The cornerstone of the outreach program is the Public Lecture & Stargazing series held every other Friday night during the academic semester. These events are free, open to the public, and intended to be accessible to all ages. They consist of a short lecture (~30 minutes and geared towards a general audience) followed by stargazing (weather permitting), tours of the Rutherfurd Observatory, 3D Wall visualizations, mini-lectures and Q&A on astronomy current events (~90 minutes). The average audience for these events is just under 150 people. In the past three years, we’ve also added a Spanish-language event to better connect with the large Spanish-speaking population in the city, and especially in the Columbia area. These events are exactly like our standard lecture & stargazing evenings, but the lecture is entirely in Spanish and the majority of the volunteers are Spanish-speaking.
