Past Events from 2022

For photos of all past events, see our Flickr Page. For lecture recordings, see our YouTube Page.

To learn more about each event this year (including abstracts, titles, etc.), click on the event links below.

Friday, January 14, 7-9PM

Lecture and Stargazing - How to Rip Apart a Star
Lecturer: Samantha Wu
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2): Nitika Yadlapalli, Ryan Rubenzahl
Attendees: 70
Solid presentation on some complicated topics. Good discussion in Q&A.
Streamed to YouTube, Facebook, and now Twitter. It's hard to track the twitter viewership,
but I still think it's worth doing.

Monday, January 24, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap Online
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Amy Mainzer, Dmitry Duev
Attendees: 100
Great presentations and lively interaction throughout.
Changed up the format based on speaker feedback, and added comments/questions throughout
the presentations from the host and other speaker to make it more conversational.
This seemed to work pretty well, more analogous to a podcast interview but with slides.
We may include this format again in the future.

Friday, February 4, 7-9PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Mapping the Universe with Atoms and Molecules that Shine
Lecturer: Guochao (Jason) Sun
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2): Sarah Blunt, Gina Panopoulou
Attendees: 60
We tried a new way of handling audience questions, by using mentimeter to have the audience
submit questions. This also allows them to upvote the ones they think are the most interesting.
There seemed to be pretty positive feedback on this method, particularly during the Q&A, but
there was some concern that during the lecture it was too much switching between pages.

Friday, February 18, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap Online, Mandarin
MC: Yuguang Chen, Xinnan Du
Speakers (2): Miao Li, Linhao Ma
Attendees: 7000
We switched to doing this event on Friday night (Saturday morning in China), and it seemed to get
the same number of attendees as past events. It sounded like the event went better than any
of the previous Mandarin AoTs, so I think the format is getting smoother.

Friday+Saturday+Sunday, February 25-27, 2022

Death Valley Dark Sky Festival
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Dillon Dong, Kathryn Plant, Nitika Yadlapalli, Emily Silich, Dee Dunne, Tina Seager, Ryan Rubenzahl, Mia de los Reyes, Janosz Dewberry, Sofia Gallego
Attendees: 3400
A lot of planning went into this, but it was overall a success. Our contribution was organizing and staffing
a 3-hour star party on Saturday night (with 6 telescopes) alongside a few DVNP rangers and scopes.
We also did science demos from 10AM-4PM on Saturday and Sunday including "Build a Comet" using
dry ice and other ingredients, "Marshmallow Ignition" using a concave parabolic mirror, and solar observing
with an H-alpha narrowband telescope. In addition, Cameron gave two talks on galaxy evolution in the
auditorium. Positive feedback overall on all fronts.

Monday, February 28, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap Online
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Ron Tso, Ylva Götberg
Attendees: 60
Some good presentations and discussion during the trivia!

Friday, March 4, 7-9PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Massive Binary Stars in Technicolor
Lecturer: Margaret Lazzarini
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2): Kyle Kremer, Ilaria Caiazzo
Attendees: 60
Solid presentation and one of the best Q&A panels we've had thus far.
Really lively and well-balanced discussion amongst the four of us. Fun!
Only 60 live viewers but 700 views in two days.

Monday, March 7, 7:30-9:30PM

Stargazing for State Street and Caltech @ The Langham
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Stephanie Deppe, Nik Prusinski, Jason Wang, Michael Zhang
Attendees: 50
Moderate cloudy conditions throughout the session meant that we had to be
choosy about our targets. We had two eVscopes (Cameron and Jason) and
one 10" Dob. The Dob primarily looked at the Moon and the two eVscopes
cycles between visible objects including Bode's Galaxy and Candy Wrapper Nebula.
The garden terrace in the back of The Langham has a pretty good view of the sky
but portions of the Northern Horizon were blocked. It was sort of a pain getting
to the back patio, but we ended up using the entrance via the security gate
whose code is #20. The attendees were all finance people visiting for some
Caltech event. Definitely different from our normal crowds.

Wednesday, March 9, 7:30-9:30PM

Stargazing for State Street and Caltech @ The Langham
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Stephanie Deppe, Nik Prusinski, Dee Dunne
Attendees: 40
Event started out very cloudy, but things partially cleared after 15 minutes.
We had pretty good views for about an hour and then it got socked in again.
Despite the clouds, we were able to discuss how telescopes work, how stars
age and die, and aspects of our individual research projects (galaxy evolution,
astrophysical transients, etc.) with the attendees. Went pretty well overall.

