DAWN outreach activities

At the Cosmic Dawn Center, we enjoy communicating our science to the public, whether it be giving interviews to journalists, answering questions from astronomy-interested people, giving public talks, or writing popular science articles.

Note that much of the material is in Danish.

The Cosmic Dawn Center studies the Universe not just for our own sake, but to increase everyone's understanding about the incredible cosmos which we inhabit. Disseminating our knowledge and discoveries to the general public is an important part of our job — a means to "repay our debt" — and we regularly give public lectures to high-school classes, amateur astronomy associations, and other astro-interested people.

Click here to inquire about a talk (the form is in Danish, but we give talks in both English and Danish, and even Italian):

Possible topics include:

  • Galaxies and their formation
  • Cosmology
  • The Big Bang
  • Stars — birth, life, and death
  • Research at the Cosmic Dawn Center

Astronomy On Tap

Astronomy on Tap is a (FREE) series of events aimed at making the latest research in astronomy and space accessible to the public, with fun talks given in simple English, and quiz, and plenty of time for mingling between our speakers and guests.

The talks are hosted by Huset in Rådhusstræde.

The events typically go down once a month. Check here for the next event.

We regularly write articles in various newspapers and magazines, both physical and online, about the stuff that absorbs our minds.

Click here for an overview.

Encyclopedia for non-astronomers

On his website, DAWN's Peter Laursen is writing a small encyclopedia with brief introductions to various astronomy topics:
In Danish 🇩🇰
In English 🇬🇧

Blog

DAWN's Johan Fynbo runs a blog where he muses on science, philosophy, religion, and life in general (in Danish).

Naturally, we gladly give interviews about our research, comment on current astronomical/physical events and news, or guest TV, radio, and podcasts.

Are you a journalist or similar, click here to contact us.

Or have a look at our previous media appearances.

If you want regular, brief, and digestible updates on our most recent results and other activities, follow along on our SoMe:

facebook.com/cosmicdawncenter

twitter.com/dawncopenhagen

linkedin.com/company/the-cosmic-dawn-center

On Facebook, our followers tend to be non-scientists, and news are written in a manner presuming no prior knowledge of neither the topic, not astronomy in general. Anyone interested in astronomy should be able to understand these news.

On Twitter, a larger fraction of our followers are scientists. While news here are still presented in a readable manner, they tend to be even more brief, occasionally using some astronomy jargon.

Do you have a question about astronomy? Don't hesitate to contact us. No questions are too easy or too difficult… well, actually some questions may be too difficult, but we'll give it a shot nonetheless.

See also DAWN's Peter Laursen's Q&A column (Danish: "Brevkasse") with lots of previously answered questions.

Compared to other branches of science, astronomy tends to appeal visually to the public. At DAWN, although we may sometimes get lost in data handling, statistics, and proposal writing, we haven't lost our
love for the cosmos, and of course think that we deal with the most spectacular structures in the Universe — magnificent galaxies, exploding stars, nebulae glowing in beautiful colors, and much more.

Every year, we offer our students a two weeks' summer school going to the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) in La Palma, where they learn how to operate a telescope. While the focus is on science, there is also time to take some pretty pictures. Below you can browse through some of these images.

[The NOT images will soon come here]


DAWN's Gabriel Brammer is an avid photographer and always brings his camera when he goes observing. Below you can see his (meta-)astro-photography pictures of telescopes, laser guides, stellar skies, and even some galaxies.


See also DAWN's Peter Laursen's gallery of various astronomical objects, taken from both the NOT and other telescopes.