Past Events from 2023

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.

Thursday, January 19, 7:00-9:00PM

Stargazing and Lecture at eCALS High School
Coordinator: Margaret Lazzarini & Cameron Hummels
Speaker: Rocio Kiman
Volunteers (4+): Cameron Hummels, Nicholas Rui, Andy Boyle, Peter Boorman
Attendees: 20
Cloudy weather all day, which I think put some people off from attending. Rocio gave
a great 30-minute talk on stellar evolution. Then Cameron demonstrated how telescopes work
with a 6" dob. Then we went around and each of us introduced ourselves and described what
sort of science we work on. The skies partially cleared, so we brought out the 6" to view Mars
and Jupiter, and the eVscope2 gave some grand views of M42, M31, and M33. People were
very enthusiastic. Predominantly latinx audience.

Friday, January 20, 7-9PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Fireworks from Black Holes Devouring Stars
Lecturer: Yuhan Yao
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (3+): Ilaria Caiazzo, Kyle Kremer
Telescope Captain: Max Goldberg
Telescope Volunteers (4): Qicheng Zhang, Sam Rose, Kathryn Plant, Marcos Perez
Attendees: 100
Attendance 100 = 60 in person and 40 online. Cold clear evening, but a good turnout and lots of enthusiasm.
Yuhan gave a great talk, and then we had about half of the people stick around for the panel Q&A. Good
questions online as well as in person. Stargazing views Mars and Jupiter as well as M42, M45, and M31.

Friday, January 27, 6:30-8:30PM

Stargazing and Ask an Astronomer @ Sierra Madre MS
Coordinator: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (3-4): Ilaria Caiazzo, Kathryn Plant, Qicheng Zhang
Attendees: 150
Great weather and good turnout for this event at a middle school. Konstantin Batygin gave a lecture beforehand
followed by 150 8th graders spilling out into the parking lot. We brought the eVscope and the 8" dobsonian, and there
were probably 20 other telescopes from Carnegie and a bunch of amateur groups. Ilaria staffed the "Ask an Astrophysicist"
table inside with some good questions. Comet views!

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Tina Seeger, Justin Foley
Volunteer (3+): Sam Rose, Xander Hall
Attendees: 170
Despite cold weather and a 20% chance of rain, we still had a great turnout! Excellent talks by
Justin Foley on rockets and Tina Seeger on Mars. We took some video clips and posted online.
Clouds cleared some and provided some views of the first quarter moon through the eVscope2.
TVs were super finicky and caused problems. Seemingly need to re-plug in the HDMI every time
we plug in a new computer?

Wednesday, February 1 7:00-9:00PM

Comet Viewing
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Xander Hall, Viraj Karambelkar, Marziye Jafariyazani, Rafail Skalidis, Sam Ponnada, Kai Hei Chan, Qicheng Zhang, Edward Nathan, Kyle Kremer, Nils Deppe, Lynne Hillenbrand, Sam Rose, Adolfo Carvalho
Attendees: 500
Overall a successful event. The weather forecast was uncertain until just a day or so prior to the closest passage of the comet,
so I waited to announce this until I was sure we'd have the weather to back it up. This meant that we only began advertising this
comet viewing about 24h before it took place. The conditions weren't perfect, with the waxing gibbous moon overhead, but the
atmosphere was very clear, which helped. The primary impactor, as always, was the light source from the nearby stadium lights
at Caltech that are so egregious. We had 12 or so volunteers throughout, all on duty on the athletic fields on our 6 telescopes:
2 eVscopes, 1 C8 (all on the comet!), and then the three dobs looking at Moon, Jupiter, and Pleiades. Some technical glitches
getting things pointed at the beginning, but after 20 minutes, everything seemed to work OK. Cameron gave a 25-minute presentation
on the comet that seemed to get positive feedback. 150 attendees during the first talk at 7PM and 100 attendees during the second
talk at 8PM. Rough counts suggest 500 people attended overall. We ended up having to kick people off at 9:20 to close up shop
by 9:30PM after getting barked at by the Caltech gym people at 9:00 for still being out there. Ideas for next time: printouts of images
of astronomical targets that can be shown to people as they wait in line. Starting setup maybe 15-30 minutes earlier to ensure no
technical glitches. Having a greeter at the entrance letting people know where to go and what to expect. Having rope lights to better
define where the queues should go..

Thursday, February 2

Class Visit to Jackson Elementary
Organizer: Thalhammer, Korbinian
Attendees: 30
The class was about renewable and nonrenewable energy sources and was developed by James Mullahoo, Makayla Betts, and Korbi.
They used the parabolic mirror to demonstrate the power of the sun and to talk about different forms of solar energy capture.
The marshmallow demo was definitely the course highlight. We also handed out eclipse glasses, which the kids loved.

