Vera C. Rubin Observatory First Look Watch Party at the Lohman Planetarium

Event Description

Description: Join us in the Lohman Planetarium as we host an immersive watch party for the first image reveal from the new NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This revolutionary observatory, located atop the Cerro Pachón mountain in Chile, houses an 8.4 meter telescope that is attached to the largest camera ever built to image the entire southern hemisphere sky every few nights for 10 years. The unprecedented images captured will allow astronomers to produce the largest astronomical movie ever made to help us study the Milky Way, explore the changing sky, create an inventory of the Solar System, and possibly unlock the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. The Lohman Planetarium will be connected via a "domecast" to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center's Intuitive Planetarium for a full dome immersive stream to learn about the observatory, science, and see the first image from the Rubin Observatory. The observatory is named after the acclaimed astronomer Vera C. Rubin, who provided the first evidence of dark matter through observations of galaxy rotations in the 1960s.

Official link from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory website about the unveiling event: https://rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-first-look/rubin-party

Schedule:

10:00am - Doors open and introductions

10:30am - Domecast begins with the U.S. Space and Rocket Center's Intuitive Planetarium 

11:00am - Official First Look stream begins from The National Academy of Sciences 

12:30pm - Event ends

Seating is first-come, first-served as space is limited. 

Free for members or with paid museum admission.