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Halloween ghosts are getting a scientific twist at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where visitors can meet the scientists who helped shape our understanding of the universe — and learn about some whose contributions have been overlooked.
UT San Antonio’s Department of Physics and Astronomy will host "Haunted Observatory Night: Día de los Muertos Under the Stars" on Wednesday, Oct. 28, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Curtis Vaughan Jr. Observatory on the university’s Main Campus.
The event transforms the observatory into a gathering of ghostly astronomers, including figures such as Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton and Hypatia, one of the earliest known female astronomers. Visitors can talk with the historical figures, collect stamps on a scavenger hunt card and earn candy. Telescopes will also be available for stargazing, weather permitting.
Dr. Angela Speck, a professor of physics and astronomy at UT San Antonio, developed the concept more than a dozen years ago while working at the University of Missouri. The idea grew from a campus museum’s Halloween tradition of bringing mythical Greek characters to life.
Speck later combined the spooky theme with Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, after she and a student independently proposed creating an ofrenda — a traditional altar honoring the deceased — for astronomers who had died.
The result is an event that uses Halloween entertainment and Día de los Muertos traditions to introduce visitors to the people behind scientific discoveries.
Speck said this year’s group of ghostly scientists features more women than men, along with a broader range of cultural backgrounds.
“This time we've got more women, dead women astronomers, than men amongst our ghosts, and it's more multicultural. We've got an Indian American astronaut who'll be one of our ghosts, a Filipina, and so on,” said Speck. “They (attendees) talk to our ghosts, so they find out what they did, so they learn about different aspects of how we do astronomy.”
The event also highlights how people with disabilities have contributed to astronomy. Annie Jump Cannon and Henrietta Swan Leavitt, whose work advanced scientists’ understanding of stars and the cosmos, were both deaf.
Speck said their stories help challenge assumptions about who can pursue science and make astronomy more accessible to visitors.
“Anybody can do astronomy. It doesn't matter what your background is. You can do it,” she said.
Haunted Observatory Night begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the Curtis Vaughan Jr. Observatory, located on the fourth-floor roof of the Flawn Sciences Building on UTSA’s Main Campus. Telescope viewing will occur, weather permitting.
