WCA Public Outreach: The Story of 2024-25

As we settle into the new school year, we're taking a moment to look back at the highlights of the WCA's public outreach programming over 2024-25!

Over the past 12 months, the WCA has reached almost 6,000 people through in-person public astronomy events, taking place in locations including schools, sports centres, libraries, museums, and pubs! 

Many of these experienced a show inside the Astro-Bubble, our portable, inflatable planetarium, generously donated to the WCA in 2022. Attendees heard about topics ranging from planets, to supernovae, to the James Webb Space Telescope, to the relationship different communities have had with the night sky throughout history.

The Astro-Bubble planetarium was the centrepiece in our first big event of the year: Kids' Science Open House. Every October, thousands of members of the public visit the Waterloo campus to learn about the huge range of science happening at UW.

As expected, the Bubble was a hit! Four of the WCA's tireless graduate students and postdoctoral researchers — Liza, Ashley, Cam and James — ran 12 planetarium shows for nearly 500 people across the day.

Last year, new results from the Event Horizon Telescope showed us the magnetic fields emanating from the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. In November, Dr. Avery Broderick gave a wonderful seminar at Kitchener Public Library about these new results.

For the past two years, Kitchener Public Library has hosted WCA astronomers and cosmologists on the last Wednesday of every month to share their research with the public. In 2024-25, we heard about a huge range of topics, covering planets, galaxies, black holes, artificial intelligence, and the historic contributions of women to astronomy.

Astronomy on Tap has been running regularly in Kitchener for over two years now; in this series of events, WCA members share their research from the comfort of a pub, while having some fun and a couple of drinks!

February's Astronomy on Tap fell on the same day as the biggest snowstorm of the year, and very nearly had to be called off. Thankfully, we were still able to hear two talks from WCA astronomers Liza Sazonova and Marie-Joëlle Gingras, who were joined by a crowd of die-hard astronomy enthusiasts that made their way through the snow!

An unusual sight took over the night sky in February 2025, when all seven planets in our Solar System were visible at once, creating a rare "parade of planets". While only five of these (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) were visible with the naked eye, the Gustav Bakos Observatory opened to the public to give people a chance to spot all seven.

We also ran an "indoor stargazing" night, with some telescopes and a model night sky inside Waterloo's Earth Sciences Museum. Perfect for those who wanted some easier stargazing, or who didn't want to brave the cold February night!

While the excitement of 2024's total solar eclipse won't be repeated for another 120 years, in March we were treated to a total lunar eclipse. These are caused by the Earth's shadow being cast onto the face of the Moon, turning it a deep shade of red.

The WCA teamed up with the Kitchener-Waterloo Royal Astronomical Society to host an eclipse watch party, and around 200 people turned up with telescopes in hand, to watch the only blood moon of 2025. Spooky!

As winter turned into spring the WCA took part in the Faculty of Environment's annual community festival, ENVigorate, which focuses on climate and sustainability. WCA members shared the Astro-Bubble planetarium with attendees of the festival, speaking about dark skies and light pollution, and the impact this has on astronomy.

Across 2024-25 almost 5,000 people watched a show inside the Astro-Bubble planetarium, so thank you to everyone who took part!

2024-25 was a busy year for the WCA's community outreach program, but we have lots more coming up this year, including more public lectures, stargazing nights, Astro-Bubble shows and other events. You can stay up to date with our public outreach through the WCA website, as well as through our Instagram and LinkedIn pages.

You can support the WCA's community outreach efforts by donating to the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics.