Bringing astronomical science to the greater community

Outreach

The science of astronomy deals with some of the most fundamental issues of human existence and the nature of the universe in which we live. It has had a natural appeal to thoughtful and curious men and women throughout human history.

Taryn Langtry at Cornell’s Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility. Cornell Chronicle

SPIF

The Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility (SPIF) is an active research facility, providing assistance to students and planetary scientists worldwide in GIS and image processing. It is also a public facility open to visitors, and provides outreach services and PreK-12 educational support throughout the Central New York region, and beyond through virtual programs. SPIF supports the Cornell Department of Astronomy in undergraduate education, student research, NASA mission science operations, and community outreach. The facility is located on Cornell's main Ithaca campus in the Space Sciences Building. It has been in operation since 1980 and is currently sponsored by the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science (CCAPS).

Visit the SPIF website

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Ask an Astronomer

Since they first stepped out of the proverbial cave, humans have always been intrigued by the beauty and wonder of the night sky and the almost infinite possibilities of space.

Ask an Astronomer is run by volunteers in the Astronomy Department. Most are graduate students at Cornell, and all contribute voluntarily, on their own time, so please take the time to browse the site at the link below and first try to use the existing resources to find an answer to your question.

Ask an Astronomer portal

The Cornell Astronomical Society & Fuertes Observatory

Founded in 1972, the Cornell Astronomical Society (CAS) is a Cornell University undergraduate student organization, and has run public observing nights at the Fuertes Observatory for nearly 50 years. The club is open to Cornell undergraduate and graduate students, but faculty and staff members also occasionally volunteer at Fuertes Open House Nights and other Astronomy Department outreach events. Club members are given opportunities to learn how to use the historic 12" Irving Porter Church Refractor (finished in 1922) as well as many other telescopes at Fuertes.

We open the observatory every Friday night during the academic year from 8:00 PM until midnight, regardless of weather. During the summer, winter, and other Cornell breaks, we generally try to be open from 8pm to midnight if the weather is clear. To find out if the observatory is currently open, call (607)-255-3557 for a prerecorded message. You can visit our Hours & Directions page for directions to the observatory, parking information, and a schedule of upcoming events.

Astronomy Events

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Explore More Outreach Opportunities

Ask an Astronomer Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility (SPIF) Cornell Astronomical Society Fuertes Observatory

Astronomy News

Large concrete dish surrounded by three poles and wires; a mechanism is suspended over the dish. the whole thing, a telescope, is surrounded by lush trees

Astronomer paints vivid history of Arecibo Observatory

In a new book, Donald Campbell, Ph.D. ’71, professor emeritus of astronomy, recounts the history of Arecibo from construction to its last days under Cornell’s management in 2011.

Three people stand next to a silver device, about a foot taller than the people, made of a post, a box with electronics inside, and a circular top

Cake-pan telescope searches the sky for fast radio bursts

The Global Radio Explorer telescope is a series of eight terminals being built and tested at Cornell and the California Institute of Technology, and installed at locations around the world.

Person holding up an orange menstrual cup

Spaceflight-tested menstrual cup offers choice on long missions

To equip astronauts with health choices for future missions, a Cornell postdoctoral fellow is leading research with AstroCup, a group that recently tested two menstrual cups in spaceflight as payload on an uncrewed rocket flight.

Nexus Scholar alumni profile: Ricco Venterea ’24

"Nexus Scholars was the first time where the only thing I had to worry about was research."

Artistic portrait of a person in argyle pattern sweater vest holds a small model of a molecule and looks pensive

Portraits honor 8 Cornell faculty as ‘new heroes’

The portraits are part of a series by Christopher Michel, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s inaugural artist-in-residence.

Illustration of a planet covered in orange-tinted clouds

How to spot life in the clouds on other worlds

Cornell researchers have created the first reflectance spectra – a color-coded key – of microorganisms that live in the clouds floating above Earth’s surface.

Golden sphere (a planet) against a black backdrop (space)

Now in 3D, maps begin to bring exoplanets into focus

Astronomers have generated the first three-dimensional map of a planet orbiting another star, revealing an atmosphere with distinct temperature zones – one so scorching that it breaks down water vapor, a team co-led by a Cornell expert reports in new research.

two black holes approach each other with a dark background of space

Cornell physicists update catalog of binary black holes

These simulations, developed with significant input from Cornell researchers using code written at Cornell, help scientists analyze gravitational waves observed by the LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA detectors located in the U.S., Italy and Japan.

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