Monday, March 14, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap Online
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Amy Hoffman, Max Goldberg
Attendees: 60
Great presentations and conversational responses during the pub trivia.
Thanks, team!

Friday, April 8, 7-9PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Black Holes and Gravitational Waves: Was Einstein Right?
Lecturer: Saul Teukolsky
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2):
Attendees: 150
One of the best talks we have had. Great talk by Saul and good Q&A afterwards.
Really high viewership on this one. Lots of interest in GR, GWs, and Einstein.

Monday, April 25, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap Online
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Ethan Siegel, Sam Ponnada
Attendees: 90

Wednesday, April 27, 7:00-9:00PM

Cosmos in Concert @ The Colburn School
Organizer: Kyle Kremer
Attendees: 200

Friday, May 13, 7-9PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Neutron Stars: Where Extreme Gravity Meets Extreme Matter
Lecturer: Katerina Chatziioannou
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (4): Dillon Dong, Isabel Sands, Gina Panopoulou, Stephanie Deppe
Telescope Captain: Andreas Faisst
Telescope Volunteers (4+): Max Goldberg, Nikolaus Prusinski, Anirudh Tammewar, Marziye Jafariyazani
Attendees: 40 online + 20 in person = 60
So much to say about this one. This one really took it out of me and made me not want to do these anymore.
Katerina really wanted to do this one in-person, and I finally got clearance from Fiona to host these events
on campus if we checked vaccine status at the door and made everyone wear masks. So we did it.
But it wasn't very successful and was plagued with problems. First of all, Joe Jordan, the assistant director
of the athletics department arbitrarily changed their policy and now kick us off the athletic fields at 9:30PM,
despite us being allowed to stay until 10PM for the last 6 years. He did not give a justification for this change.
This is particularly problematic when the sun sets at 7:45 and when we don't even start to observe until 8:45.
Despite advertising this event as much as any other, we only had about 20 people attend in-person, and only
40 live viewers at the peak, which is a bummer since we had about 10 volunteers for the event.
Despite some A/V testing beforehand, the sound being broadcast to YouTube was a bit echoey,
since it was just a webcam microphone that was picking up the ambient microphone connected to the
sound system. People were really complaining online about the admittedly non-ideal sound setup,
with some pretty nasty comments actually. Very frustrating. That said, we did get ~2500 views within the first
24h on YouTube, which is a record for us, I think. It just remains challenging to broadcast in a hybrid fashion,
where it is difficult to prioritize both the in-person and virtual experience simultaneously. A USB Mixer was
suggested for being able to dual broadcast sound to multiple outputs.

Monday, May 23, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap Online
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Mike Wong, Cameron Hummels
Attendees: 100
Pretty big turnout for a popular topic. Perhaps do more like this in the future.

Friday, June 3, 7-9PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Planetquake: what vibrations can tell us about the interiors of gas giant planets
Lecturer: Janosz Dewberry
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (4): Mia de los Reyes, Nicholas Rui
Telescope Captain: Andreas Faisst
Telescope Volunteers (4+): Michael Zhang, Reinier Janssen
Attendees: 70
50 online + 20 in person = 70. This event went better than last month's. We had about the same number of in-person attendees,
but they were more engaged and stuck around for more of the panel q&a. I also was able to get a
USB Mixer purchased and integrated into the Hameetman sound system with the help of Becca Rose
at Academic Media Technologies and Michael Zhang. The sound on the live-stream is much better than
last month, so that's a success. I think we'll build from here through consistency.

Saturday, June 11

City of Astronomy: AstroFest
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Andreas Faisst, Adolfo Carvalho, Kaustav Das, Michael Zhang, Dee Dunne, Viraj Karambelkar
Attendees: 400
This went pretty well overall! We were one of about 10 Pasadena institutions hosting booths to promote
science to the community in the space in front of the Pasadena Convention Hall. We had two tables,
one with our "build a comet" demo, and the other with the "marshmallow ignition" demo. We also had a
couple of solar telescopes set up: 6" dob with sun funnel, and coronado solar H-alpha telescope.
Everyone was really engaged and excited to participate. Lots of foot traffic at our booth.

