North, Central America, and the Caribbean

Costa Rican Astronomy Association (Asociacion Costarricense de Astronomia, in Spanish), is a NGO founded in 1987 dedicated to educate the general public how to use telescopes, their characteristics, how to find celestial bodies in the sky and also how to take pictures of such bodies. It also informs the general public of upcoming eclipses, comet showers, etc. On its website, people who are interested in any of these topics are able to find the necessary resources to explore the stars through their forums and other links readily available. ACODEA also hosts different events such as “Telesc

The Costa Rica’s University (UCR, in Spanish) Planetarium was created in 2004 and opened its doors to the public in middle 2005 and by then it was the only of its kind in Central America.

Its main activities include various shows using its dome; it also hosts short-term lessons and workshops on astronomy, Sun clocks and telescopes and conferences. It also works as an “astronomy outreach center” for students and the general public; making easier their contact with space themes they usually are not familiar with.