Astronomy Lecture: Living with the Stars on the Day of the Dead (SF’s Randall Museum)

Join the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers for this free event. We are thrilled to welcome Dr Isabel Hawkins, Emeritus Exploratorium. As always, come a few minutes early for the best snacks!

Equinoxes and solstices are familiar astronomical markers of the seasons, but the cross-quarter days—the halfway points between them—are less commonly considered in popular culture. At the latitude of some of the oldest Maya cities in Mesoamerica, the cross-quarter day between the September equinox and December solstice coincides with the season of corn harvest and the traditions of Day of the Dead. These traditions reflect a rich intersection of Indigenous astronomy, agricultural cycles, and the enduring practice of honoring and welcoming the ancestors. Solar events, including the zenith and nadir passages of the Sun, as well as the November meridional culmination of the Pleiades, have important cultural and astronomical connections to this season.

A Day of the Dead altar or “ofrenda” will invite audience interaction—we ask interested participants to please bring a personally meaningful belonging, or portrait of a dearly departed, to place on the altar for the duration of the evening and take it home afterward, creating a temporary shared space for remembrance and connection.

Isabel Hawkins, Ph.D., is an astronomer and Emerita at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, whose work bridges science, culture, and public engagement. Born and raised in Córdoba, Argentina, she earned her doctorate in astrophysics from UCLA and spent 20 years conducting research on NASA satellite missions at UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory before turning her attention to science education and cultural astronomy. At the Exploratorium and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, she has developed collaborations with Indigenous knowledge holders and scholars, with a focus on Maya astronomy and the cultural significance of the Sun and stars. As a Fulbright U.S. Global Scholar, she conducted research on cross-cultural connections of the Pleiades star cluster through two-month residencies in New Zealand, Guatemala, and Peru. Her work explores how astronomical knowledge is embedded in cultural traditions and sustained relationship to place, offering audiences new ways to understand connections between sky, land, community, and belonging.

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