(r20) 2022 < Main

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---+ Past Events from 2022

<img src="%ATTACHURLPATH%/caltech_timeline_2022.png" alt="caltech_timeline_2022.png" width="320" height="240" />
<img src="%ATTACHURLPATH%/caltech_histogram_2022.png" alt="caltech_histogram_2022.png" width="320" height="240" />

For photos of all past events, see [[https://www.flickr.com/photos/143414768@N07/albums][our Flickr Page]].  
For lecture recordings, see [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpslw1KdoUvnCKi0swsb23w/videos][our YouTube Page]].<br>

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

---++++ Friday, January 14, 7-9PM

[[20220114][Lecture and Stargazing - How to Rip Apart a Star]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Samantha Wu<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (2)*: Nitika Yadlapalli, Ryan Rubenzahl<br />
*Attendees*: 70<br>
Solid presentation on some complicated topics.  Good discussion in Q&A.<br>
Streamed to YouTube, Facebook, and now Twitter.  It's hard to track the twitter viewership,<br>
but I still think it's worth doing.<br>

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

[[20220124][Astronomy on Tap Online]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Amy Mainzer, Dmitry Duev<br />
*Attendees*: 100<br>
Great presentations and lively interaction throughout.<br>
Changed up the format based on speaker feedback, and added comments/questions throughout<br>
the presentations from the host and other speaker to make it more conversational.<br>
This seemed to work pretty well, more analogous to a podcast interview but with slides.<br>
We may include this format again in the future.<br>

---++++ Friday, February 4, 7-9PM

[[20220204][Lecture and Stargazing - Mapping the Universe with Atoms and Molecules that Shine]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Guochao (Jason) Sun<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (2)*: Sarah Blunt, Gina Panopoulou<br />
*Attendees*: 60<br>
We tried a new way of handling audience questions, by using mentimeter to have the audience<br>
submit questions.  This also allows them to upvote the ones they think are the most interesting.<br>
There seemed to be pretty positive feedback on this method, particularly during the Q&A, but<br>
there was some concern that during the lecture it was too much switching between pages.<br>

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

[[20220218][Astronomy on Tap Online, Mandarin]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Yuguang Chen, Xinnan Du<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Miao Li, Linhao Ma<br />
*Attendees*: 7000<br>
We switched to doing this event on Friday night (Saturday morning in China), and it seemed to get<br>
the same number of attendees as past events.  It sounded like the event went better than any<br>
of the previous Mandarin AoTs, so I think the format is getting smoother.<br>

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

[[20220225][Death Valley Dark Sky Festival]]<br />
*Organizer*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*Volunteers*: Dillon Dong, Kathryn Plant, Nitika Yadlapalli, Emily Silich, Dee Dunne, Tina Seager, Ryan Rubenzahl, Mia de los Reyes, Janosz Dewberry, Sofia Gallego<br>
*Attendees*: 3400<br>
A lot of planning went into this, but it was overall a success.  Our contribution was organizing and staffing<br>
a 3-hour star party on Saturday night (with 6 telescopes) alongside a few DVNP rangers and scopes.<br>
We also did science demos from 10AM-4PM on Saturday and Sunday including "Build a Comet" using<br>
dry ice and other ingredients, "Marshmallow Ignition" using a concave parabolic mirror, and solar observing<br>
with an H-alpha narrowband telescope.  In addition, Cameron gave two talks on galaxy evolution in the<br>
auditorium.  Positive feedback overall on all fronts.<br>

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

[[20220221][Astronomy on Tap Online]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Ron Tso, Ylva Götberg<br />
*Attendees*: 60<br>
Some good presentations and discussion during the trivia!<br>

---++++ Friday, March 4, 7-9PM

[[20220304][Lecture and Stargazing - Massive Binary Stars in Technicolor]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Margaret Lazzarini<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (2)*: Kyle Kremer, Ilaria Caiazzo<br />
*Attendees*: 60<br>
Solid presentation and one of the best Q&A panels we've had thus far.  <br>
Really lively and well-balanced discussion amongst the four of us.  Fun!<br>
Only 60 live viewers but 700 views in two days.<br>

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

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

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

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

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

[[20220314][Astronomy on Tap Online]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Amy Hoffman, Max Goldberg<br />
*Attendees*: 60<br>
Great presentations and conversational responses during the pub trivia.<br>
Thanks, team!<br>

