The office of the Director of the Hayden Planetarium is also a close collaborator with the Departments of Development, Government Affairs, Department of Communications, VIP Services, Volunteers, and the President's Office. Among our many activities, we meet and greet visitors important to the funding, politics, and overall mission of the American Museum of Natural History.

Beyond these formal efforts lies a wide variety of public service activities that include but are not limited to:

• fielding inquiries from the public at a rate that often exceeds a hundred per week
• serving the public interest in the universe through media appearances, invited lectures, and press interviews arranged by the Department of Communications
• serving the publishing and entertainment industry as expert consultants on plot-lines, trade manuscripts, children's books, screenplays, public art works, etc

The Office of the Director also runs a series of public programs that include:

Lectures

Maintain monthly lectures, attracting colleagues on the frontier of astrophysics research and distinguished authors in astronomy.

Two monthly programs

The Hayden Planetarium's answer to the public demand for a live sky-talk takes place on the first and last Tuesday of each month in the Space Theater. On the first Tuesday you will leave Earth behind in our program Virtual Universe. Using the Hayden's Digital Universe, we will take you on a tour though the Solar System, the Milky Way galaxy, and the cosmic web of the Universe. On the last Tuesday of each month, spend an evening among the stars and tour the heavens from Earth in Celestial Highlights. An hour of discovery awaits you under the brilliant night sky of the Zeiss Mark IX Star Projector. We'll show you where to look for the Moon, planets, and stars. And, of course, you'll get a 'sneak-preview' of any interesting sky phenomena in the coming month, such as meteor showers, eclipses, and conjunctions.

Special Events

High-profile events that bring to the Museum leading experts on the frontier of science to discuss or debate important issues concerning the astrophysical sciences in society. Most notably, the annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Panel Debate brings the finest minds in the world to the Museum each Spring to debate pressing questions on the frontier of scientific discovery.