Monday, June 13, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Frank Summers, Katie Bouman
Volunteer (2+): Andy Boyle, Andreas Faisst, Ilaria Caiazzo, Nicholas Rui, Rebecca Larson
Attendees: 175
Our first in-person Astro on Tap event in two years and it was a success. I bought a bunch of new
equipment for this to ensure all the technological stuff worked OK, including some HDMI cables,
an HDMI splitter, a portable PA system with wireless microphone, but it all turned out OK. We hosted
at the Dog Haus Biergarten, to ensure it was outside and had minimal issues with covid. This event
was part of our City of Astronomy activities, which also coincided with the AAS meeting 240 that was
in town. Additionally, I brought my eVscope2 to operate and provide views of the heavens, and it
actually worked really well with good views of the Whirlpool Galaxy and the M3 globular cluster.
Many of the attendees were astronomers from the AAS meeting, but we still got a good crew of
members of the public.

Wednesday, June 15, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Jessie Christiansen, Emily Rice
Volunteer (2+): Jason Wang, Dee Dunne, Tony Rodriguez, Rebecca Larson
Attendees: 190
Similar to Monday's event, but this one went a little bit smoother. We also had live music, thanks to
Jason Achilles and his drummer, Forrest. Not as long of a line for food/drinks as on Monday, thanks
to the bar increasing staffing. The outdoor space is pretty nice and great for these sorts of events.
For next time, we should get a Caltech Astro table cloth and portable folding table for our merch
in the back. We should also print out posters and put them up in the bar and around campus.
We should request free drinks for the volunteers, since Cameron paid for the volunteers out of
pocket, and the bar made a lot of money on these events.

Saturday, June 17, 11:00AM-12:30PM

Recording of BBC's Infinite Monkey Cage Podcast
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Attendees: 100
We were contacted by BBC 4 to help them record a famous podcast on the topic of exoplanets
featuring Professor Brian Cox, Sean Carroll, Jessie Christiansen, Tiffany Kataria, and comedians
Robin Ince and Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame). The recording took place in Hameetman Auditorium
and we hosted a live audience of about 100 attendees to watch the 90-minute live recording.
The panel discussed exoplanets and the science surrounding them, and overall it went very well.
The recording is expected to go on the air in November, 2022.

Wednesday, June 22, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Mountain Rambler
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Katherine de Kleer, Vikram Ravi
Volunteer (3+):
Attendees: 125
Great event back in person in Bishop! Lots of enthusiastic turnout at a small-town bar.
People were super into the presentations and the Q&A and the pub trivia.
We will definitely continue this series.

Friday, July 8, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap Online, Mandarin
MC: Yuguang Chen, Xinnan Du
Speakers (2): Dongzi Li, Guochao Sun
Attendees: 190
Original and interesting presentations. Strong, charismatic hosting.

Monday, July 11, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Joseph Lazio, Ashley Baker
Volunteer (3+): Andy Boyle, Mia de los Reyes, Janosz Dewberry, Emily Silich
Attendees: 180
Great event! I was concerned that we'd lose a lot of attendees what with the AAS not being in town this time,
but we still had a great turnout. Both talks were good and the live music by Jason Achilles is a really nice addition.
I didn't get the merch sales going today because I couldn't find the iPad for online sales and was running late.
We also had the eVscope2 set up again, which a lot of people liked.

Monday, July 11 - Friday, July 15

Planet Finder Academy
Andrew Howard's Keck Planet Finder Academy for local high school students 9-5PM every day this week.
Volunteers: Cameron Hummels, Andy Boyle, Kaustav Das, Dee Dunne, Max Goldberg, Alessandro Signorini
Attendees: 30

Friday, July 15, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - The Dynamic Lives of Black Holes, Neutron Stars, and White Dwarfs in Globular Clusters
Lecturer: Kyle Kremer
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (3): Kaustav Das, Dee Dunne, Yuhan Yao
Telescope Captain: Max Goldberg
Telescope Volunteers (4): Nik Prusinski, Ivey Davis, Emily Silich
Attendees: 130
Marked improvement in attendance and a great event overall. 50 online attendees, and 80 in person!
The Planet Finder Academy program that Andrew Howard is leading with high school students from Pasadena
mostly attended this event with their families, but it seems like we're gaining traction in locals realizing we're
having events in person again. Lively discussion and one of the best lectures we've had.
Sound system was down, so I had to use the speakers I recently purchased for outreach, but they did well,
and worked with the USB mixer for sending the sound directly to the Zoom broadcast.

