Open House at University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy

UH Manoa’s Institute for Astronomy will hold its annual Open House from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 5.

At the Open House, there will be activities for children, such as Astro-Jeopardy, planetarium shows, rocket launching, and sundial making. New this year will be a futuristic model moon base built by members of the Lego Enthusiasts Association of Hawaii, plus a Mars rescue mission game in which children will assemble rescue pods and race them across simulated Martian terrain.

Visitors of all ages are invited to short lectures on topics such as the 2008 eclipse, solar storms, the origin of oxygen and the latest news about planets in distant star systems. They also will be able to search for spots on the sun, see themselves with infrared eyes and learn how to use free software to explore the Universe on their own computers.

Dozens of UH astronomers, including some of those responsible for the killer-asteroid-hunting Pan-STARRS project, will be on hand to answer visitors’ questions.

Several other Oahu astronomical organizations will also be represented at the Open House, including the Hawaiian Astronomical Society, the Bishop Museum Science Center, Ironwood Observatory and the Windward Community College Center for Aerospace Education.

This event will be part of the worldwide 100 Hours of Astronomy (www.100hoursofastronomy.org/) celebrating the International Year of Astronomy 2009. IYA 2009 (www.astronomy2009.org/) commemorates the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope to study the sky.