October 16 & 17, 2026
Join us for a weekend of astronomy
This year's theme is Other Worlds: Life Elsewhere
NEFAF brings together astronomers, exhibitors, and stargazers of every age for a weekend of hands-on science. Build and launch a rocket, look through telescopes with members of the New Hampshire Astronomical Society, get your own telescope checked out at a telescope clinic, and stick around after dark for guided night sky viewing.
Follow NEFAF on Facebook for event updates and day-of announcements.
Admission
Admission is free. Donations to support NEFAF are welcome, and food and beverages will be available for purchase on site.
Contact us:
For accessibility accommodations or questions, contact John Gianforte, Director of the UNH Observatory.
john.gianforte@unh.edu
Saturday event activities
Spend Saturday, October 17, at the UNH Observatory. Come for an hour or stay until dark.
- Build: a model rocket, a motorized Mars rover, or a telescope you can take home
- Observe: the sun through filtered telescopes, then the night sky after dark (weather permitting)
- Explore: exhibitor tables, short science talks, and our scale model of the solar system
- Play: AstroGames, face painting, the photo booth, and the AstroRaffle
-
Safe Solar Observing -
Rocket Building and Launching -
Telescope Clinics -
A Weather Balloon Launch -
Kids Astro Games -
Face Painting -
Astro Games -
Nighttime Stargazing
Enter the AstroRaffle
Try your luck at our famous AstroRaffle on Saturday afternoon. This year's prizes include telescopes, binoculars, and books to help you explore the night sky at home. Raffle tickets are available at the festival.
Grand prize: ZWO Seestar S30 smart telescope (2 winners)
Other prizes
- Apertura AD8 8-inch telescope
- Apertura 4-inch Dobsonian telescope
- Celestron 70 DX 70mm refractor kit with smartphone adapter
- Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 binoculars (2)
- Celestron Cometron 7x50 binoculars (2)
- Astronomy books and a star finder
Raffle prizes are underwritten by Beswick Engineering and sponsored in part by the New Hampshire Astronomical Society.
Event schedule
NEFAF runs over two days. Friday evening features a keynote speaker and an introduction to the weekend at the Main Tent, followed by early stargazing at the Observatory. Saturday is the full festival day, with hands-on activities, rocket building and launching, exhibitors, informal science talks, and stargazing that runs into the evening.
| Time | Activity | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 7:00 p.m. | John Gianforte, Director, UNH Observatory — Introduction | Main Tent |
| 7:00 p.m. | Opening Remarks | Main Tent |
| 7:15–8:20 p.m. | Keynote Talk and Q & A - Dr. Jack Lissauer, Space Scientist in the Planetary Systems Branch at NASA's Ames Research Center - Unveiling the Diversity of Warm and Hot Planets Using Data From NASA’s Kepler and TESS Spacecraft | Main Tent |
| 8:30–8:50 p.m. | Meet and Greet Dr. Jack Lissauer | Main Tent |
| 8:30-11:30pm | (weather permitting) Stargazing and laser pointer programs. Telescopes will be set up in the observatory area for everyone to take a look through. | Observatory Area |
Note snacks and soft drinks and coffee will be available for sale into the evening.
Saturday schedule
All-day activities
| Time | Activity | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. | Kids' Hands-On Science Activities | Main Tent |
| 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. | NEFAF AstroScavenger Hunt | Main Tent |
| During the day | NEFAF Observer AstroScavenger Hunt | Main Tent and Observatory Area |
| 10:45 a.m.–4 p.m. | Face Painting | Main Tent entrance |
| 10:30 a.m.–6:30 p.m. | Walk Through the Solar System | North field |
| During the day | Safe Solar Observing | Observatory Area and outside the Main Tent |
| 11:30 a.m.–10 p.m. | Country Road BBQ | Main Parking Lot |
Scheduled activities
| Time | Activity | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 10:30 a.m. | NEFAF gates open | Main gate |
| 10:30 a.m. | Rocket building sign-ups begin | Main Tent |
| 11 a.m.–6:15 p.m. | Saturday informal science talks by student and faculty researchers See the full talk schedule below. | Speaker Tent |
| 11 a.m. | Rocket building — Group 1 | Main Tent |
| 11:30 a.m. | Rocket building — Group 2 | Main Tent |
| 7–7:30 p.m. | Early Laser Pointer Sky Tour | Observatory Area |
| 7:30–11 p.m. | Stargazing with telescopes and binoculars | Observatory Area |
| 8–8:30 p.m. | Advanced Laser Pointer Sky Tour | Observatory Area |
Saturday informal science talks by student and faculty researchers
Student and faculty researchers will share their work through a series of short, informal science talks throughout the day.
