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.
July 1st — Centennial of the 100-inch Mirror Arriving on the Mountaintop
In 1906, the 100-inch disk of glass for the telescope mirror was ordered from the The Saint-Gobain glass factory near Paris, France. After a number of setbacks in pouring the 4.5 ton slab and six years of grinding its optical surface to perfection, it finally arrived at the Observatory on July 1st, 1917. We will celebrate.
July 9th — Sunday Afternoon Concert Under the Dome
Come enjoy the music of Haendel-Halvorsen, Glière, and Kodaly in the a unique venue–the 100-inch Hooker Telescope Dome on Mount Wilson, where Edwin Hubble discovered our place in an expanding Universe. The acoustics of the dome make this an extraordinary place for a concert, as well as astronomy! The concert will be performed by Violin & Cello Duo: Cécilia Tsan, Principal Cello for the Long Beach Symphony, and Ben Powell, violin. In addition concert goers will be treated an art exhibit of the beautiful technical drawings for the mountain’s telescopes. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to purchase tickets. Or go to this page to see more information. 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.
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 though 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 70% of the Sun’s diameter and 62% of its area. The eclipse will end at 11:44 a.m.
September 16 — First Annual Mt Wilson 5K Run
(Check back for details on this fundraising event for the Observatory.)
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.