Friday, August 5, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - What is the James Webb Space Telescope?
Lecturer: Tony Rodriguez
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (3): Reinier Janssen, Niyati Dasai
Telescope Captain: Michael Zhang
Telescope Volunteers (4): Albert Wandui, Emily Silich, Andy Boyle
Attendees: 135
Marked improvement in attendance and a great event overall. 50 online attendees, and 85 in person!
Lots of interest from people in the James Webb Space Telescope. Good talk by Tony, and lots of active
Q&A after.

Monday, August 15, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Apurva Oza, Jennifer Burt
Volunteer (2+): Sam Ponnada, Dee Dunne, Emily Silich
Attendees: 170
Some technical difficulties with getting the AV setup to connect to the HDMI cable.
Need to use a different USB-C dongle. Also, I forgot the stands that support the PA system
so it wasn't as loud as it should have been because it was on that crummy table.
Request from Arjun to use a different table that isn't all wonky. Also request that he put out
a sign on the nearest table to keep it clear of people starting at 7PM.
Despite the difficulties, the event went pretty well and there was a good turnout.
Quiz was too hard though.

Monday, August 22, 5:00-7:00PM

Astronomy on Tap Online, Spanish
MC: Tony Rodriguez, Sofia Gallego
Speakers (2): Sara Coutiño de León, Rodrigo Leiva
Attendees: 40
Event was an improvement over previous spanish events with more engagement.
Tony and Sofia did a great job hosting, and our speakers had solid presentations.
Maybe we're starting to build some momentum!

Friday, September 23-24

Sequoia NP Dark Sky Festival
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Sam Wu, Nils Deppe, Stephanie Deppe, Max Goldberg
Attendees: 250
Great talks by Sam, Nils, and Cameron with attendance of ~40 at each (the capacity of the room!).
Then a wonderful Q&A consisting of all 5 of us just prior to the keynote of the program, with
130 participants. Very positive feedback from our audience and from the organizers, Katie Wightman,
and Daniel Huecker, Sequoia Conservancy. Looking forward to doing this again next year!

Monday, September 26, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Ivey Davis, Max Goldberg
Volunteer (3+): Andy Boyle, Adolfo Carvalho
Attendees: 90
Event went well with no real hiccups. The A/V setup went OK, the telescope operated well,
and people got to see Jupiter at opposition. Both speakers did a great job. Surprisingly,
we only had about half our usual turnout, but I'm not sure why. Also, one of the bartenders
kept trying to prevent us from getting our standard of a few free drinks for our speakers and
volunteers. I'll have to follow up with the owner about this, as we get very little in terms of
compensation for bringing a large number of people to their bar on an off night. But other than
that, it was successful!

Friday, September 30, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - The Mystery of Cosmic Rays
Lecturer: Kathryn Plant
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (3): Dillon Dong, Qicheng Zhang
Telescope Captain: Andreas Faisst
Telescope Volunteers (4): Kyle Kremer, Adolfo Carvalho, Kaustav Das
Attendees: 140
60 online attendees and 80 in person. We're slowly rebuilding our in-person attendance at these
events again. Kathryn gave a great talk and we built a cloud chamber for viewing cosmic rays and
other invisible radiation, which was super cool. We put it in the lobby so people could look at it
before/after the presentation. We had a few hiccups with volunteers bailing at the last minute, so
we were a bit shorthanded with the telescopes, but we still had views of the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Monday, October 17, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Abigail Polin, Spiros Michalakis
Volunteer (3+): Emily Silich, Samantha Rose, Adolfo Carvalho
Attendees: 110
Smooth event overall. Good talks and lots of support.

Thursday+Friday+Saturday, October 20, 2022

California Dark Sky Festival
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Dee Dunne, Adolfo Carvolho, Qicheng Zhang
Attendees: 250
A small group of us volunteered as educators for the California Dark Sky Festival.
Cameron gave a public science talk each night, whereas the other volunteers set up
and operated some solar science demos, including solar observing with the H-alpha scope,
igniting marshmallows with the parabolic mirror, and using the sun funnel to show views
of the Sun. In addition, all four had an "astrophysicist Q&A" for an hour on Friday with ~50
attendees. A major wind storm hit on Saturday, canceling some of the events planned, but
there was still a talk and astrophysicist Q&A at the end of the night when the wind had diminished.
An adventure!

