100 Hours of Astronomy is now over but all observatory video clips from "80 Telescopes Around the World" are available here. See our web site for more information about all of the 100 Hours of Astronomy events: www.100hoursofastronomy.org/

"100 Hours of Astronomy" was a global four-day astronomical event that gave people around the world the chance to discover the universe for themselves. It ran from 2 April to 5 April and was part of the "International Year of Astronomy 2009". There were free public activities happening all around the world (see our website), as well as right here on Ustream!

On April 2 we streamed the opening event featuring Galileo's original telescope, followed by live discussion with astronomers from science centers around the world.

On April 3-4 we went "Around the World in 80 Telescopes". An unprecedented live 24-hour webcast took us around the globe to the greatest telescopes on and off the planet.

More details are below. Find out what happened around the world during 100 Hours of Astronomy at http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org/

Opening Event Featuring Galileo's Telescope
MEET THE TELESCOPE THAT STARTED IT ALL!
Philadelphia’s The Franklin Institute kicked off 100 Hours of Astronomy on 2 April with a LIVE international interactive web streaming event. The Franklin’s Galileo exhibit features one of only two remaining telescopes that Galileo trained on the night skies 400 years ago.

The program featured:
* Exclusive commentary from the exhibitors behind the Galileo exhibit, including one of the world’s foremost Galileo experts, Dr. Paolo Galluzzi, Director of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy where the Galileo telescope and other artifacts are ordinarily on display
* Walking tour of the Galileo exhibit
* Telescope-maker Celestron with a telescope demonstration
* Public observatory event

Space Observation: Past, Present and Future
Organised by the Association of Science-Technology Centre, Washington, DC, USA, the webcast featured science centres from around the world discussing the importance of space observation throughout history.

Topics:
* Prof. Paolo Galluzzi, Director of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy, described Galileo's importance and what recent research tells us about the instrument he used.
* From Hamburg, Germany we learned why observatories and telescopes were so important to the economic evolution of our modern society.
* From Greece, participants presented the COSMOS project, a unique resource for astronomy education.
* Armagh Planetarium in Ireland examined the mechanisms of meteorite impacts and catastrophic Earth impacts from space debris.
* Hamburg Planetarium demonstrated the power and beauty of a "3D-virtual telescope", allowing us to fly through space and time from our Milky Way Galaxy to the early Universe.

Around the World in 80 Telescopes
"Around the World in 80 Telescopes" was a unique live 24-hour webcast, following night and day around the globe to some of the most advanced observatories both on and off the planet.

Find out what's happening at a research observatory in your country, or on the other side of the planet, and discover what astronomers are doing right now! Who is observing? What are they researching? What do they hope to discover?

You'll see a snapshot of life at many different observatories where astronomers will present exclusive images and talk about their work. Some will be observing distant galaxies, searching for extrasolar planets around other stars or studying our own Solar System. Some will be studying the Universe in visible light, others in radio waves or other wavelengths. Some may be working at solar observatories or with telescopes out in space. All of them will have a different story to tell.

The program began with the telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, including the world's largest, before moving westward around the planet.