AstroFest
Welcome to AstroFest 2026!
The Penn State Eberly College of Science’s popular AstroFest program, a longtime outreach of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, will celebrate its 27th anniversary this year. We will follow our typical schedule, from Wednesday evening, July 8 through Saturday July 11, this four-night festival of astronomy activities and stargazing will run from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. each night during the 2026 Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts (https://arts-festival.com/).
AstroFest will offer visitors of all ages a variety of fun and educational activities. The public is encouraged to come enjoy the night sky and the wonders of astronomy with us at Davey Lab, located across from the HUB-Robeson Center on the Penn State University Park campus. Events are free and will occur rain or shine, both in classrooms and in the planetarium on the fifth floor of Davey Lab. Read more about this year's event in the 2026 AstroFest story.
For 2026, we are still ironing out the details, but we expect to bring back many AstroFest favorites such as:
- Kids' activities
- Water rockets
- Ooblek crater making
- How to find planets demos
- Tour of the scale model Solar System
- Tour of the Universe timeline
- Make a comet demo
- Try out the Astro videogame
- Astronomy Jeopardy with prizes
- Astrogami painting
- NASA Swift satellite booth
- Blackhole gravity demo
- Scavenger hunt with prizes that will take you to see a historical microscope
- Live telescope observing from around the world with SLOOH
- Save the cat: a quantum escape room
As always, there will be planetarium shows, rooftop stargazing with telescopes, and feature presentations.
The presentations for this year are still being finalized, but will be similar to last year's to include:
- The Lifecycle of Stars (Wed to Sat)
- Planets, Planets, Everywhere! (Wed & Sat)
- Just Blow Up Already! (Wed & Thu)
- Crash Course in Gravitational Waves (Wed & Thu)
- History of Women in Astronomy (Wed & Thu)
- Viewing the Milky Way with Neutrinos (Wed & Thu)
- Aurora: More than Pretty Lights (Wed & Fri)
- Mind-Bending Black Holes (Wed & Thu)
- Where Anthropology meets Astronomy (Thu & Fri)
- The Search for Life in Pop Culture (Fri only)
- Get Involved! Citizen Science in Astronomy (Fri & Sat)
- Peering Deep with the James Webb Space Telescope (Fri & Sat)
- How the Universe is Trying to Kill Us (Fri & Sat)
- Tune in for Today's #1 Black Hole Hits (Sat only)
2026 AstroFest Schedule
Wednesday, July 8
Room 538
- 8:30–9:00 p.m. "The Story of Stars Through Cosmic Time" S. Jean Feeser
- 9:00–9:30 p.m. "Planets, Planets, Everywhere!" Eric Feigelson
- 9:30–10:00 p.m. "Up, Up, Up To Low Orbit: How and Why NASA Is Swiftly Boosting Swift" Michael Siegel
- 10:00–10:30 p.m. "Star-eating black holes: The monsters lurking at the center of galaxies (about tidal disruption events and how they are found by surveys like Rubin)” Charlotte Ward
- 10:30–11:00 p.m. "Outrageous Theories of Astronomy." Tristan Weaver
- 11:00–11:30 p.m. "Hoth in Star Wars and Snowball Earth" Darren William
Room 541
- 9:00–9:30 p.m. "Star-eating black holes: The monsters lurking at the center of galaxies (about tidal disruption events and how they are found by surveys like Rubin)”
- 9:30–10:00 p.m. "The Long-Awaited 2029 Apophis Encounter with Earth” Darren Williams
- 10:00–10:30 p.m. "Time Travel: As Good as it Gets?" Derek Fox
- 10:30–11:00 p.m. "Up, Up, Up To Low Orbit: How and Why NASA Is Swiftly Boosting Swift" Michael Siegel
- 11:00–11:30 p.m. "Time Travel: As Good as it Gets?" Derek Fox
Thursday, July 9
Room 538
- 8:30–9:00 p.m. "Where Anthropology meets Astronomy" Annette Mercedes
- 9:00–9:30 p.m. "Peering Deep with the James Webb Space Telescope" Kevin Luhman
- 9:30–10:00 p.m. "Hoth in Star Wars and Snowball Earth" Darren William
- 10:00–10:30 p.m. "Peering Deep with the James Webb Space Telescope" Kevin Luhman
- 10:30–11:00 p.m. "Star-eating black holes: The monsters lurking at the center of galaxies (about tidal disruption events and how they are found by surveys like Rubin)”
- 11:00–11:30 p.m. "A Traveler’s Guide to Black Holes" Mary Ogborn
Room 541
- 9:00–9:30 p.m. "A Traveler’s Guide to Black Holes" Mary Ogborn
- 9:30–10:00 p.m. "Star-eating black holes: The monsters lurking at the center of galaxies (about tidal disruption events and how they are found by surveys like Rubin)”
- 10:00–10:30 p.m. "Astronomy and Art" Nahks Tr'Ehnl
- 10:30–11:00 p.m. "The Long-Awaited 2029 Apophis Encounter with Earth” Darren Williams
- 11:00–11:30 p.m. "Astronomy and Art" Nahks Tr'Ehnl
Friday, July 10
Room 538
- 8:30–9:00 p.m. "Planets, Planets, Everywhere!" Eric Feigelson
- 9:00–9:30 p.m. "The Story of Stars Through Cosmic Time" S. Jean Feeser
- 9:30–10:00 p.m. "Peering Deep with the James Webb Space Telescope" Kevin Luhman
- 10:00–10:30 p.m. "Up, Up, Up To Low Orbit: How and Why NASA Is Swiftly Boosting Swift" Michael Siegel
- 10:30–11:00 p.m. "Peering Deep with the James Webb Space Telescope" Kevin Luhman
- 11:00–11:30 p.m. "Artemis" Nate Hamme
Room 541
- 9:00–9:30 p.m. "Up, Up, Up To Low Orbit: How and Why NASA Is Swiftly Boosting Swift" Michael Siegel
- 9:30–10:00 p.m. "Galactic Trainwrecks" Michael Eracleous
- 10:00–10:30 p.m. "Planets, Planets, Everywhere!" Eric Feigelson
- 10:30–11:00 p.m. "Galactic Trainwrecks" Michael Eracleous
- 11:00–11:30 p.m. "The Story of Stars Through Cosmic Time" S. Jean Feeser
Saturday, July 11
Room 538
- 8:30–9:00 p.m."The Long-Awaited 2029 Apophis Encounter with Earth” Darren Williams
- 9:00–9:30 p.m. "Galactic Trainwrecks" Michael Eracleous
- 9:30–10:00 p.m. "Artemis" Nate Hamme
- 10:00–10:30 p.m. "Outrageous Theories of Astronomy" Tristan Weaver
- 10:30–11:00 p.m. "Where Anthropology meets Astronomy" Annette Mercedes
- 11:00–11:30 p.m. "A Traveler’s Guide to Black Holes" Mary Ogborn
Room 541
- 9:00–9:30 p.m. "A Traveler’s Guide to Black Holes" Mary Ogborn
- 9:30–10:00 p.m. "Astronomy and Art" Nahks Tr'Ehnl
- 10:00–10:30 p.m. "Galactic Trainwrecks" Michael Eracleous
- 10:30–11:00 p.m. "Artemis" Nate Hamme
- 11:00–11:30 p.m. "Outrageous Theories of Astronomy" Tristan Weaver