Friday-Sunday, February 10-12

Death Valley NP Dark Sky Festival
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Sam Rose, Nivedita Mahesh, Emily Silich, Nicholas Rui, Dee Dunne, Xander Hall, Qicheng Zhang, Andy Boyle, Ruby Byrne, Carlos Ayala, Katherine de Kleer, Max Goldberg
Attendees: 5600
After months of planning and organizing with NPS ranger Matt Lamar, this weekend finally arrived and by all accounts, it seemed like a
great success. We brought over a dozen volunteers to death valley for a few days and several educational activities. This year, we
produced an astronomy on tap event at Stovepipe Wells' Badwater Saloon on Friday night, featuring talks by Kat de Kleer and Max Goldberg
as well as pub trivia by Cameron Hummels and telescope observing outside the bar. This went really well with about 150 attendees filling the bar
and spilling out to the stargazing. Observing conditions were terrific for telescopes, with great views of Orion Nebula, Comet ZTF (you could see
the green color!), M31, M33, Jupiter, and more. They had a speaker system and projector set up for us, and allowed us to sell our AoT merch.
Suggestions for next year include arriving earlier next year for set up, red rope lights for directing people to telescopes, and light up badges for
volunteers. On Saturday and Sunday, we hosted a booth at the science expo, featuring our solar observing, marshmallow ignition, and build
a comet demos. Overall it went well, but our dry ice evaporated too fast (20 lbs!), so we will want to keep the cooler covered in the shade next time.
Also, we need a couple of official table cloths. Q&A panel and Cameron's black hole talk were well attended, with Cameron pulling more attendees
than the ticketed keynote speakers (230 attendees and had to turn away 40 at the door). Also, the star party on Saturday night went very well, with
5x as many people as last year at 1500, and it's the biggest single star party in NPS history. Improvements for next year include red rope lights,
glow stick identifiers for all caltech astro volunteers, and a red-illuminated caltech astro table cloth with a greeter to direct to each telescope.
As it was, we had Betelgeuse in view with a diffraction grating on the C8 to show its spectrum, a view of M33 and Comet ZTF on the eVscope2,
and M31 and M45 on the 10" Dob. Great job, team!

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Rocio Kiman, Peter Boorman
Volunteer (3+): Sam Ponnada, Viraj Karambelkar, Nivedita Mahesh
Attendees: 60

Cloudy skies and a light turnout. I think the diminished crowd was due to this only being two weeks following our last event.
Good talks and music and trivia. No observing. I got heckled by a guy in the crowd, but other than that, good event.

Tuesday, February 21, 6:30-8:00PM

Teaching Girl Scout Troop 6371 about Astronomy & Space Science
Volunteers: Emily Silich, Sam Rose, Margaret Lazzarini
Attendees: 12
Cloudy and rainy weather meant no telescope observing but still a very successful interaction was had.
Very enthusiastic scouts asked lots of questions about science and astronomy. We brought a couple of
telescopes, a dobsonian 6" and a galileoscope, along with a parabolic mirror to demonstrate optical principles.
Emily and Margaret were formerly girl scouts, so they had lots to share on their path into science.
A great event!

Friday, February 24, 7-9PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Can exoplanets keep their atmospheres long enough for life to develop?
Lecturer: Jessica Spake
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Qicheng Zhang, Sam Rose, Andreas Faisst
Telescope Captain:
Telescope Volunteers (4):
Attendees: 70
30 in-person + 40 online = 70 attendees total. Historical rain storm with flash flood warnings all day definitely affected
the in-person turnout on this event. But we still had a wonderful lecture and a lively Q&A session tonight. Good one
overall.

Tuesday, February 28, 5:30-8:00PM

Marshall Fundamental HS Science Night (Stargazing and Ask an Astronomer)
Coordinator: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (3-4): Margaret Lazzarini, Nicholas Rui, Qicheng Zhang
Attendees: 300
Patrick Shopbell organized a science night at his son's public high school with lots of local science groups.
Several Caltech departments were represented including IQIM, LIGO, and a solid state physics group with
superconductors, but some JPLers were there and Carnegie brought their inflatable planetarium too. We
had originally planned to setup telescopes outside but the heavy rains prevented that, so we brought out
a few telescopes and Qicheng's spectrograph to demonstrate how telescopes and spectroscopes work.
This worked pretty well, but all of the light bulbs in the hallway were LEDs, so we didn't have a lot of spectral
emission lines to showcase. We'll have to investigate finding an appropriate portable light source like gas
discharge tubes or something. We were also able to hand out business cards for our outreach program, and
many people seemed pretty interested in following up to come to some of our future events!

Saturday, March 4, 10AM-1PM

Science Train
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (4): Max Goldberg, Emily Silich, Adolfo Carvalho, Isabel Sands
Attendees: 30 First Science Train since Covid began and it was a learning experience. We started at 10AM on the Gold Line
at Del Mar, on a cool winter day with some clouds. There weren't a lot of people on the train, as I think the weather
affected things as well as the fact that people are still uncomfortable with public transit since COVID (40% down vs.
pre-COVID ridership numbers). We rode the train to Union Station, then hung out there for a while with our signs,
but we didn't get a lot of interaction with passersby. So we walked to Grand Central Market, a large food court in
downtown and it was packed with people. We walked around with our signs and engaged with a several people there
before security asked us to go outside. So we stood on the sidewalk in front and started a few conversations there,
before having lunch, and riding back to Pasadena. The conclusions were (1) a 4" or 6" dob with a sun funnel would
make a great prop for drawing people in, especially with solar activity increasing these days; (2) choosing a time later
in the afternoon or when the weather is warmer and clearer would help as there would be more people around; (3)
heading to Santa Monica Pier or Venice Beach might be a good option--Grand Central Market worked pretty well too.
The train isn't the greatest option right now because there just aren't very many people aboard. Excited to try this out again.

