Neuroinclusion in Astronomy: Finding and Cultivating Neurodivergent Potential
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Fee: $35
Roughly 25% of the human population is neurodivergent, meaning that their cognitive processes differ from what is considered "neurotypical"; Some of these individuals have collections of traits classified into diagnostic groups such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or OCD. Astronomy greatly benefits from a diverse range of minds to create innovative technologies and advance human knowledge. As such, we must provide this community of students, staff, and colleagues, often marginalized in the sciences, with the neuroinclusive support they need to thrive. In this workshop, participants will learn the basics of neurodiversity through both the medical and social lenses. Our team of neurodivergent astrophysicists will guide participants on neuroinclusive teaching and mentoring practices (shown to benefit neurotypical students too!), the Americans with Disabilities Act and the legal protections for neurodivergent individuals, the strengths and challenges of neurodiversity, and Universal Design for Learning. We will answer questions and provide a safe and open environment for learning about neurodiversity in STEM (now thought to have a higher percentage of occurrence than the general population). This workshop is designed and led by the board of The Neuroverse Initiative (www.theneuroverseinitiative.com), a non-profit working at the intersection of Space Science and Neurodiversity. Participants will experience a set curriculum formulated specifically for astronomy departments. 

Astronomy Education in the Age of Ai
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Fee: $35
This workshop will address the issues of undergraduate and graduate education in astronomy, in the Age of AI. We will explore the data available on pedagogical efficacy of AI to enhance student learning, and how to incentivize undergraduates to invest the brow-sweat that is an essential ingredient of attaining deep domain knowledge. We will also explore what AI-accelerated science implies for graduate education.

An Introduction to Fornax: Scalable Data and Compute for Scientific Analysis
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Fee: $35
Fornax is NASA’s new Astrophysics Science Platform, providing cloud-hosted access to NASA data, scalable computing, and integrated analysis tools. Now in beta, Fornax allows researchers to move computation to the data rather than transferring large data sets to local machines. This hands-on workshop introduces attendees to Fornax through live demonstrations and guided exercises. Participants will explore which NASA astrophysics data sets are available in the cloud, and learn what levels of compute are accessible for scientific analysis. We will discuss practical differences and advantages of cloud-based computing compared to traditional on-prem workflows, including performance, scalability, and data locality. The exercises will demonstrate example science workflows on the platform, including cross-matching large catalogs using HATS/Parquet formats, and show how familiar tools can be used directly against cloud-hosted data. By the end of the session, participants will understand how to use Fornax to access NASA data and carry out analyses in a cloud-native environment.

Euclid Data in the Cloud: Access, Analysis, and Science Opportunities
10:00 am - 11:30 pm
Fee: $35
Euclid is an ESA mission with NASA participation designed to map the geometry of the dark Universe through deep optical and near-infrared imaging and slitless spectroscopy. With its first public data now available and a much larger release planned for this year, this hands-on session will introduce the U.S. community to accessing and analyzing Euclid data products via the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA), which hosts the complementary U.S. Euclid archive, as well as through NASA Fornax cloud resources. Participants will explore science applications spanning AGNs to galaxy clusters and large-scale structure, with examples of machine learning approaches applied to Euclid data. The workflows presented are designed to scale to future releases, preparing researchers to fully leverage Euclid’s first major cosmological datasets.

High Energy Science Analysis with HEASARC Services
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Fee: $35
The High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) will hold a workshop to work in person with our community. The workshop is aimed at any early career scientists and others who want to find out how to use HEASARC services to advance their research. We will start by presenting a half-hour overview of the HEASARC services, particularly the newer ones such as: our updated astroquery.heasarc module to access our data through Python; Jupyter notebooks demonstrating data analysis with NuSTAR, NICER, IXPE, Swift, etc.; our science platforms where you can do the analysis through your browser with the full JupyterLab interface and where all of the data and software are already available; and more. The rest of the workshop time will be spent helping participants with these tools hands-on. We will have staff attending to give you one-on-one support, whether you are a newbie or somebody experienced trying to do something complicated. We will particularly welcome feedback on how to improve and expand what we provide.

Date: Friday, June 19, 2026
9:00am - 3:00pm
Fee: $60

No refunds for the tour after June 5.

Join us for a visit to telescopes old and new at the historic Mount Wilson Observatory! The 60-inch telescope was completed in 1908 by Observatory founder George Ellery Hale with funding from Andrew Carnegie. Among the many important discoveries from the 60-inch telescope was Harlow Shapley’s revelation in 1918 that the accepted view of the time, that our Sun was near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, was wrong. Hale went on to complete the 100-inch Hooker telescope in 1917, the world’s largest telescope until 1949. With it, Hubble showed that some nebulae are actually external galaxies far from the Milky Way. With Milton Humason, he showed that the universe is expanding. The tour continues with a viewing of the 150-ft solar tower telescope.

The most recent facility on Mt Wilson is the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array - used for measuring the sizes of stars and imaging stellar surfaces. View one of the 6 telescopes comprising the interferometer, the beam combiner lab, and the CHARA exhibit hall, which incudes the 20-ft beam that Albert Michelson and Francis Pease mounted on the 100-in telescope to measure the diameter of a red supergiant start Betelgeuse, in 1920!

The tour ends with an opportunity for spectacular views of the LA basin, before returning to Pasadena.

The high elevation of the Observatory (5715 ft) and the change in elevation during the approximately one-mile and two-hour long tour are unsuitable for individuals with respiratory and heart problems or with limited mobility.

The century-old facilities are not ADA-compliant and, except for the Astronomical Museum and the Cosmic Cafe, offer no access to those who cannot climb multiple flights of stars. Thus, tours of the Observatory, either guided or unguided, are inappropriate for some elderly people and for those who are not in good health. Visitors should take these factors into consideration before touring the Observatory.

The bus will depart from Pasadena at 9:00 am and return at approximately 3:00 pm. A box lunch and a bottle of water will be provided.