AstroFest welcomes community for four nights of stargazing, activities July 9-12
The Penn State Eberly College of Science’s popular AstroFest program, a longtime outreach of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, will welcome visitors to Davey Laboratory from Wednesday, July 9, through Saturday, July 12. The four-night festival of astronomy activities and stargazing will run from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. each night during the 2025 Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.
Entering its 26th year, AstroFest will offer visitors of all ages a variety of fun and educational activities. The public events are free and will occur rain or shine, both in classrooms and in the planetarium on the fifth floor of Davey Lab, located across from the HUB-Robeson Center on the Penn State University Park campus.
In the Davey Lab lobby, visitors can pick up their printed AstroFest program, which can be stamped at the evening’s activities and then returned at the end of the night for science-themed prizes. During the first half of each night, activities for kids will take place that are sure to be a hit. On clear nights, visitors will be able to use the rooftop observatory telescopes.
This year’s program will be bringing back beloved activities, such as the oobleck kiddie pool, as well as introduce new, timely activities and information, such as an anthropology-focused talk exploring the history of humans looking at the sky and some activities recognizing the 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.
For the first time in AstroFest’s 26-year history, the department is also running a short-term fundraiser to help sustain the popular outreach program.
“Outreach is at the core of the Eberly College of Science—it's part of Penn State's land-grant mission,” said Randy McEntaffer, head of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. “Turning people on to the wonders of the universe is incredibly rewarding for us, and we hope it inspires them to continue to explore their curiosity through science and beyond. We've run this free, public program for the past twenty-five years, and, with community support, we want to keep it going for twenty-five more.”
The first AstroFest program, held in 1999, was the brainchild of three then-undergraduate students: Karen Knierman, Jane Rigby and Nahks Tr’Ehnl. Since that first year, the event has drawn between 1,500 and 2,300 people per year. Over time, that amounts to more than 45,000 community members who have been impacted by this outreach program.
More information is available on the AstroFest website or by contacting the Penn State Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics by phone at 814-865-0418 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. or by email at planetarium@astro.psu.edu.