Create Stunning Blue Images with Cyanotype
Experience the magic of light in this family workshop.
How can light create images in captivating shades of blue? You and your family can find out when the Round Tower, in connection with the photo exhibition Ad Lucem, invites children and adults to a creative workshop.
Together with artist Cecilia Ömalm and astronomy professor Göran Östlin—the creators of the exhibition—you’ll have the chance to make your own light prints using cyanotype, a historical photographic technique invented by astronomer John Herschel. The technique traditionally uses iron salts mixed into UV-sensitive solutions which, together with sunlight, form images in characteristic deep-blue tones.
In this workshop, we work with UV light and small glass negatives featuring space-themed motifs, which we will transform into beautiful cyanotypes.
Join us for a creative family workshop that brings together art, science, and curiosity—where you’ll learn the technique and take home your own blue masterpieces! With the same ticket, you can also explore the exhibition and the rest of the Round Tower.
Lantern Walk for Children
Join us for a special evening for families with children in the Round Tower, where we brighten the darkness and create artistic lanterns.
Have you ever experienced the Spiral Ramp in the dark? Find your way to the open workshop in the Library Hall, where you can craft your own imaginative lantern to help you find your way further up through the tower.
Afterwards, you can go exploring with your glowing lantern — and with your parents — in hand, all the way to the top of the old tower.
Please note: This event is for families with children only and is part of the programme for LIGHTYEAR 2026 at the Round Tower — a full year in which we celebrate light and the 350th anniversary of Ole Rømer’s groundbreaking discovery of the speed of light.
Workshop: Paint with Light
Join us as we play with light and long exposure times to create beautiful images together with astrophysicist and head of the Round Tower’s observatory, Christina Toldbo.
What is light? And how did the Danish astronomer Ole Rømer discover 350 years ago that light has a speed? Get the answers when the Round Tower’s observatory director, Christina Toldbo, tells more about astronomer Ole Rømer and his major discovery, which remains important to us today.
When we capture light from the Universe with our bare eyes, there’s a limit to how long we can keep them open. Luckily, we have cameras that can collect light for much longer! This is why astrophotographers can take stunning photos of faintly glowing nebulae and galaxies.
In this workshop, we’ll also use cameras to collect light and create light art with long exposure times and different light sources — including flashlights and Christmas lights! You’ll even get to print your own light-art photo and take it home with you.
Workshops will be held on both February 9 and 10 from 11:00 to 13:00.
Participation is free once admission to the Round Tower has been paid.
Family Workshop: A Shadow of the Universe
During autumn break, children and their parents can join a creative shadow-cutting workshop and contribute to a larger collage of cosmic stories.
Anything is possible when Tomas Lagermand Lundme, author and visual artist, create shadow cuttings and shadow motifs in different forms of cut-outs together with the workshop participants.
The various cut-outs of shadows and shadow stories are continuously assembled throughout the event into a larger collage of cosmic tales about the shadows we each carry, whether they are short or long, or both.
It is sure to be a moving, humorous, and whimsical afternoon.
The workshop is open to everyone, and you are free to come and go as you like, participating for as long as you wish. No prior experience is required – only the desire to play along.
Astro Night for Families
Join us for an evening of astronomy for kids as we open the Observatory specially for families this autumn break.
It’s cold at the top, so grab your warm sweater as we invite families to visit the Observatory and point the telescope lens towards Saturn or the Moon if weather permits.
The Observatory can only hold a number of guests at a time, so explore the Spiral Ramp too where our observators will unfold tales of astronomy and the heavenly bodies at eye-level with kids.
Stop at the Library Hall to buy a cup of hot cocoa on your way up or down the tower.
Please Note: Star and planet gazing is not possible if the sky is overcast.
The Round Tower cannot guarantee visible heavenly bodies if the weather does not permit. If it is cloudy or overcast, our astronomers will still keep the Observatory open for visits and will in stead tell stories about the telescope, the night sky and the old Observatory.
Tickets include entry fee but must be pre-booked.
Culture Night
Visit us after hours on this special evening, as the Round Tower shines a light on hidden stories in art, music and astronomy.
The evening’s program is inspired by the current exhibition “The Shadow Archive” which conveys stories of the forgotten, the unforeseen, and the shadowless. Exhibitors Al Masson and Tomas Lagermand Lundme will perform a piece based on their works in the exhibition, each dealing in their own way with archiving and remembering – for better or for worse. Masson focuses on the media, on what has been told and thereby remembered, while Lundme’s performance is an audience-engaging long poem in Danish about the Round Tower in the heart of the city, where people have met, and still can meet, the stars at eye level.
