Queen's Observatory

04/09/2025

Hopefully see you next month (May 10th)!

04/14/2023

We're SO excited to have Department of Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy, McDonald Institute, SNOLAB, and Queen's Observatory at !

🪐 Participate on the solar system walk;
🔭 Observe the sun through special telescopes (weather permitting);
⚛️ Learn about research being done underground near Sudbury and the IceCube experiment at the South Pole;
‍🎨 Make using a double pendulum;
And much more!

Visit the link for details ➡️ https://bit.ly/3mnRTBj

11/29/2022

We have an announcement on behalf of the Queen's Space Conference:

The Queen’s Space Conference (QSC) is excited to announce it’s first event of the year, the QSC taster! The focus of the QSC is to give students the opportunity to learn about the space industry through a series of events, talks, and workshops featuring industry professionals, and will be taking place on the first weekend of February 2023 (more on this soon!).

The QSC taster will give students an idea of what the 2023 conference will be like, and will feature a talk by Professor Tony Noble, themed “Something New Under the Sun.” We will be hosting it at Clark Hall on Wednesday November 30th at 6:30pm. There will also be pizza and trivia night to follow! We are super excited to be able to host this event, and look forward to seeing you there!

04/25/2022

Dear Queen's Observatory Members,

With the winter term coming to a close and COVID restrictions slowly lifting, many of you have contacted us about the reopening of the Queen’s Observatory. Please be informed that by April 30th, 2022, all Observatory operations will be paused until further notice. We ask for your patience in these difficult times and hope that the Observatory will return stronger than ever. We will certainly keep you posted.

The Queen’s Observatory has been and will return as one of the most popular science outreach activities at Queen’s University. We are most grateful for all the support that the Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy Department at Queen’s, the McDonald Institute, and our many volunteers have provided for our operations thus far!

Best regards and wishing you clear skies,
Connor, Nik, and Stéphane

12/23/2021

The Ariane 5 rocket will give us all a present this Christmas! JWST will be launching at 7:20am (EST) on Dec 25th. To watch the "next Hubble" launch live, follow this link and get excited!

Watch the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope—the most powerful space telescope ever made. This mission is scheduled to lift off at 7:20 a.m. EST (12:20...

11/17/2021

Upcoming partial lunar eclipse! More details at the link below, but the maximum (in Kingston) is at 4am on Nov 19th!

Partial lunar eclipse on November 18–19, 2021: Where and when is the Moon eclipse visible and what will it look like? Visibility map, animation, and local times.

11/08/2021

Continuing our journey of destructive things in the Universe! We talk about a stellar black out, have a listen!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1378705/9500525

08/23/2021

How to Inflate a Universe ft. Simran Nerval is now live, in which you will learn about the beginning of the Universe! Follow "QUO Fast Radio Bursts" on any podcast streaming platform or click the link to listen in:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1378705/9038810

06/09/2021

Check out the eclipse tomorrow morning! We won't get to see the whole thing, but it's still very cool!

The annual eclipse will produce a fiery ring over some parts of the country, while others will see it as a partial eclipse.

05/03/2021

Check out this cool opportunity!

Join the IDEAS Initiative for our 2nd annual Canadian Online Science Fair! This event is open to students in grade 6, 7, and 8, and is free to register. All you need to register is a brief description of your project idea, which can be experiment, research, or innovation oriented. Students will each receive a mentor to help with their project, as well as a budget of up to $50, provided by IDEAS!

Taking place on June 18th, each student will be able to give a short presentation on their project for a panel of Canadian scientists and engineers. All students will win a prize, and the competition winner will win a new Chromebook!

Registration is open now until May 14th! See queensu.ca/physics/cosf to sign up.

05/03/2021

Future Missions E3: A Telescope for the Past is now live! Learn about how there is a new revolutionary telescope in the making!
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1378705/8423580

04/29/2021

Observatory Coordinator Connor Stone will be running a virtual planetarium tour for Science Rendezvous (check out all the great events here: https://educ.queensu.ca/coc/science-rendezvous) on May 12th at 1pm! Sign up for free at the link below:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/149075481779