A Global Astronomy Event

It has begun! 100 Hours of Astronomy, a global celebration of astronomy (part of the International Year of Astronomy) is underway.  It began today (April 2) and continues through April 5 (Sunday).

What’s available?  Why, the universe, of course!

There are free public activities going on around the world, ranging from star parties to lectures to an innovative 80-telescope tour of the world’s major observatories, and many, many other events.  To catch up with what’s going on, head over to the 100 Hours of Astronomy web site (it’s quite popular right now) and check out the list of events. I’m particularly impressed with the Google-based world map of events that are happening — and it’s interactive, so all you have to do is click on a push pin and get info about that particular event.

If you want to do a little stargazing (what a cool idea, eh?) there’s a 24-Hour Global Star Party on April 4.  It begins at sunset, your local time (wherever you are).  There’s also something called 100 Hours of Remote Astronomy.

There’s more astronomy going on in the next few days than you can shake a stick at — so, go check it all out!

NOTE: since I wrote this entry (Thursday night), the pages for 100 Hours have changed and links to the Global Star Party and other events are no longer available. I suspect this is due to over-loaded servers. This event is proving very popular!  The link above takes you to the 80 Telescopes page, where there are ongoing videos all day through Saturday morning.