Public Science
Climate change, stars, fossils and rocks and urban planning: The Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy is doing research and teaches in areas that are also of great interest to the general public. We are committed to a rich transfer of knowledge – from the mobile planetarium and the "Kinderuni" or the Long Night of Research to lecture series such as "Nachts auf der Sternwarte" (At night at the observatory) and Citizen Science projects.
News & views
Public science initiatives at the Faculty
- „Astronomy To Go“ – The mobile planetarium
- The "Astronomy To Go"-team visits schools to support scientific and astronomical education with the inflatable mobile planetarium. The shows are given by trained astronomers and students of the Institute of Astrophysics. The programme focusses on children between the ages of 6 and 18, but is adaptable for other age groups.
To the mobile planetarium
- Hyperglobus - the Earth on a scale of 1:10 million
- Andreas Riedl and his team at the Institute of Geography and Regional Research offer amazing insights and views of the Earth with a globe 1.2 metres in diameter - one can see animations of weather processes, continental drift, flight movements or climate change.
For interested people of all ages!
More on the homepage of Andreas Riedl
- Nachts auf der Sternwarte – public lecture series
- The Department of Astrophysics at the University of Vienna organizes the lecture series “Nachts auf der Sternwarte” with a comprehensive program of lectures on various topics of astrophysics. The lectures are generally understandable, accessible to all, and are presented in either English or German.
Public lecture series "Nachts auf der Sternwarte"
- Children's university and mobile children's university
- Space, glacier melting and fossils in sea sand as well as the city of the future: the Faculty of Earth -Sciences, Geography and Astronomy is represented annually at the Vienna Children's University (e.g. 2019 and 2018) with many different topics. Researchers from the Faculty of Explorers are also involved in the mobile children's university.
See the website of the “Kinderuni”
- Collections of the Faculty
- Whether you are interested in geology, the Observatory Museum, the Mineral or Palaeontological Collection or the Wall Map Collection of the geography department: The twelve collections of the Faculty of Earth Science, Geography and Astronomy are open to the public on request!
To the collections of the Faculty
- Initiative "Exploring Citizen Science"
- The "Exploring Citizen Science" initiative (2018-2019) aimed at examining the possibilities and limits of the Citizen Science method in the various research fields of the faculty and to encourage networking among interested scientists.
In 2019, three pilot projects were funded (see article "Weichtiere, Wolken und Räume: Exploring Citizen Science" [in German]).
About the FGGA Exploring Citizen Science Initiative