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Dee Dunne, Ben Roulston
Volunteer (3+): Emily Silich, Sam Rose, Isabel Sands
Attendees: 90
Some changes tonight. Cameron re-purchased some additional merchandise since we were out of several things: pint glasses,
buttons, stickers, magnets, etc. We also had a larger table: 6' long, and a Square chip card reader for making purchases easier.
Lastly, we got these little chalk boards to advertise the merch a little bit better. All told, the merch table is in much better shape now.
In addition, we purchased a new camera setup, so that we could record the event and potentially post it on YouTube afterwards.
Emily operated the camera for the entire evening and was able to record OK. We haven't looked at the footage yet to see how it is,
but hopefully this worked OK. Presentations by Dee and Ben went well, with some nice descriptions and topics. The audience
was pretty enthusiastic and interested. No live music tonight, and the skies were just cloudy enough to prevent us from using the
telescope, although Sam tried.

Friday-Sunday, March 17-19

Great Orion Dark Sky Festival
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (2-3): Qicheng Zhang, Nicholas Rui, Carlos Ayala
Attendees: 200
A successful weekend overall. Cameron went up Thursday, giving a lecture Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights to the attendees.
The grad students arrived Friday midday and together with Cameron organized several science demos for the public for 2 hours on
Friday and Saturday afternoons: H-alpha observing of the Sun, Sun funnel on the 4" dob, spectroscopy of the Sun, and the marshmallow
ignition demo. Following the science demos, the four Caltech Astro representatives hosted a 1-hour "Astrophysicist Q&A" on Friday and
Saturday with 50-60 attendees each afternoon. Some great discussions were had on cosmology, relativity, starquakes, cometary objects,
sci-fi movie physics, and the biggest scientific discoveries and disappointments of the last decade. Each night, we also observed with
some of the provided telescopes as well as our own telescopes various night-sky targets.

Friday, March 24, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Black Holes, Spaghettification, and Time Travel
Lecturer: Nils Deppe
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Peter Boorman, Nivedita Mahesh
Telescope Captain: Andreas Faisst
Telescope Volunteers (4): Albert Wandui, Qicheng Zhang, Margaret Lazzarini
Attendees: 110
110 = 70 in-person and 40 online attendees. Lots of improvements this week. One, we had clear weather after a very wet winter,
and the athletics department finally agreed to shut off the track lights at 8:30PM for us. It was glorious and much much better than
the last six years of lights shining down on us. The tennis court lights remained on, but they were not a major problem. Additionally,
we used a new camera setup to record and broadcast our lecture to YouTube, which seemed to work pretty well. We still need to
make some adjustments to broadcast in HD instead of SD, but the image quality is already improved. Nils' presentation went very well
as he was very articulate and covered a challenging topic. The Q&A panel handled the questions well, and the stargazing seemed to
operate successfully too.

Thursday, April 6, 9:30-11:30PM

Virtual Stargazing with Prison Inmates Students
Coordinator: Cameron Hummels & Luke Bouma
Attendees: 10
Luke Bouma has been working with the Prison Education Project for the last couple of months, leading a class of incarcerated
students in Hawaii on general astronomy education. As part of this class, Cameron joined to help enable a stargazing class to
occur. We set up Cameron's eVscope on the roof of Cahill, controlling it with an iPhone that was manually tethered to a laptop.
The laptop could connect to Zoom and share the iPhone's screen, showing what was being observed by the eVscope to participants
on the Zoom call. Luke started the zoom call and connected to the incarcerated students in Hawaii. Over the course of the two hours
we were able to observe around 8 objects, discussing the targets, the mythology behind the targets, as well as showing different views
of each from other telescopes (HST, Keck, etc.). We looked at the Pleiades, Venus, Mars, Polaris, Procyon, Whirlpool Galaxy, Cigar Galaxy,
Hercules Cluster, and the Moon. There was quite a bit of high cirrus for the first half of the night, but fortunately it cleared for the last 45 minutes
and provided some clear views of Hercules Cluster to finish off. Overall, it seemed like it was a success and the students got something
out of it. We'll definitely try to do this again for live-streaming stargazing sessions.

Monday, April 10, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Rob Manning, Shannon Statham
Volunteer (3+): Emily Silich, Andreas Faisst, Xander Hall, Isabel Sands
Attendees: 250
Biggest turnout yet to an in-person Astro on Tap! Wonderful presentations but some technical hiccups despite all the preparations.
The manager of the bar, Arjun, bought a brand new television to replace the broken one from last month, but it only arrived an hour
or two before our event, so I didn't have a full chance to test it out, and it caused a few issues. For one, the USB-C to HDMI splitter
that we use to broadcast our video feed to the TVs worked fine for Rob Manning and myself (both using Mac laptops), but it gave us
some problems with Shannon Statham's PC Laptop. It worked initially but a few minutes in and the new TV just stopped picking up
the HDMI feed, despite a change in cords and changing broadcast ports several times. Not sure what to make of that, other than to
just use the full HDMI splitter hub when dealing with PCs. While Rob Manning's talk went well, our attempt to record it with the new
panasonic camera ended up with some visual artifacts in the video. At certain points in the recording when the brightness of the TV
screen is high, there are dark rolling horizontal bands that travel up the recorded video feed, which really look crummy. Investigations
online as to the cause suggest that it's a framerate mismatch between the cycling frequency of the LEDs in the TV screen and the camera's
recording framerate. We'll have to test this out to try to get rid of it for next time, but it's a super bummer that it effectively ruined the
video from potentially one of our most important recordings. Bummer. Other than that, the night went pretty well.