Friday, October 28, 7-9PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Finding Earth 2.0
Lecturer: Dimitri Mawet
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (3): Dee Dunne, Nicholas Rui
Telescope Captain: Sam Rose
Telescope Volunteers (4): Qicheng Zhang, Michael Pajkos
Attendees: 70
Lower turnout than usual for no obvious reason. Great presentation, and active Q&A discussion!

Friday, November 11, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap Online, Mandarin
MC: Yuguang Chen, Xinnan Du
Speakers (2): Xin Wang, Siyi Xu
Attendees: 90
3000+ total views, 90 simultaneous views. Xin was cearly very busy since he just moved,
and just recycled some old slides that were a bit technical. Siyi was superb.

Monday, November 14, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Stephanie Deppe, Nils Deppe
Volunteer (3+): Sarah Blunt, Isabel Sands, Nicholas Rui
Attendees: 120
First cold weather for one of our outdoor events. Probably in the 50s. Still had a great turnout,
but need to figure out a solution for cold weather. Only one TV screen tonight, but everything else
went OK. Great talks and music, but a little too loud for people to converse.

Friday, November 18, 6:30-9:00PM

Sidewalk Astronomy
Coordinator: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Viraj Karambelkar, Kaustav Das, Kyle Finner, Andreas Faisst, Max Goldberg
Attendees: 200
Great night! As soon as we started setting up the telescopes, we had people trying to look
through them. The sandwich board signs really helped give us legitimacy, so no one was
concerned we were just randos on the street. Everyone was super positive--even the neighboring
valet, parking enforcement, and the girls selling candy on the street. eVscope2 had a lot of problems
with the street lights and off-axis lighting coming in the tube. Despite attempting many targets
(most blocked by trees/buildings), we only got to see M29 star cluster and then Mars. Better to
just leave home, I think. "Business cards" and mini-flyers were very popular. I anticipate a good
turnout to Iryna's talk in two weeks. Suggestions at improvement: put a QR code on the signs to
direct people to our website easily. Targets were Saturn and Jupiter, mostly, but Mars at the end.

Friday, December 2, 7-9PM

Lecture and Stargazing - The Invisible Atmospheres of Galaxies
Lecturer: Iryna Butsky
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (3+): Kaustav Das, Sam Ponnada
Telescope Volunteers (4): Qicheng Zhang
Attendees: 90 = 40 in person + 50 online
Rainy / cloudy weather suppressed turnout, but event generally went well overall. Qicheng
set up telescope in Cahill lobby and demonstrated how telescopes work to visitors. Some
problems with the AV equipment with the projector giving everything a yellow tint and one
of the handheld microphones cutting in and out. Lapel microphones worked but some static.

Saturday, December 3, 5-9PM

Noche de las Estrellas
Speakers / Volunteers: Sofia Gallego, Tony Rodriguez
Attendees: 200
Event featured a series of short presentations in English and Spanish, along with ~20 educational
booths from different organizations highlighting astronomy, physics, and space science
primarily for families and children ages 5-15. Rainy weather prevented much observation
and suppressed turnout.

Friday, December 9, 6:00-8:30PM

Sidewalk Astronomy (no telescope experience necessary)
Coordinator: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Qicheng Zhang, Sam Ponnada, Max Goldberg, Andy Boyle
Attendees: 200
Great night with lots of enthusiastic participants. Stuck with Saturn and Jupiter for most of the
time but then when Saturn set, we switched to Mars. Actor Jason Segel walked by on a date
and took a look at Saturn, which was cool. No photo though. We'll try to get to Highland Park
and York Ave in the new year.

Monday, December 12, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Michael Pajkos, Julie Inglis
Volunteer (3+): Adolfo Carvalho, Emily Silich, Sam Rose, Dee Dunne
Attendees: 90
Event went really well despite temperatures in the low 40s and no heat lamps. Great enthusiastic
turnout. Jason only played a record of his music instead of a live show, but it was OK. Telescope
acted up due to clouds. Michael gave a talk with some active learning techniques that seemed to go
pretty well. We may have to try that again soon.

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