---++++ Friday, April 8, 7-9PM

[[20220408][Lecture and Stargazing - Black Holes and Gravitational Waves: Was Einstein Right?]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Saul Teukolsky<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (2)*: <br />
*Attendees*: 150<br>
One of the best talks we have had.  Great talk by Saul and good Q&A afterwards.<br>
Really high viewership on this one.  Lots of interest in GR, GWs, and Einstein.<br>

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

[[20220425][Astronomy on Tap Online]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Ethan Siegel, Sam Ponnada<br />
*Attendees*: 90<br>

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

[[20220427][Cosmos in Concert @ The Colburn School]]<br />
*Organizer*: Kyle Kremer<br />
*Attendees*: 200<br>

---++++ Friday, May 13, 7-9PM

[[20220513][Lecture and Stargazing - Neutron Stars: Where Extreme Gravity Meets Extreme Matter]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Katerina Chatziioannou<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (4)*: Dillon Dong, Isabel Sands, Gina Panopoulou, Stephanie Deppe<br />
*[[TelescopeCaptain][Telescope Captain]]*: Andreas Faisst<br />
*[[TelescopeVolunteer][Telescope Volunteers]] (4+)*: Max Goldberg, Nikolaus Prusinski, Anirudh Tammewar, Marziye Jafariyazani<br>
*Attendees*: 40 online + 20 in person = 60<br>
So much to say about this one.  This one really took it out of me and made me not want to do these anymore.<br>
Katerina really wanted to do this one in-person, and I finally got clearance from Fiona to host these events<br>
on campus if we checked vaccine status at the door and made everyone wear masks.  So we did it.<br>
But it wasn't very successful and was plagued with problems.  First of all, Joe Jordan, the assistant director<br>
of the athletics department arbitrarily changed their policy and now kick us off the athletic fields at 9:30PM,<br>
despite us being allowed to stay until 10PM for the last 6 years.  He did not give a justification for this change.<br>
This is particularly problematic when the sun sets at 7:45 and when we don't even start to observe until 8:45.<br>
Despite advertising this event as much as any other, we only had about 20 people attend in-person, and only<br>
40 live viewers at the peak, which is a bummer since we had about 10 volunteers for the event.<br>
Despite some A/V testing beforehand, the sound being broadcast to YouTube was a bit echoey, <br>
since it was just a webcam microphone that was picking up the ambient microphone connected to the <br>
sound system.  People were *really* complaining online about the admittedly non-ideal sound setup, <br>
with some pretty nasty comments actually.  Very frustrating.  That said, we did get ~2500 views within the first <br>
24h on YouTube, which is a record for us, I think.  It just remains challenging to broadcast in a hybrid fashion,<br>
where it is difficult to prioritize both the in-person and virtual experience simultaneously.  A USB Mixer was <br>
suggested for being able to dual broadcast sound to multiple outputs.<br>

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

[[20220523][Astronomy on Tap Online]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Mike Wong, Cameron Hummels<br />
*Attendees*: 100<br>
Pretty big turnout for a popular topic.  Perhaps do more like this in the future.<br>

---++++ Friday, June 3, 7-9PM

[[20220603][Lecture and Stargazing - Planetquake: what vibrations can tell us about the interiors of gas giant planets]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Janosz Dewberry<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (4)*: Mia de los Reyes, Nicholas Rui<br />
*[[TelescopeCaptain][Telescope Captain]]*: Andreas Faisst<br />
*[[TelescopeVolunteer][Telescope Volunteers]] (4+)*: Michael Zhang, Reinier Janssen<br>
*Attendees*: 50 online + 20 in person = 70<br>
This event went better than last month's.  We had about the same number of in-person attendees, <br>
but they were more engaged and stuck around for more of the panel q&a.  I also was able to get a <br>
USB Mixer purchased and integrated into the Hameetman sound system with the help of Becca Rose<br>
at Academic Media Technologies and Michael Zhang.  The sound on the live-stream is *much* better than<br>
last month, so that's a success.  I think we'll build from here through consistency.<br>

Link back to [[http://www.astro.caltech.edu/twiki_outreach/bin/view/Main/WebHome][home page]].
Topic revision: r20 - 2022-06-05 - OutreachAdmin
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