real planets and not some other kind of astrophysical system.”

The Kepler spacecraft was launched into orbit in March 2009.  Its purpose is to search for habitable planets and its instrumentation is sensitive enough that it can find earth-sized planets.  With the results released so far, over 1200 planet candidates have been identified.  Though many still need confirmation through follow up work, most will turn out to be planets. 

Dr. Dunham, who has been involved with Kepler since its preliminary stages, explained that the thrill of “working on a mission of discovery like Kepler is that you really don’t know what you will find.  The overall results from the first four months of data showed that planets are generally pretty abundant.  Whether this is surprising or not depends on one’s preconceived notions.”

“I think the most profound outcome of the day is that we can now give a reasonably well-informed estimate of the odds of finding planets ranging in size from the Earth to Jupiter orbiting other stars in the short period orbits we’re sensitive to so far, generally shorter period than Mercury in our own solar system.  This turns out to be something like 25%.  Considering that it is likely that there are more with longer orbital periods, the odds that a given star will have one or more planets seems to be very high.  People have speculated about this for thousands of years.  Now we know.  It’s not often you get to say something like that.”

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Special events at Lowell Observatory in February

February 2: Flagstaff Night at Lowell Observatory
Flagstaff residents (must show valid drivers license or utility bill) pay only half the regular admission rate. (5:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

February 20: Winterfest Star Fest
This special event will feature indoor programs and telescopes set up for viewing celestial objects such as the fabulous Orion Nebula. (5:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

February 21: School’s Out & Kids are Free
Lowell Observatory will be open for kids’ activities throughout the day, including science demonstrations, telescope viewing of the Sun, mini planetarium programs, grounds tours, and multimedia presentations. Children must be accompanied by an adult or responsible guardian. (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM)

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This Week’s Lowell Observatory Gift Shop Items - Planispheres and Sky Maps

Identify constellations, study lunar features, and search for galaxies, star clusters and nebulae with our collection of affordable and easy-to-use maps and sky guides. You can purchase these in Lowell’s gift shop during regular business hours.

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DCT Mirror Coated

After cleaning and preparing the primary mirror for aluminizing (see blog post below: http://www.lowell.edu/blog/?p=4008), technicians loaded it into the coating chamber and initiated the pump-down procedure. Shortly after the New Year, we achieved the desired vacuum level and “fired” the coating chamber successfully to aluminize the mirror.

This ultra-fine layer of highly reflective aluminum is more than 1000 times thinner than a sheet of paper!  See additional pictures of this process at the DCT slide show: http://www.lowell.edu/dct/tour.php

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Lowell Observatory Offers Special Day and Evening Programming During MLK Weekend

To celebrate the MLK weekend, Lowell is expanding hours to offer these exciting activities:

January 16 MLK Star Fest
This special event will feature indoor programs and numerous telescopes set up for viewing throughout the Lowell campus. The Orion Nebula will be a featured object to view. (5:00 PM - 9:30 PM)

January 17 School’s Out & Kids are Free
Lowell Observatory will be open for kids’ activities throughout the day. Activities include science demonstrations; telescope viewing of the Sun; planetarium programs; grounds tours; and multimedia presentations. Children must be accompanied by an adult or responsible guardian. (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM)

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This Week’s Featured Gift Shop Item

Stay warm and cozy with our long-sleeved, zip-up fleece jacket. You can purchase one for yourself in Lowell’s gift shop, open during regular business hours.

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Celebrate Flagstaff Night at Lowell Observatory

The first Wednesday night of each month is Flagstaff Night at Lowell Observatory. All Flagstaff residents visiting from 5 p.m. to closing at 9:30 p.m. are admitted for half price.

Enjoy special programming, telescope viewing, mini planetarium programs and more.

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See Quadrantid Meteor Shower Program Tonight at Lowell

Join us at 7 PM tonight (January 3) as Lowell staff present an indoor program about meteor showers, focusing on the upcoming Quadrantids. Learn about meteor shower origins, composition and method of viewing.

A 1996 image of the Quadrantid shower. Credit: Sirko Molau, IMO, Archenhold-Sternwarte

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