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Public Outreach activities of Joachim Wambsganss

Uni(verse) for everyone! - Heidelberg Half Stellar Hours In the summer semester 2011, I planned and organized a series of astronomical short talks addressed to the general public. From April 11 to Juli 22, 2011, Heidelberg astronomers gave 15min-talks (in German) as an "Astronomical Lunch Break". The topics were always simple astronomical questions, like "Is there a second Earth out there?", "Why isn't Pluto a planet any more?", "What is the Milky Way?", "When does the sun stop shining?", "Why are there so many shooting stars in August?", "Are we really made of star dust?", "How do we know there was a big bang?", "Why do the stars twinkle?", "How big is the Universe?", or "Do Black Holes really exist?". The entertaining and easy-to-understand talks were illustrated by pictures (and sometimes by experiments). They were addressed to junior and senior people, to citizens of Heidelberg and guests, to students of all subjects and employees of Heidelberg University. After the talks, the attendees could ask questions for another 15 minutes. After half an hour, the astronomical lunch break ended. In total, 70 such talks took place from April 11 to Juli 22, 2011. They run from Monday through Friday, 12:30 to 13:00 o'clock in the University Chapel/Peterskirche (Plöck 70, Heidelberg, Old Town). The talk series was supported by the Klaus Tschira Foundation (KTS). All 70 talks were professionelly filmed. They will be posted one after the other at the video portal of "Spektrum der Wissenschaft" for the general public. Here you can find a list of all titles and speaker for the 70 talks plus some background information (in German). Click on the picture below for a short Trailer, which portrays out talks series (produced by Peter von Saalfeld; in German).

Click above for the "Uni(versum) für alle! - Halbe Heidelberger Sternstunden"-Videos Click above for Youtube Video "Gibt es eine zweite Erde?" Click above for Youtube Video "Kosmische Illusionen: Von Doppel-Quasaren und Einstein-Ringen"

Exhibition and Book/Catalog: Himmlisches in Büchern - Astronomische Schriften und Instrumente aus sechs Jahrhunderten Editors: Maria Effinger und Joachim Wambsganss; with contributions of: Immo Appenzeller, Reinhold Bien, Herbert Hefele, Margit Krenn, Robert W. Schmidt und Karin Zimmermann (Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg, 2009) [Link]