Stargate Kids' Day, with galaxy hunting!
Our Children's Day Stargate is a treat for children during the day and for adults as we walk among the galaxies of a moonless spring night! We'll brew smouldering comet nuclei from cosmic ingredients, model the structures of the Universe with giant bubbles on the green lawn, orbit planets on the Space-Time Trampoline and taste space scents instead of flowers in the Planet Sniffing Lab. And as evening falls, we'll gaze at the most beautiful galaxies in the spring sky, with their faint spiral arms and galactic dust lanes, in a moonless, crisp sky.
Schedule
Stargate: in the buzz of our big astronomy event, the Svábhegy Observatory programme sites are free to explore at your own pace. It's worth buying tickets online in advance, but you can always buy tickets on the spot.
Programmes:
Daytime astronomy
Solar study: we will examine the surface and atmosphere of the Sun at its sunspot maximum. We will admire sunspots, fountain-like solar flares and solar flares. Several solar telescopes will be looking up at the sky, showing our Sun in more and more beautiful colours.
Jupiter: look out for the large, elliptical giant planet with its frilly cloud bands in the twilight sky.
Mars: on the tiny, orange, dancing planetary disk, the keen-eyed may catch a glimpse of the snowcap shrinking in the Martian summer.
Interactive astronomy programmes
Meteorite investigation - get your hands on rocks from space!
Spectrum Zone - light experiments in all colours of the rainbow
Planet Sniffing Lab - get ready for a sniff!
Comet cooking - cook up smoking comet nuclei
Bubble Universe - giant colourful bubbles and their astronomical bond
Space-time trampoline - orbit the planets around the Sun!
Telescope Tricks - disassemble, cut in half, look inside, focus...
Star puzzle - you become one of the stars in the sky!
and more surprises...
Night observation with telescopes
The most beautiful spring binaries: Mizar, Porrima, Algieba, Izar...
Galaxies in the spring sky:
Cigar Galaxy (M82)
Swirl Nebula (M51)
Sombrero Nebula (M104)
Sparkling spring globular clusters M3, M13, M5...
In case of cloudy weather: our Stargate event will take place regardless of the weather, and our interactive programme sites are always accessible. In cloudy weather, instead of observing celestial bodies through telescopes, we offer a dome tour, telescopic video observation, telescopic spectroscopic light source detection and a thematic presentation!
Svábhegyi Observatory of Budapest
"The Svábhegyi Observatory is the largest demonstrational observatory in Budapest also an interactive astronomy experience centre. Our main goal is to bring the beauty of the Universe closer to everyone."