Friday, April 14, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - The Quest for Cosmic Dawn: First Results from the James Webb Space Telescope
Lecturer: Richard Ellis
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Emily Silich, Dee Dunne, Kaustav Das
Telescope Captain: Qicheng Zhang
Telescope Volunteers (4): Josh Liberman, Sam Rose
Attendees: 130
130 = 80 in-person + 50 online attendees. Despite some overcast weather, we had a great night overall. Richard gave a wonderful
presentation on Cosmic Dawn, and then we had a rousing Q&A. Qicheng brought his spectrograph and set up in the lobby with a
portable compact fluorescent light, so you could see its emission lines, which tied in very nicely with the method of determining
redshift described by Richard in his talk. And we got zoom upgraded to broadcast at 1080p resolution (FHD), which I think really
helped make the YouTube broadcast look better. I think I need to remember to change the white balance and ISO brightness next
time when we move to the Q&A. I also think the rolling bars in video seems to occur when one uses auto-focus, as opposed to manual
focus, but I need to investigate this further.

Wednesday, April 19, 8-10PM

Nighttime Telescope Training
Instructor: Cameron Hummels
Students: Kaustav Das, Anna Gülcher, Maria Camarca, Josh Liberman, Michael Gutierrez
The students got trained to use the dobsonians as well as the eVscope2. Not enough time to
get to the C8.

Thursday, April 20, 12-1PM

Daytime Telescope Training
Instructor: Cameron Hummels
Students: Rocio Kiman, Albert Wandui
Clear conditions for some H-alpha observing on the patio. Great views and we got to use the
Baade zoom eyepiece, which really enhances the views you get. Fun!

Saturday, April 22, 12-5:00PM

PUSD Science Fair 12-5:00PM (split into two 2.5h shifts)
Coordinator: Cameron Hummels
First Shift Volunteers (11:30-2:30) (3+): Rocio Kiman, Qicheng Zhang, Yash Tomar, Ed Nathan, Kaustav Das, Kathryn Plant
Second Shift Volunteers (2:30-5:30) (3+): Xander Hall, Isabel Sands, Carlos Ayala, Qicheng Zhang
Attendees: 2000
Great event overall! Around 100 different booths were assembled for this 5-hour festival. After some
pestering, I finally got a good number of volunteers to help out. We staffed the marshmallow and
comet demos, and we had a few additional components. The H-alpha telescope and the sun funnel
were out, which worked really well, especially with the Baade zoom eyepiece that I borrowed from Kat.
Qicheng brought his spectroscope, which provided some great views of the Fraunhofer lines, and he
also brought a small spotting telescope to point at Venus. Lastly, we also had a small solar cell attached
to an electric car motor, which spun its tires, which was a nice demo of PVs. Good day overall.

Thursday, April 27, 7:30-9:30PM

Stargazing at eCALS High School
Coordinator: Margaret Lazzarini
Speaker: Peter Boorman
Volunteers (4+): Morgan Saidel, Kim Paragas, Michael Gutierrez, Qicheng Zhang, Rocio Kiman, Amruta Jaodand
Attendees: 20
A very energetic group of students turned out for the eCALS event. Great views of the first-quarter moon
and Mars and Venus. Peter gave a great talk on black holes.

Friday, April 28, 7:30-9:30PM

Sidewalk Stargazing
Coordinator: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (3): Jessie Christiansen, Nivedita Mahesh, Qicheng Zhang, Sam Rose, Niyati Desai
Attendees: 210
Great event overall. We set up at our standard location in Old Town Pasadena on a clear, warm evening,
and had consistent engagement with members of the public over the course of the evening. For targets,
the first-quarter moon was up and a great target all night, and we looked at Venus with our other scope.
When Venus finally set behind a building, we pointed at Betelgeuse and Sirius with a diffraction grating on
the eyepiece to show their spectra. I brought my eVscope2, but I had a challenging time finding a target
that wasn't blocked by a building or had a streetlight in the field of view. In the end, I got some distorted views
of M46 Open Cluster, which was OK but not great. Probably best to leave the eVscope at home unless we
know there will be a good target in the Southern Sky > 45 degrees in altitude.

Saturday, April 29, 10AM-4PM

International Astronomy Day at Museum of Natural History in Santa Barbara
Coordinator: Rocio Kiman
Volunteers (3): Kaustav Das, Javier Roulet, Qicheng Zhang. Carlos Ayala
Attendees: 360
Rocio led a group up to Santa Barbara to partner with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History for
International Astronomy Day. They had several educational activities including build-a-comet, warped spacetime,
and telescopes set up. Sounds like it went well overall.

Saturday, May 13, 11AM-3PM

Science Train
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (4): Nicholas Rui, Nivedita Mahesh, Carlos Ayala, Yoonsoo Kim, Qicheng Zhang, Nik Prusinski
Attendees: 80
Probably our best Science Train yet, as we mixed in some new strategies. We met at the Gold Line stop at Del Mar @ 11AM.
We put on nametags and carried with us two: "Ask an Astrophysicist" signs, the H-alpha telescope, and the mount. Two groups of three people set up on the ends of the gold line heading towards Union Station, gave a quick announcement that
we were scientists from Caltech there to engage with people about science. Each group had a couple of engagements, including
one with Louis Friedman, one of the co-founders of the Planetary Society!?! When we arrived at Union Station, we asked
security if we could set up the telescope on the train platform and they refused, so we headed to the outdoor space between the
buses and the train station, found a security officer, and asked him if we could set up. He was initially pretty hesitant, but said
we could if we stayed out of peoples' way and only did it for 30 minutes. It was actually a pretty good spot, and we got to talk to
about 25-30 people over the course of the 30 minutes we were there, including several security guards. Most who stopped were really
excited to look at the Sun, look through the eclipse glasses, and chat for a minute or two. Then we walked from there to Grand Central
Market. The walk took about 25-30 minutes and was pretty uneventful, but it was sort of a pain hauling the telescope + mount there.
When we arrived, we set up the telescope near the East entrance on Broadway. Initially people were not very responsive for about
10 minutes, but then once a few stopped, others saw that people were lined up, and they stopped too. We probably engaged with about 50
people over the course of an hour, both with the telescope, as well as Yoonsoo and Nik walking around with the sign. Finally, we
walked back to the train and rode it back to Pasadena, chatting with a few people on the return. Definitely a success.
One suggestion was to print out recent H-alpha images of the Sun next time, so people know what they'll see. More biz cards,
and more eclipse glasses.

