The weeklong festival, staged by a coalition of Pasadena-based scientific institutions under the City of Astronomy banner, was timed to coincide with the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, held June 14 through 18, 2026, at the Pasadena Convention Center. Tour of the Universe is the closing event of the week.
The program is hosted by Carnegie Observatories in collaboration with the City of Pasadena Parks, Recreation & Community Services Department. It features interactive stations where children can explore space through hands-on activities, with support from partners including the Giant Magellan Telescope, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Sky-Watchers USA, and The Planetary Society, according to the festival’s organizers.
The event runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Villa Parke Community Center, 363 East Villa St., Pasadena, a facility operated by the City of Pasadena that hosts recreational and educational programs for residents of all ages. It requires no reservations, and street parking is available. A telescope will also be given away during the program, which the organizers describe as a chance to win.
The festival opened Sunday, June 14, with the City of Astronomy Science Festival at the Pasadena Convention Center, an afternoon of science demonstrations, hands-on activities, and public presentations on topics such as black holes, exoplanets, and galaxies. Demonstrations included building a comet and making solar s’mores. On the three evenings that followed, the festival hosted Astronomy on Tap, a series of informal science talks at Dog Haus Biergarten in Old Pasadena. Thursday’s Tour of the Universe turns the week’s programming toward a younger audience.
Pasadena has been a center for astronomical research for more than a century, home to institutions whose work has included the discovery that the universe is expanding, the detection of gravitational waves, and the first evidence of dark matter, according to the City of Astronomy organization. The city was formally designated the “City of Astronomy” in 2016, and local scientists and educators have organized free public science programming under that name since then.
The coalition’s members include Carnegie Observatories, which was founded in 1904 by George Ellery Hale as the Mount Wilson Observatory and remains based on Santa Barbara Street in Pasadena.
Additional information, including directions and the full schedule of events, is available at cityofastronomy.org.