To what extent is astronomy woven into our culture? Starting the 16th of October, you can visit the Shared Sky exhibition at the Old Observatory and search for the answer to that question. The exhibition explores the knowledge, colours and the beauty of the nightsky as seen by the eyes and expressed by the artists from South Africa and Australia.
In Green Bank, Virginia are some giant radio telescopes which astronomers use to study objects deep in space. Because these telescopes are built to capture very faint redio signals, the area around the observatory is officially a 'radio-quiet' zone, without WiFi, radio or Cell signal. Photographers Andrew Phelps en Paul Kranzler visited the Green Bank region and it's inhabitants and composed a very special exhibition. A few times a week items will be posted on this web page that are related to this exhibition in the Old Observatory. The exhibition itself is closed for the time being because of the corona virus.
(04-11-2020) The visitor center of the Old Observatory is closed until November 15th 2020 in line with the national corona measures in the Netherlands. When we reopen, please pay attention to our corona regulations:
February 29 and 1 march 2020
30 Years of Pale Blue Dot - 14 February 2020, Kaiserzaal, Old Observatory - The Pale Blue Dot Symposium is an event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the iconic picture showing the Earth as a tiny speck in the vastness of space and to discuss its impact on humankind. At the end of the symposium, the brand new exhibition, 'Living in the shadow of radio telescopes and the Drake Equation', will be officially opened.
January is the final month of our temporary exhibition 'Above and Beyond: Making Sense of the Universe for 100 Years'. You can visit every weekend until Jauary 26th.
Starting April 13 a brand new exhibition is open for visit, titled 'Above and Beyond: Making Sense of the Universe for 100 Years
This Saturday will be the first Kaiser Spring Lecture of this year! - A series of public lectures on Astronomy in the Old Observatory.
On Sunday 28 October, the annual open day of the Old Observatory in Leiden takes place. During this day everyone can visit the Old Observatory for free and enjoy activities in this historic building.
On 16 May the first International Day of Light was celebrated all around the globe. Initiated by UNESCO, organisations in 87 different countries set up a total of more than 600 events to embrace the vital role of light and related technologies in science. In the Old Observatory in Leiden visitors could learn more about light by doing their own experiments.
