Major Office Activities
The office of the Director of the Hayden Planetarium is also a close collaborator with the Departments of Development, Government Affairs, Department of Communications, VIP Services, Volunteers, and the President's Office. Among our many activities, we meet and greet visitors important to the funding, politics, and overall mission of the American Museum of Natural History.
Beyond these formal efforts lies a wide variety of public service activities that include but are not limited to:
- fielding inquiries from the public at a rate that often exceeds a hundred per week
- serving the public interest in the universe through media appearances, invited lectures, and press interviews arranged by the Department of Communications
- serving the publishing and entertainment industry as expert consultants on plot-lines, trade manuscripts, children's books, screenplays, public art works, etc
The Office of the Director also runs a series of public programs that include:
Lectures
Maintain monthly lectures, attracting colleagues on the frontier of astrophysics research and distinguished authors in astronomy.
Astronomy Live monthly program
The Hayden Planetarium's answer to the public demand for a live sky-talk takes place on the last Tuesday of each month in the Space Theater. Learn about what is visible in our nighttime sky with the brilliant stars of the Zeiss Mark IX star projector or travel beyond the farthest reaches of the observable Universe with the world's largest cosmic atlas, the Digital Universe, assembled at the Hayden Planetarium.
Special Events
High-profile events that bring to the Museum leading experts on the frontier of science to discuss or debate important issues concerning the astrophysical sciences in society. Most notably, the annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Panel Debate brings the finest minds in the world to the Museum each Spring to debate pressing questions on the frontier of scientific discovery.