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Sofia Gallego, Leonidas Moustakas
Volunteer (3+): Josh Liberman, Isabel Sands, Nicholas Rui
Attendees: 160

Great talks from Sofia and Leonidas. TVs worked fine this month, but we had problems during Leonidas' talk with some RFI on the microphone.
After his talk, I changed the frequency to 906MHz and move the microphone receiver's antennae, and it seemed to behave better (don't use 902 MHz!).
Also, I spent several hours trying to address the problem with the rolling bars in the recording from last month, and I thought it was fixed but not entirely.
Changing it to use either 50 or 125 shutter length seems to minimize the rolling bars (in shutter-priority mode), but it's a bit dark (especially on 125).
The ISO is at its maximum, and the aperture is as open as it will go (3.5). To truly fix this means getting a faster lens, but this will cost $500 or so, I think.
The other issue is that in low light conditions, the auto-focus gets all messed up and just randomly goes out of focus. I think the solution for this is to move
to fixed focus and just focus things on the screen and let it be. I really hope I can get all of these bugs worked out in time for next month, since it's now been
3 months of trial and error and not a lot of results. But overall it went well, and the music was good and people seemed to have a good time.

Friday, May 26, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Seeing the Invisible: Astronomical Radio Waves
Lecturer: Nitika Yadlapalli
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Dee Dunne, Jean Somalwar, Kaustav Das
Attendees: 90
130 = 50 in-person + 40 online attendees.
Cloudy all week, and somewhat depressed turnout due to cloudy weather. Sad, because the
SN2023ixf was discovered in M101 1 week ago and it's still on the rise, so it would've been visible
from Pasadena with the eVscope2. Good presentation by Nitika on radio astronomy, followed by
a lively discussion and Q&A Panel.

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

Astronomy on Tap 100th Event @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Mike Brown, Laurie Leshin
Volunteer (3+): Nicholas Rui, Andreas Faisst, Anna Gülcher, Jessie Christiansen, Isabel Sands
Attendees: 500
Wow, what a great event. We had a huge turnout, far overwhelming the capacity of the venue with about twice
as many people as we've had at our next largest event. But the talks were great and the music was good, and
there were no major technical glitches (both the video and audio worked without issue). We couldn't record from
our normal location, so Andreas Faisst stood on the back stairwell and attempted to record. There were also a number
of people in the audience recording, so hopefully we got something out of it that can be put online. Overall, a great
100th event, and hopefully we will continue to have a solid turnout moving forward. We are very lucky that it didn't rain.

Friday, June 23, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Dark Matter: The Elusive Fibers of the Universe
Lecturer: Jacob Shen
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Nicholas Rui, Stephanie Deppe
Telescope Captain: Dee Dunne
Telescope Volunteers (4): Karina Barboza, Sam Rose, Carlos Ayala, Max Goldberg
Attendees: 150
100 in-person attendees and 50 online attendees = 150 total. High-level but solid presentation by Jacob on dark matter.
Good questions for our Q&A panel. Clear weather for the stargazing with views of Moon, Venus, and Pinwheel Galaxy
(and SN 2023ixf!) despite this event being the day after the summer solstice with sunset at 8:10PM. I think the audience
was really into the topic of dark matter with lots of creative questions.

Friday, June 30, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Finding Supermassive Black Holes with Pulsars
Lecturer: Aaron Johnson
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Panel Q&A: Patrick Meyers, Sophie Hourihane, Katerina Chatziioannou, Joe Lazio Lecture Volunteers (1): Reinier Janssen
Telescope Captain: Qicheng Zhang
Telescope Volunteers (4): Xander Hall, Maria Camarca, Thomas
Attendees: 130
90 in-person attendees and 40 online attendees = 130 total. Really great evening overall. Aaron gave a good introductory
presentation on the recent NANOGrav discovery, and the panel Q&A went extremely well with lots of great questions and
discussion on a variety of topics related to black holes, gravitational waves, radio astronomy, pulsars, etc. Observations
went well too with views of M101, Moon, Venus, and Hyades. Really happy with this one.

Monday, July 10 - Friday, July 14

Planet Finder Academy
Andrew Howard's Keck Planet Finder Academy for local high school students 9-5PM every day this week.
Volunteers: Cameron Hummels
Attendees: 30

Friday, July 14, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Searching for Extrasolar Planets with the Keck Planet Finder
Lecturer: Andrew Howard
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2): Adolfo Carvalho, Ivey Davis
Telescope Captain: Qicheng Zhang
Telescope Volunteers (4+): Sam Rose, Carlos Ayala, Xander Hall
Attendees: 120
In-person attendance 80 + Online audience 40 = 120 total. Event coincided with the conclusion of Andrew Howard's
Planet Finder Academy, so there were was a pretty good turnout from his students and their families.

