The general public is invited to join the CfA in celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which includes our Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) instrument, on Thursday, April 26, at 7:30 pm, in the Perkin Lobby of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA.

Since the start of science operations in 1996, SOHO has been making nearly continuous observations of our nearest star, the Sun, to describe it from the core to throughout the corona and its mood swings.

SOHO image of the Sun, which unleashed one of its largest flares in 25 years on April 2, 2001.

The main program of the evening, "Exploring The Solar Winds," will feature UVCS/SOHO Principal Investigator Dr. John Kohl, who will present highlights of the SOHO mission and explain how the Sun affects our daily lives. A panel of SOHO scientists will also answer questions about the Sun and the Sun-Earth connection.

Members of the UVCS/SOHO Science Team will answer questions about the various displays featuring spectacular images of the Sun with highlight movies from the SOHO mission. The displays will include "live" images of the Sun from SOHO, which operates 24 hours a day. If you've ever wondered what a real spacecraft instrument looks like up close, a full-size model of SAO's Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS), the largest of the twelve SOHO instruments, will also be on display. The event will include free refreshments, free educational kits containing CDs, stickers, posters, brochures, and coloring books as well as samples of spacecraft materials.

This event, part of a world-wide celebration being held in Europe, Canada, and the United States, will include presentations at the Museum of Science (Boston) at 11:30 a.m. on April 27, and at 2:30 p.m. on April 28, in association with Astronomy Day, and at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord, NH, at 2:00 p.m., on April 27, and at several other educational institutions.

Additional information about UVCS and these events are available at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/uvcs/.

For more information contact:

David Aguilar, Director of Public Affairs at (617) 495-7462 or daguilar@cfa.harvard.edu