AsTropaLooza: The Astronomy of ATL Showcase is a brand new, free K-12 STEM outreach event happening June 12-15th, 2025, brought to you by Georgia State University, Georgia State University Perimeter College, Agnes Scott College, and the Georgia Outreach Team for Space (GOT Space) and sponsored by the Georgia Space Grant Consortium.
AsTropaLooza will feature some of ATL’s best access to the sky, including GSU’s Hard Labor Creek Observatory and Agnes Scott’s Bradley Observatory and planetarium. We will offer Solar and nighttime astronomy viewing, STEM demos, presentations by black hole and exoplanet scientists, and so much more! The planetarium show and presentations will be streamed live for those attending virtually. You can view the full schedule of AsTropaLooza below, and RSVP for an event above!
The entirety of AsTropaLooza is free to the public. All you have to do is RSVP! We will be offering meals during the STEM demos while supplies last, and we will be offering bussing services free of charge for a limited number of students in the following school districts on the following days:
- Thursday, June 12: Gwinnett County Schools
- Friday, June 13: Clayton County Schools
- Saturday, June 14: Fulton County Schools
- Sunday, June 15: ATL Public Schools
Please note that all children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a guardian or chaperone. The organizers of AsTropaLooza are not responsible for the supervision of attendees.
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Events of AsTropaLooza
- Virtual and Augmented Reality: Students will be able to visit nearby planets, stars, and even galaxies in virtual reality! They will also be able to explore and navigate the planets of the Solar System with augmented reality displays and capabilities!
- Phases of the Moon in a Cup: Students learn about the phases of the Moon, and draw the phases on a simple two-cup setup that allows them to cycle through the phases.
- UV Beads: Invisible Light: What are the types of light emitted by the Sun? Is there light that we can’t see? This activity focuses on the use of UV-reacting beads, which change color when exposed to the Sun. Students learn about forms of light that we can’t see with our eyes, but which still have a big impact on our lives.
- Pocket Solar System: We’ve all seen the illustrations of the Solar System where the planets orbit around the Sun in even rings. However, this looks nothing like the actual distribution of planets in the Solar System! This activity shows students the scale of our Solar System and relative distances between planets, giving them a sense of just how empty outer space really is.
- Design an Alien: What types of life exist on Earth? What might aliens look like? This activity allows students to use their imagination and creativity to conceptualize alien life forms, and discusses various biological factors that are considered when thinking about realistic alien life.
- Plan a Mars Colony: You and your team are setting up a base on Mars! This is a card-based strategy game that allows students to choose what aspects of society they would prioritize (such as agriculture, security, and entertainment), and troubleshoot various obstacles that get in their way.
- “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” and “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?”: These trivia games are student favorites for STEM Nights and class presentations. The questions are all astronomy-based, and students can either play as one collaborative group or in two competing groups.
- GSU’s Rooftop Observation Deck (ROD) is located on the roof of the Urban Life building in the heart of downtown ATL. The ROD boasts up to 3 GPS-enabled 6-inch Celestron NexStar SE telescopes. AsTropaLooza will host a solar observing session with the ROD, where K-12 students will be able to conduct observations of the Sun with our solar telescopes, Celestrons equipped with filters allowing safe viewing the Sun in limited red light, and sunspotters that project a magnified image of the Sun onto paper, allowing students to make their own traces of the Sun and any sunspots that may be visible!
- Agnes Scott College’s BO houses the 30” Lewis H. Beck telescope, in addition to the 70-seat Delafield Planetarium that can simulate the night sky with a mechanical ZEISS star projector. AsTropaLooza will host both a planetarium show and an evening observing session, with a live streaming option for the planetarium show!
- GSU’s Hard Labor Creek Observatory (HLCO) boasts 2 domes that are host to the McAlister Telescope (a PlaneWave 0.7m CDK700 telescope) and the Miller Telescope (a PlaneWave 24” Corrected Dall-Kirkham Astrograph Telescope). AsTropaLooza will conclude its festivities with an open house at HLCO, observatory tours, and both McAlister and Miller telescopes operating in addition to smaller telescopes in front of the observatory equipped with smart phone adapters, allowing K-12 students to take their own pictures of the night sky through a telescope!
- Dr. Misty Bentz is a professor of astrophysics at GSU and specializes in supermassive black holes and the galaxies in which they live. Her work utilizes numerous telescopes, including the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, and her research program is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA. Dr. Bentz will give a presentation on the current understanding of supermassive black holes, including how astronomers use premier observatories to detect and measure their properties, with a live virtual streaming option!
- After this keynote, we will host an ‘Ask-A-Scientist’ session, where we will offer a portal for students attending virtually to submit their ‘Ask-A-Scientist’ questions beforehand, the best of which will be chosen and the winning students and schools will get a shoutout!
- Dr. Hodari-Sadiki Hubbard-James is an assistant professor of astrophysics at Agnes Scott College, with a background in biomedical engineering and molecular lab testing. His primary research employs high-quality observations to examine the nearest stars to the Sun and whether they can serve as hosts for habitable planets. Dr. James will give a presentation on other stars and the planets they host: ‘From Earth to Exoplanets: How Scientists Are Searching for Life in the Universe’.
Our Leadership Team
Dr. Justin Robinson is a lecturer of physics and astronomy at Georgia State University. His research interests include extragalactic distance measurements, supermassive black hole mass measurements, and relationships between active galaxies and supermassive black holes. He co-founded the GOT Space initiative as a GSU graduate student back in 2018, and has been involved ever since!
Julia Falcone is a fifth-year Ph.D. Candidate in the Astronomy program at GSU. Her research focuses on processes related to supermassive black holes in the centers of other galaxies. She has been a part of the GOT Space team since 2021 and loves doing classroom visits!
Fallon Konow is a 5th year graduate student in a dual program between Georgia State University and the University of Rome Sapienza. She works on solar instrumentation and spends her days building a new network of telescopes to study solar flares. Fallon is extremely passionate about outreach and DEI efforts, and as such has been one of the graduate leads at GOT Space for the past 3 years.
Dr. Jay Dunn is a professor of astrophysics and the associate chair of the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the Georgia State University Perimeter College.
Dr. Alexandra Yep is a visiting assistant professor of astronomy and physics and director of the Bradley Observatory at Agnes Scott College. She researches young stars and star clusters. She loves calibrating telescopes, leading K-12 tours of the observatory, and giving planetarium shows!
Dr. Hodari-Sadiki Hubbard-James is an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Agnes Scott College. He studies stellar activity and habitability, and teaches courses in physics, astronomy, and computer science. Outside of work, he’s usually wrangling code, telescopes, or his two young kids.