Why wait until June for summer exhibitions at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and Ty Warner Sea Center? Mark your calendars for these activities.

Museum members can enjoy unlimited free visits to exhibits all summer long.

National Astronomy Day
10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday

Celebrate National Astronomy Day and discover the wonders of the cosmos all day and night. All activities are included with museum admission except planetarium shows. Daytime activities include:

» 10 a.m. to 4 p.m: Mirror grinding, solar viewing, UCSB Physics Circus, children’s art display, edible rovers and astronomy yard sale

» 11 a.m.: Comet demonstration

» Noon: Free raffle for prizes, including a telescope

» 12:15 p.m: Rocket launch

» 1 p.m.: Lecture “Out of This World Robots” by a NASA scientist

» 3 p.m.: Free raffle for prizes, including the “big” telescope

Nighttime activities include:

» 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.: After dark join the Star Party at the Palmer Observatory. The event is hosted by members of the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit, which provide telescopes and their expert knowledge of the night sky. Admission is free.

“Running the Numbers: An American Self Portrait” by Chris Jordan
Opens May 15 at the museum

“Running the Numbers” turns statistics into artistic statements on economics, culture and the American way of life. For example, in the United States:

» 60,000 plastic bags are used every five seconds.

» 106,000 aluminum cans are used every 30 seconds.

» 2 million plastic bottles are used every five minutes.

Butterflies Alive!
Opens May 22 at the museum

Experience the magic of Butterflies Alive! while walking through a beautiful garden of flowers, greenery and more than 1,000 free-flying butterflies. Watch the butterflies up close as they drink nectar from flowers.

Wyland Clean Water Maze
Opens May 29 at the Sea Center

The Wyland Clean Water Maze is a realistic role-play maze that combines the worlds of art and science to demonstrate the importance of water and how it connects everyone.

Enter the maze as a raindrop, plunge into the water cycle and try to make a clean run to the ocean. Pass through watersheds and human impact points, and meet friends along the journey. Through exploration, scientific inquiry, artistic expression and action, visitors will experience the water cycle, understand the science behind water purity and realize the power each individual has to make a difference.

Seri Indian Artisans
11 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 9

Indigenous women artisans from Sonora, Mexico, join in once again to share their traditional songs, dance, arts and culture.

The Seri use native materials gathered in the Sonoran Desert and Sea of Cortez to make coiled baskets, ironwood carvings and shell and fishbone necklaces. Free with museum admission.

Taking the Universe’s Baby Picture with Dr. David Spergel
7:30 p.m. May 14

Observations of the microwave background, the leftover heat from the Big Bang, are snapshots of the universe only 300,000 years after the Big Bang. These observations have answered many of the questions that have driven cosmology for the past few decades: How old is the universe? What is its size and shape? What is the composition of the Universe? How do galaxies emerge?

Spergel will focus on results from NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and from other recent cosmological experiments and show how they have addressed these questions.

Santa Barbara Youth Symphony Concert premiering “Constellations”
Noon on May 17

As part of the celebration for the International Year of Astronomy, the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony, directed by Andy Radford, will perform “Constellations” by Jonathan Peters as well as other ad-hoc pieces. Admission to the concert and the museum are free.

Members-Only After-Hours
5 p.m. to 7 p.m. May 19

Bring a picnic dinner, see Running the Numbers in Luria Hall, and spend an evening along Mission Creek.

Annual Members’ Party
5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. May 29