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Jason Rhodes, Alina Kiessling
Volunteer (3+): Sam Rose, Adolfo Carvalho, Xander Hall, Isabel Sands
Attendees: 300

Great evening overall retaining much of the momentum of last month. Good turn out and great speakers.
No major technical glitches, but bar is still slow to process all of the people, so a long line throughout the first half.
They said they'll work on it. We can also announce that people not ordering food can skip line to go straight to bar.
Feedback from volunteers suggested that we should have another site, not next to the band, with the sandwich board
for "Ask an Astronomer" to enable attendees to engage with the volunteers. We could place it next to the telescope
and set up chairs. Later on, we could have a table with a tablecloth?

Friday, July 28, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - How to Catch a Supernova (or One of its Transient Friends)
Lecturer: Ashish Mahabal
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Kaustav Das, Samantha Wu
Telescope Captain: Sam Rose
Telescope Volunteers (4): Kendra Nguyen, Dee Dunne
Attendees: 160
In-person attendance 130 + Online audience 30 = 160 total. Ashish introduced his game ZARTH, and several people
started playing it in the lecture hall. We had a decent Q&A with the audience. The telescopes viewed the ring nebula,
first quarter moon, and albireo. Pretty good night overall.

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Robert Stein, Ruby Byrne
Volunteer (3+): Dee Dunne, Max Goldberg, Harshda Saxena, Emily Silich
Attendees: 180
Good event overall. Solid turnout but not too crazy like the last few. Some technical problems with the sound during
Ruby's talk, but it appeared to be due to low batteries on the wireless microphone. I definitely need to keep two extra AA
batteries handy and potentially bring a wired microphone instead. Lots of interaction with the audience. Need to look at
recording to see if it's viable.

Friday, August 18, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing (Spanish) - ¿Cuál es la edad de una estrella?
Lecturer: Rocio Kiman
Lecture Captain: Tony Rodriguez
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Sofia Gallego, Javier Roulet
Telescope Captain: Cameron Hummels
Telescope Volunteers (4): Qicheng Zhang, Xander Hall
Attendees: 60
20 in-person + 40 online attendees = 60 total. Despite a great deal of attempted advertising for this one, we didn't get
a very large turnout. I still don't know the magic recipe to advertise these events to the spanish-language community.
A lack of questions in the Q&A was a bit awkward, but our speakers filled the gaps pretty well. Great talk from Rocio!

Friday, August 25, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Galaxy Clusters Collide: The Most Energetic Events since the Big Bang
Lecturer: Emily Silich
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Sam Rose, Katelyn Horstman
Telescope Captain: Qicheng Zhang
Telescope Volunteers (4): Peter Boorman, Xander Hall
Attendees: 150
110 in-person + 40 online attendees = 150 total. Excellent presentation by Emily Silich. Big turnout in person.
Lots of questions about dark matter. Telescopes viewing went well and Saturn is finally visible in the night sky.
Complaints by Xander about mosquitoes, so we need to get insect repellent.

Friday-Sunday, September 8-10

Sequoia NP Dark Sky Festival
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Dee Dunne, Julie Inglis, Qicheng Zhang, Carlos Ayala, Andreas Faisst, Jessica Spake, Thomas Lai, Harshda Saxena
Attendees: 500
In terms of attendance, 200 for our astrophysicist Q&A; 400 for Cameron's keynote; 500 for star party; dozens for each talk.
Overall, a very successful event. We brought a big crew consisting of 9 astronomers and 3 partners up to Sequoia for the Dark Sky Fest.
We made up about half of the speakers at the event, hosted the Q&A panel, the keynote, and then assisted at the star party.
The weather was partially cloudy during the star party, but we were still able to engage with people in the dark, answering questions
and discussing science. I think the highlight was probably the Q&A panel, as we had a ton of interaction with people on a variety of topics.
Everyone seemed to have fun with the camping (despite some overnight rain) and the hikes around the park. Great job, team!
Attendance: 200 at Q&A, 350 @ keynote, 500 @ star party.

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Mike Grudic, Joanna Piotrowska-Karpov
Volunteer (3+): Harshda Saxena, Max Goldberg, Dee Dunne, Xander Hall
Attendees: 250
One of our best astro on tap evenings. I got a wired microphone, which addressed all of the hiccups with the mic cutting out, and no
other major technical issues. I didn't try to record, since that seems like a fool's errand until we get the zoom/OBS connectivity setup
for sharing screen. And honestly, I just didn't have time after the weekend and while trying to get out the door for my wedding the next day.
Both Mike and Asia gave excellent talks, and Jason and Forrest had a good set of music. People in general were very enthusiastic.

Tuesday, September 26, 5-6PM

Presentation and Book Signing with Jorge Cham
Lecturer: Jorge Cham of PHD Comics
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Attendees: 140
110 in-person + 30 online = 140 attendees. Jorge Cham of PHD Comics contacted us to help kick off his nationwide
book tour, given his connection to Caltech and his proximity in South Pasadena. He gave a fun 45-minute presentation,
primarily aimed at elementary and middle-school children using cartooning to explain some facts about the universe and
physics, then he answered questions and signed copies of his new book. We had an enthusiastic in-person audience with
roughly 75% children. There were also some people online watching the event. Fun time overall.

