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"La Noche de las Estrellas"

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  • Participating High School student at "La Noche de las Estrellas" 2017. Photo by Ilse Ungeheuer

"La Noche de las Estrellas"

"La Noche de las Estrellas" is a special Lick Observatory visitors night for the Spanish-speaking community (by invitation only). Lick Observatory hosted approximately 100 high school students and family members from five nearby High Schools (Gonzales, Soledad, Salinas, Castroville, and Watsonville) for the inaugural event on Friday, September 28th, 2017.

The students and family members enjoyed a Spanish-speaking evening on Mount Hamilton, featuring short lectures by renowned scientists (e.g., UCSC Astronomy Prof. Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz and Prof. Jesus Gonzales, Director of the Astronomy Institute, National Autonomous University of Mexico), followed by telescope viewings after dark through Lick Observatory's 36" Great Refractor and 40" Nickel telescopes. More smaller telescopes were available outside of the observatory for everyone to look through. The students and their family members also had the opportunity to meet astronomers like Prof. Claire Max (UC Observatories Director), Prof. Emerita Sandra Faber (UCSC and UCO/Lick), Prof. Emeritus David Koo (UCSC and UCO/Lick), Prof. Xavier Prochaska (UCSC and UCO/Lick), and dignities from the Mexican Consulate, among others.

Free transportation is a unique feature of the program that is included in order to give access to the program to students from all economic backgrounds. This special event was sponsored and made possible by:

The University of California Observatories (UCO)
University of California, Santa Cruz
MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement)
U.S. National Science Foundation
Friends of Lick Observatory (FoLO)


"La Noche de las Estrellas" 2018 will take place on Saturday, October 20th.


Please view more detailled information about the 2018 event:

2018 "La Noche de las Estrellas"



Video courtesy of UC Santa Cruz

Read more about the 2017 event on the UC Santa Cruz News pages, available in English and Spanish:

Lick Observatory hosts Latino students and parents for night of astronomy

El observatorio de Lick fue anfitrión de una noche de astronomía para estudiantes y padres latinos





Students viewing through amateur telescopes at "La Noche de las Estrellas" 2017. Photo by Ilse Ungeheuer