| Time | Speaker | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| 11–11:40 a.m. | Benjamin Chandran | A Brief History of the Universe: From the Big Bang to Stars and Planets |
| 11:40 a.m.–12:10 p.m. | Ryad Ouhhabi | Cosmology and the CMB |
| 12:10–12:40 p.m. | Samantha Rath | Gold Mines in Our Stellar Backyard |
| 12:40–12:50 p.m. | Break | |
| 12:50–1:30 p.m. | David Plachetzki | From Stardust to Stargazers: How Advanced Life Assembles Itself |
| 1:30–2 p.m. | Brad Moser | Are We Alone? Decoding the Drake Equation |
| 2–2:30 p.m. | Zach Greenberg | Hunting for Hidden Planets: An Exoplanet Adventure to Australia |
| 2:30–3 p.m. | Joel Newman | National Eclipse Balloon Launching Project |
| 3–3:10 p.m. | Break, Weather Balloon | |
| 3:10–3:50 p.m. | Fouad El Baidouri | Beyond Little Green Men: What Would Alien Life Look Like? Lessons from Earth's first cells, ocean worlds, and the physics of living in fluids |
| 3:50–4:20 p.m. | Dom Puopolo | Where can sounding rockets take you? |
| 4:20–5 p.m. | Ningyu Liu | Bizarre Lightning: The Colorful and the Invisible Above the Clouds |
| 5–5:45 p.m. | Break for Raffle | |
| 5:45–6:15 p.m. | John Gianforte | How to Get Started in Stargazing |
NEFAF Exhibitors - Saturday
- American Meteorological Society
- College of Life Science and Agriculture
- Department of Physics and Astronomy
- Leitzel Center
- Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/CRaTER
- McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center
- Mount Washington Weather Observatory
- NASA Solar Sys. Ambassador S. Jensen
- New Hampshire Astronomical Society
- Plymouth State University(PSU)
- PSU Astronomy Club
- Slooh
- Southwest Research Institute
- UNH Extension & 4-H
- UNH Observatory
- UNH’s Space Technology Hub
Directions & parking
UNH Observatory
16 Spinney Lane, Durham, NH 03824
NEFAF is the same weekend as UNH Family Weekend and a home football game this year, so expect heavy traffic in Durham. Please read these instructions before you come.
Getting here
- Approach from the west. From the Route 4 end of Durham, turn left onto Mast Road Extension, then take your first left onto Spinney Lane. Follow the bright yellow NEFAF signs.
- This route avoids campus and downtown Durham traffic.
Where to park
- Contractor lot: our main lot, next to the field where the Observatory is located.
- Day care center lots (formerly the Child Study and Development Center): from 6 p.m. Friday, and all day and night Saturday.
- O'Kane Road: right (north) side only when heading west. Parking on both sides is not allowed.
- Moiles lot: Friday and Saturday evenings from 6 p.m., when needed. Take the first right after turning onto Mast Road Extension. Closed to NEFAF guests Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Shuttle
- An 11-passenger van loops between the Contractor lot, the day care center, and the Moiles lot. Each loop takes about 10 minutes.
- Friday: 6:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday: 10:30 a.m. to about 11 p.m., depending on need.
Accessible parking is available near the Contractor lot on Spinney Lane.
Parking assistants will be on duty at peak times. Please follow their directions. UNH Police will be on hand during peak periods.
Our sponsors & partners
This event is made possible through a partnership of the UNH Department of Physics and Astronomy, the New Hampshire Astronomical Society, UNH Extension, the New Hampshire Space Grant, the New Hampshire 4-H Foundation, the Southwest Research Institute, and Beswick Engineering, and other regional amateur astronomy clubs.
Donations are very much-appreciated to keep the New England Fall Astronomy Festival going for years to come. These donations go directly to help fund NEFAF. Thank you in advance!
Please click the "Donate" button and select "additional or multiple funds" and click on "Physics & Astronomy Festival Gift Fund".
The festival is for anyone who has an interest in astronomy. Families in particular are encouraged to attend because astronomy is a great family hobby. Local amateurs, like the members of the New Hampshire Astronomical Society, share their passion and enthusiasm about astronomy with the public.
The best part about NEFAF is that you don't need to bring anything! Admission to the festival is free, although donations to the UNH Observatory are appreciated. The only costs to you would be if you'd like to purchase food or tickets for our raffle.
We will also be featuring a telescope clinic, so if you have a telescope at home that is broken or you're not quite sure how to use, you can bring that with you and have it looked at by our telescope experts. Other than that, just bring your excitement and enthusiasm!
Most of the events for NEFAF will take place on the lawns surrounding the UNH Observatory, which may be challenging for guests. If you have any questions about accessibility at NEFAF or would like to request accommodations, please email John Gianforte, john.gianforte@unh.edu, prior to the event.
Unfortunately, the full breadth of NEFAF's events will only be able to occur if the weather cooperates. In the case of cloud cover, but no precipitation, NEFAF will be held without its weather-dependent activities, such as solar and night-time observing. If there is cloud cover with light rain, most of our talks and presentations will most likely still be held without the outdoor activities. In the case of heavy rain or storms, the event may need to be cancelled. Please check our website and Facebook page for weather updates and information.
History of the New England Fall Astronomy Festival
- 2024 New England fall Astronomy Festival
featuring Heidi Hammel, Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) - 2022 New England fall Astronomy Festival
featuring Sara Seager, MIT and Alex Filippenko, UC, Berkeley - 2018 New England Fall Astronomy Festival
featuring Planetary Physicist Fran Bagenal, University of Colorado - 2016 New England Fall Astronomy Festival
featuring Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak, SETI Institute - 2014 New England Fall Astronomy Festival
featuring Imaging Science Team Leader Carolyn Porco, NASA's Cassini Mission, sponsors & participants - 2013 New England Fall Astronomy Festival
featuring acclaimed history of science author and journalist Dava Sobel, sponsors& participants - 2012 New England Fall Astronomy Festival
featuring UC-Berkeley professor and noted astronomer Alex Fillippenko, sponsors & participants - 2011 New England Fall Astronomy Festival
featuring NASA astronaut and UNH alumnus Lee Morin, sponsors & participants
Volunteers needed
Volunteers are an important part of NEFAF. Click the button and fill out the form to apply. Opportunities include operating telescopes, running kids games, selling raffle tickets, assisting with parking, setting up booths, and cleaning up. Astronomy knowledge not required, just a desire to help.
Let us know if you or a child you know is interested 4-H Astronomy programs, like Star Parties in their community.
Submit your name and email address to have a 4-H program manager help you get involved.