Friday, September 29, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - FARSIDE: Exploring the Cosmos from the Moon
Lecturer: Nivedita Mahesh
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Harshda Saxena, Sam Rose
Telescope Captain: Andreas Faisst
Telescope Volunteers (4): Qicheng Zhang, Andrew Huang
Attendees: 120
80 in-person + 40 online = 120 attendees. Cloudy evening, so no observing, but the presentation and Q&A were good.
Lots of good questions about radio astronomy, the Moon, supernovae, and simulations.

Tuesday, October 10

Astronomy on Tap @ Grand Canyon North Rim Lodge
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Dee Dunne, Katherine de Kleer
Volunteer (3+): Rocio Kiman, Javier Roulet, Michael Gutierrez
Attendees: 130

Wednesday, October 11

Astronomy on Tap @ Grand Canyon North Rim Lodge
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Javier Roulet, Rocio Kiman
Volunteer (3+): Dee Dunne, Katherine de Kleer, Michael Gutierrez
Attendees: 130

Friday-Saturday, October 13-14

Annular Eclipse Events @ Bryce Canyon
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Dee Dunne, Rocio Kiman, Javier Roulet, Sam Ponnada, Lilia Arrizabalaga, Emily Hu, Michael Gutierrez, Luke Handley, Hazel Yun, Aniket Sanghi, Delina Levine, Emily Silich, Michael Kelzenberg, Charles Sommer
Attendees: 2000
Great set of events. On Friday, five of us set up in front of the Bryce Canyon Visitor's Center with an H-alpha telescope, marshmallow demonstration,
and ritz crackers (aka pinhole cameras) to interact with visitors about the upcoming eclipse. We logged 500 interactions during the 4.5 hours that we
were out there. That night, we spent 2 hours practicing setting up the telescopes provided by the park (3 C11 Schmidt-Cassegrains, 2 eVscopes (and
my eVscope), and Mike K's astrophotography setup). Saturday morning, we spent the duration of the eclipse (~4h) in groups of 2-3 walking the 3-miles
of the rim trail interacting with the public, offering eclipse glasses, ritz crackers, and discussing the eclipse. Approximately 1200 contacts. Finally, that
evening, 4 of us (Rocio, Delina, Charles, me) sat on an astrophysicist Q&A panel before ~120 attendees, before dispersing to a star party at Sunset Point
featuring 8 telescopes and about 200 attendees. We had the capacity for more attendance, but the event had not been widely advertised so as to not attract
10k visitors, many people had left the park after the eclipse, and it was quite cold (mid-30s). The star party went very well and we had some great views of
several targets including Jupiter, Saturn, M13, M27, M31, and M57, as well as Mike K's amazing astrophotography set up, where he would take light-painted
images of people, process them, and then give them to people on thumb drives.

In addition, despite everyone planning for camping, there was a cold snap that hit just as we arrived on Thursday/Friday with lows dropping down to 20F.
Fortunately, our dark sky ranger contact, Peter Densmore, was able to enable us to all stay in small indoor facilities including dorm rooms for the women, and
small cabins for the men. This helped greatly with the logistical challenges of the weekend. Entry to the park was provided, and fuel reimbursed for the 5 cars.
We all got to wear volunteer ranger outfits while we were there, which I think was a major highlights for many of our group. We were effectively interpretation rangers
for the weekend, since so many of the seasonal interp rangers had already left for the season. A positive event for all, I think!

Saturday, October 14

Annular Eclipse Events @ Caltech
Organizers: Ivey Davis, Sam Rose, Isabel Sands, Gabriel Muro
Volunteers: Ed Nathan, Joanna Piotrowska, Harshda Saxena, Albert Wandui, Saren Daghlian, Oluwashina Adegoke, Ron Freeman, Joanna Piotrowska, Kyle Nelli, Nicholas Rui, Jerry Xuan, Ed Nathan, Casey Law
Attendees: 1500
The event in Pasadena spanned a two-hour period Saturday morning for the partial (71%) eclipse. Ivey Davis and Gabe Muro each gave 30-minute presentations
on eclipses as well as solar science, one at 8:30 and the other at 9:30AM. The house was packed for both talks. We had access to the western half of the athletic
fields (the baseball fields), while the soccer team warmed up for a match on the east starting at 11AM. Turnout was good, with around 1500 in attendance and 1500
eclipse glasses distributed. There were two solar telescopes, a pinhole camera station, and lots of eclipse glasses for people to safely view the eclipse. In terms of
logistics, there was a short altercation between the soccer coach and our group for having tread behind the soccer goal for reasons I don't understand. And evidently
someone fell in front of Cahill and suffered a head injury? Security came and helped assist the person. I'm still trying to learn more about what happened and confirm
that the person is OK. So despite some setbacks, I think the event was a success with lots of positive interactions with the public.
UPDATE: Upon more discussion with the athletics director, it sounds like there were some problems with the event. A number of field rules were evidently
broken including dogs on the field, coffee cups and trash left on the field, as well as one of our eclipse-viewing signs.
It sounds like after the athletics department closed the Northeast gate and redirected us to the north gate, one of our team
re-opened the Northeast gate and began directing people on to the field again, which prompted athletics to call security
and have them close and lock the gate while guarding it. Through these actions, we're at risk for losing access to the fields entirely.
We need to be very respectful of this access and do better in the future.

