Stargate at the Svábhegyi Observatory! The huge Moon on the horizon!

Let's see what we have in store for this afternoon and evening:

17:00-21:00 Daytime astronomy in 3 locations at the same time!

The Stargate opens at 17:00!

In the Budapest Dome, we'll point our telescope giant at the giant crescent of Venus, which will do a graceful crescent dance in the shimmering atmosphere. After 18:00, we'll try to catch a glimpse of the rarely seen planet Mercury, which will appear as a 65% indented pale greyish disc. From 18:30, we'll look for distant Mars, about to go into hiding behind the Sun, its red disk particularly tiny due to its great distance. From 19:00, we'll start to explore the red giant star** Arcturus**, still in daylight.

From 17:00 to 19:00 we will explore the secrets of our Sun on our observatory terrace. In our special Hydrogen Alpha telescopes, we will be looking at the shaped sunspots on the solar surface and the fountain, flare or bridge-shaped prominences of the solar atmosphere. As well as the Sun, we'll also look for the crescent **Venus **from the roof, even in the daytime sky. And the examination of the huge Moon, which rises at 18:15, can begin at this time, with the distorted lunar disk near the horizon promising to be a mesmerising sight.

At the telescope workshop, the Sun's surface and atmosphere will be observed until 18:30, and Venus' crescent will be seen here until 19:00. Our long-focus telescope will be waiting for the Venus crescent to dance.

17:00-20:30 Interactive activities:

Before dark, we'll have several scientific, interactive fun programs closely related to astronomy:

On a space-time trampoline, we will model the movement of planets and stars with the help of speeding marbles.

**Meteorite exploration: **we will look into our microscopes to see for ourselves the rainbow-coloured crystals of meteorites. 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!

21:00-23:00 - evening stargazing

The darkening twilight sky will be dominated by the mighty moon. From our Observation Terrace and our Telescope Observatory, you can observe the brightly luminous, swarm-walled pair of Aristarchus, and its grey companion, the lava-filled crater Herodotus. Between them is one of the Moon's most exciting formations, the sinuous lava flow of the Schröter Valley! In the southern crater region, the giant crater of the rising Schickard, or the elongated crater of Schiller, awaits us!

In the twilight sky, we'll take in the most beautiful double stars of the summer sky. Our telescopes will show the double double star of Epsilon Lyrae in 4 components, and the orange and blue Albireo in the shape of a swan's head. Gamma Delphini, shaped like the nose of a tiny dolphin, is a beautiful, aesthetic straw-yellow star pair that winks at us through the telescope.

As night falls, we'll see some of the big guns of the sky, including the Hercules constellation, the globular cluster M13, which contains 300,000 stars. In the constellation of the Serpent Constellation, the bright and expansive **Summer Bee cluster **(IC 4665) awaits us. And the Ring Nebula (M57) is a cosmic smoke ring that will dazzle in large telescopes.