Stargate at the Svábhegyi Observatory! Midsummer Night's Star Dance!
Did you hear that? 'Stargate' opens in the Svábhegyi Observatory!!!!
Always wondered about the stars and the mysteries of the Universe? Svábhegy Observatory will open the door to the infinite curiosity with a new series of events full of endless wonders for everyone! At these pre-announced Saturdays, all the observatory's astronomical program sites are free to explore at your own pace. Families with the curious little stargazers are welcome from the afternoon, with a full range of interactive family activities, while everybody else (who can stay up late :)) can join us any time and stay until 11:00 PM.
If you want to reserve your spot, you can buy your tickets in advance (we recommend it!) however these days you can redeem your tickets on the spot and dive right in the joy of observing.
Three days after the summer solstice, all our telescopes and programmes are about celebrating Midsummer Eve and the beginning of astronomical summer. We'll be treated to solar observations at all wavelengths, the romance of the crescent moon and the Evening Star in the twilight sky, First Craft Beer's special craft beers to quench our thirst, and the green lanterns of fireflies to light up the night just for us!
Schedule
Let's see what we have in store for this afternoon and evening:
17:00-19:00 Daytime Astronomy:
The Stargate opens at 17:00!
Early arrivals will be able to catch the sunspots and solar flares of the setting sun with our solar telescopes set up at the Observatory!
On the Observation Terrace of our research building, you can enjoy the uninterrupted panorama of the Sun's prominences on the longest day. You can even admire the mysterious seas of the crescent moon in the daytime sky!
And in our Budapest dome, we can use our largest hydrogen-alpha telescope to view the finest details of the solar atmosphere.
From 19:00-21:00, the dance of Venus and the crescent moon:
On this evening, the crescent Venus and the crescent Moon will play a strange game: both celestial bodies are in phase at around 35%. So our first task will be to look through the telescope and guess: are we looking at the Moon crescent or the Venus crescent?
Of course, two completely different worlds await us: on the crater-punched surface of the crescent moon, we can admire the terraced walls of the Aristotelian and Eudoxian craters, or the rippled rippled trench of Hygnius. And the Evening Star awaits us with its bright polar caps and suggestive patterns of sulphuric acid clouds!
You can admire them in our telescopes set up in the Observation Terrace at the Telescope Workshop and in the Budapest Dome!
Evening Beer Tasting.
17:00-21:00 Interactive programs:
Before dark, we will have several scientific, interactive fun programs closely related to astronomy:
On the Space-Time Trampoline, we will model the movement of planets and stars with the help of speeding marbles.
**Meteorite Investigations: **we'll be looking into our microscopes to see the rainbow-coloured crystals of meteorites with our own eyes. You can also get your own hands on objects from billions of years of space.
Our **Spectrum Zone **takes us into a colourful world of light and optical experiments, and shows us exciting things like black flames!
Smell the scents of the planets of the solar system by smelling the 'space perfumes' in the flasks of a planet-sniffing lab! A unique experience, we guarantee it! : )
As evening falls, the starry sky awaits!
21:30-23:00 - evening stargazing
**Mars-Venus conjunction: **at the beginning of the evening, from the Rooftop Terrace, we will enjoy the conjunction of pale and red Mars and bright white Venus as they approach each other 4 degrees in the sky.
At the Telescope Workshop, the Observation Terrace and the Budapest Dome, we will take a look at the most beautiful double stars and deep-sky objects of the early summer sky: we will admire the extremely close orange and blue pair of Izar, and the justly famous double star Mizar-Alcor in the Ursa Major. And Albiero, the swan-headed Albiero, dazzles with its colourful stars.
One of the most beautiful and brightest summer arrow clusters, the Summer Beehive (IC 4665), lies in the constellation of the Serpent Constellation, waiting with its bluish stars. And the stars of the neighbouring Hook-Captain cluster (NGC 6633) form a scorpion shape before our eyes. We also get to know other celestial heavyweights, such as the globular cluster **M13 **in the constellation Hercules, which contains half a million stars. And the Ring Nebula (M57) in the constellation Lant is the ejected gas shell of its dead star, expanding around it like a magnificent cosmic smoke ring.
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."