In the Spiral Ramp, visitors can learn about women in astronomy whose names have been forgotten or overlooked, but whose discoveries and inventions have had a great impact on astronomy today. The tower’s skilled observers will also walk the ramp, meet young and old guests at eye level and unfold stories of the mysteries that the Universe holds.
For the very first time, astronomy will also move outside the tower. Waiting guests will be able to experience street astronomy and ask questions to the tower’s observers. Be aware, that if it is cloudy or raining, there will not be any street astronomy.
At the top of the tower, visitors can, as always, look for constellations and planets through the old telescope if weather permits.
At 11 PM, a concert will take place in the Library Hall, as clarinetist Jonas Frølund and the Nightingale String Quartet perform a composition by Bent Sørensen. The Nightingale String Quartet consists of Gunvor Sihm and Josefine Dalsgaard, violins, Marie Louise Broholt Jensen, viola, and Louisa Schwab, cello. The group has won the award P2 Artist of the Year in 2025.
Program
18:00–23:00
The exhibition “The Shadow Archive” is open to guests in The Library Hall
18:00–00:00
The Observatory is manned and open to guests – please note that in case of rain or clouds, the sky is overcast and planets or stars won’t be visible through the telescope. In case of bad weather, the Observatory will remain open to guests and our observers will still always be able to provide guidance and stories of the heavenly bodies, the telescope or the old observatory.
18:00–00:00
Stories of women in astronomy in the Spiral Ramp
19:00 & 20:00
Performance with Al Masson and Tomas Lagermand Lundme (in Danish), duration: approx. 25 minutes
23:00–23:40
Concert with Jonas Frølund and the Nightingale String Quartet in the Library Hall
Summer Holidays with the Round Tower’s Animals
The dog, the snail, the horse and all the others. During the Summer holidays, the Round Tower is full of animals connected with the tower’s history. But the animals are hiding in the Spiral Ramp, so you have to keep your eyes open.
The history of the Round Tower is also the history of its animals. There is the dog with eyes as big as the Round Tower from a fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen. There is the horse that carried the Russian tsar to the top of the tower and the spider that moved into the telescope of the stargazers in the Observatory and many others.
During the Summer holidays, you can go searching for the animals on the window panes in the Spiral Ramp and get to know much more about them and the history of the Round Tower as you fill your animal map with stickers.
If it is a long way to the top for short legs, the animals will help to shorten the ascent. Learn more about the Round Tower in a different way – it is free when the entrance to the Round Tower is paid.
Read more about the Round Tower’s animals
Drop in-workshop for children: Make your own Runestone
Unleash your imagination and create your own runestone.
In connection with the exhibition The Lost Runestones, children and their adults are invited to drop by The Round Tower and create their own miniature runestones out of clay. Get inspired by the exhibition’s unique interpretations of the runestones lost in the Copenhagen fire – or come up with your very own version of a runestone.
You can learn to spell your name in runes – or even invent a brand new symbol. We’ll be working with self-hardening clay, so once your runestone is finished, it’s ready to take home with you.
The Round Tower provides all the materials, so just stop by during your visit. The workshop is free and runs as a drop-in event between 12 PM and 4 PM.
Please note that the workshop will be held on several dates throughout the summer.
Drop in-workshop for children: Make your own Runestone
Unleash your imagination and create your own runestone.
In connection with the exhibition The Lost Runestones, children and their adults are invited to drop by The Round Tower and create their own miniature runestones out of clay. Get inspired by the exhibition’s unique interpretations of the runestones lost in the Copenhagen fire – or come up with your very own version of a runestone.
You can learn to spell your name in runes – or even invent a brand new symbol. We’ll be working with self-hardening clay, so once your runestone is finished, it’s ready to take home with you.
The Round Tower provides all the materials, so just stop by during your visit. The workshop is free and runs as a drop-in event between 12 PM and 4 PM.
On this Sunday, you can also enjoy sun gazing from the top of the tower. Our observatory staff will make it possible to safely view the sun with a telescope fitted with a special lens.
Please note that the workshop and sun gazing will be held on several dates throughout the summer.
Drop in-workshop for children: Make your own Runestone
Unleash your imagination and create your own runestone.
In connection with the exhibition The Lost Runestones, children and their adults are invited to drop by The Round Tower and create their own miniature runestones out of clay. Get inspired by the exhibition’s unique interpretations of the runestones lost in the Copenhagen fire – or come up with your very own version of a runestone.
You can learn to spell your name in runes – or even invent a brand new symbol. We’ll be working with self-hardening clay, so once your runestone is finished, it’s ready to take home with you.
The Round Tower provides all the materials, so just stop by during your visit. The workshop is free and runs as a drop-in event between 12 PM and 4 PM.
Please note that the workshop will be held on several dates throughout the summer.