Special Events
Upcoming special events on the mountain are listed below. We will be adding more, check back often! We are planning a limited number of Public Ticket Nights and Star Gazing Nights, these can be viewed in the Events drop down menu, but they will also be listed here. For events requiring tickets, please scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the event.
August 21 — The 2017 Total Solar Eclipse
While the path of August’s total solar eclipse will pass across the United States hundreds of miles north of Los Angeles, a partial solar eclipse will be visible from Los Angeles. Mount Wilson Observatory, which was the leading center for solar research during the first half of the twentieth century, will celebrate the event with free public viewing through a variety of solar telescopes. The eclipse will begin in our area at 9:05 a.m. Maximum eclipse will occur at 10:21 a.m., with the Moon covering about 70% of the Sun’s diameter and 62% of its area. The eclipse will end at 11:44 a.m.
September 10 –Sunday Afternoon Concert in the Dome
Mt. Wilson Observatory presents the fourth in its summer series of special concerts inside the historic 100-Inch Telescope dome on Mount Wilson above Pasadena, CA.
Cécelia Tsan, Principal Cellist with the Long Beach Symphony, returns with Sara Andon on flute, Alyssa Park on Violin, and Alma Fernandez on Viola. More on the artists will be posted soon.
The program will include Mozart Quartet in D Major, K285, Villa-Lobos: Assobio a Jato (The Jet Whistle) for Flute and Cello. Film Music to be announced . . .
Performances of the same program are scheduled for 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM.
For more information please go to our Concerts page. In addition, concert goers will be treated to an art exhibit of the beautiful technical drawings for the mountain’s telescopes. Please note: No Handicapped Access: The 100-inch Telescope is nearly 100 years old and is not ADA-compliant. Visiting the inside of the Dome is not recommended for those with respiratory or heart problems due to the stairs and the 5700-ft elevation.
September 16 — First Annual Mt Wilson 5K Run
Click here for details on this fundraising event for the Observatory. The race will start at 8:00 am.
October — Pasadena’s Astronomy Week
Last year’s Astronomy Week was a great success, with an open house at Mount Wilson (see photo at the top of the page). We plan to do a similar evening this year. We will post the details later in the year.
November 2 — The 100-inch Hooker Telescope turns 100!
To mark the centennial of this famous telescope, there will be a number of special events scheduled around this date. Come up and celebrate this remarkable feat of engineering, the instrument Edwin Hubble and Milton Humason used to discover our place in an expanding Universe.