Saturday, October 21, 7:30-9:30PM

Caltech Alum Event
Voluneers: Michael Pajkos, Sam Rose, Harshda Saxena
Attendees: 275
The development office (Xochiltl Bravo) sort of pushed us into supporting their event, despite Cameron being out of town. Laurie Leshin gave a presentation, and then
Michael hosted a Q&A with Slido, while Sam and Harshda operated the 6" and 8" dobs to provide views of Saturn and the Moon. It sounds like it was a success!

Sunday, October 22, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Yavapai Tavern at Grand Canyon
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Jennifer Buz, Qicheng Zhang
Attendees: 40
A good first effort on Astronomy on Tap at the south rim. We set up at the outdoor patio of the Yavapai Tavern, using Cameron's projector and screen
as well as Rader's portable microphone. The temperature was mid-60s and not too cold, and there were a decent number of people in the
audience, both intentionally and accidentally. After Jennifer's talk, Cameron orally delivered the pub trivia, then came Qicheng's talk, and finally
the trivia answers. eVscope was setup throughout, providing views of M57, M27, and M13. People seemed to be into it, but not a huge turnout.
This would be bigger if it could be listed on NPS site, but the challenge was exposure. Will try to do again.

Friday, November 3, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Kat de Kleer, Steve Desch
Attendees: 50
A fun event in a fun place. As part of Cameron's Astronomer in Residence at the Grand Canyon, he organized some Astronomy on Tap events
in different parts of the park, including the base of the Grand Canyon at the Phantom Ranch Canteen. Guests to Phantom Ranch or campers
staying at Bright Angel Campground (or anyone who happened to be in the canyon at 8PM) were welcome to join the event. Like other Astro
on Tap events, it consisted of two 20-minute presentations, Q&A, astronomy-themed pub trivia, and telescope viewing of the dark skies in the park.
We brought in the projector, computer, and telescope, and everyone seemed to really dig it overall. Lots of positive feedback from the audience
and presenters alike!

Saturday, November 4, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Kaitlyn Kratter, Ben Weiner
Attendees: 50
A fun event in a fun place. As part of Cameron's Astronomer in Residence at the Grand Canyon, he organized some Astronomy on Tap events
in different parts of the park, including the base of the Grand Canyon at the Phantom Ranch Canteen. Guests to Phantom Ranch or campers
staying at Bright Angel Campground (or anyone who happened to be in the canyon at 8PM) were welcome to join the event. Like other Astro
on Tap events, it consisted of two 20-minute presentations, Q&A, astronomy-themed pub trivia, and telescope viewing of the dark skies in the park.
We brought in the projector, computer, and telescope, and everyone seemed to really dig it overall. Lots of positive feedback from the audience
and presenters alike!

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Anna Gülcher, Luke Bouma
Volunteer (3+): Harshda Saxena, Sam Rose, Kyle Hunady
Attendees: 160
After a 1-month hiatus in Pasadena over October, we hosted an Astronomy on Tap. Weather was cool but dry and turnout was solid but not overwhelming.
Both talks were fantastic, and people seemed to enjoy the pub trivia. Instead of the eVscope, we brought a 6" dobsonian, which was great with Saturn
and Jupiter as targets in the southern sky. Good night.

Friday, November 17, 7-9PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Stellar Tantrums and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
Lecturer: Yuping Huang
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Max Goldberg, Sam Rose, Sam Whitebook
Attendees: 120
80 in-person + 40 online = 120 attendees. Great lecture by Yuping and a very engaged audience overall. Clouds were overhead so we couldn't
provide views of the sky, but a lot of people stuck around for the Q&A panel. Good night.

Friday, December 1, 7:00-9:00PM

Sidewalk Stargazing
Coordinator: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (3): Nik Prusinski, Niyati Desai, Gabe Muro
Attendees: 200
Good night for observing. Saturn and Jupiter were both visible, so we brought the 6" and 8" dobs
to our normal spot in Old Town Pasadena. A constant flux of people to see these two targets, and lots
of great conversations with people about science. The business cards worked well too in getting the
relevant information out to people.

Monday, December 4, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Sam Rose, Mike Kelzenberg
Volunteer (3+): Isabel Sands, Yunfei (Robin) Wen, Adolfo Carvalho
Attendees: 100
Pretty suppressed turnout despite great weather and some excellent presentations. The people who
did attend were pretty enthusiastic, and it was a solid event. Jupiter was a great target for the 6" dob,
and people enjoyed that.

Friday, December 8, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - The Galactic Underworld: The Milky Way’s Sea of Dormant Black Holes
Lecturer: Kareem El-Badry
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Sam Rose, Kaustav Das
Telescope Captain: Nik Prusinski
Telescope Volunteers (4): Andrew Huang, Tony Rodriguez, Casey Law
Attendees: 120
80 in-person + 40 online = 120 total attendees. Kareem gave an amazing presentation on an unusual topic.
However, some issues with the sound in that he didn't hold the microphone close to his face during his presentation,
and the microphone sensitivity isn't very good anymore, so the sound was washed out for our online viewers.
I didn't realize this until after his presentation was over, so the recording isn't great. Next time, I should ensure that
the speaker holds the microphone closer, check the comments happening during the presentation in real time, and
turn off the podium microphone since it gets some additional noise that can wash out other sources. Ultimately, we
just need to get a better sound system in there. The telescope viewing went pretty well with both Jupiter and Saturn
visible. However, none of the telescope operators were experienced with our events, so they didn't know to pack up
at 9:45 and stayed out until 10:20 when the athletics center people came by. Hopefully we don't get banned from
using the fields after this.

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