Fun Facts
1 According to Korean folklore, the shadows of the moon outline a rabbit pounding away on a mortar to make rice cakes.
2 King Sejong was also a leading astronomer who created a system to predict solar and lunar eclipses.
While stargazing may seem something of an outdated concept in this busy cosmos, there’s something to cosmologist Stephen Hawking’s words: “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.” With Earth Hour (a worldwide movement to turn off the lights for one hour as a promise to help better the planet) taking place at 8:30pm on March 19th and a penumbral lunar eclipse happening on March 23rd, it seems fitting that stargazing top our list of things to do. In the heart of Seoul, where fog and pollution can often clog up the skies, it may seem like a difficult feat to accomplish. However, at these observatories you can attend programs to learn about the sky, stargaze for hours and even meet experts in astronomy. While programs are solely in Korean, you can grab a friend, make a reservation online and take in as much of the universe as you can.
