(r31) 2023 < Main

Tags: view all tags
---+ Past Events from 2023

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.

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

[[20230119][Stargazing and Lecture at eCALS High School]]<br />
*Coordinator*: Margaret Lazzarini & Cameron Hummels<br />
*Speaker*: Rocio Kiman<br>
*Volunteers* (4+): Cameron Hummels, Nicholas Rui, Andy Boyle, Peter Boorman<br>
*Attendees*: 20<br>
Cloudy weather all day, which I think put some people off from attending.  Rocio gave<br>
a great 30-minute talk on stellar evolution.  Then Cameron demonstrated how telescopes work<br>
with a 6" dob.  Then we went around and each of us introduced ourselves and described what<br>
sort of science we work on.  The skies partially cleared, so we brought out the 6" to view Mars<br>
and Jupiter, and the eVscope2 gave some grand views of M42, M31, and M33.  People were<br>
very enthusiastic.  Predominantly latinx audience.<br>

---++++ Friday, January 20, 7-9PM

[[20230120][Lecture and Stargazing - Fireworks from Black Holes Devouring Stars]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Yuhan Yao<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (3+)*: Ilaria Caiazzo, Kyle Kremer<br />
*[[TelescopeCaptain][Telescope Captain]]*: Max Goldberg<br />
*[[TelescopeVolunteer][Telescope Volunteers]] (4)*: Qicheng Zhang, Sam Rose, Kathryn Plant, Marcos Perez<br>
*Attendees*: 100<br>
Attendance 100 = 60 in person and 40 online. Cold clear evening, but a good turnout and lots of enthusiasm.<br>
Yuhan gave a great talk, and then we had about half of the people stick around for the panel Q&A.  Good <br>
questions online as well as in person.  Stargazing views Mars and Jupiter as well as M42, M45, and M31.<br>

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

[[20230127][Stargazing and Ask an Astronomer @ Sierra Madre MS]]<br />
*Coordinator*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*Volunteers* (3-4): Ilaria Caiazzo, Kathryn Plant, Qicheng Zhang<br>
*Attendees*: 150<br>
Great weather and good turnout for this event at a middle school.  Konstantin Batygin gave a lecture beforehand<br>
followed by 150 8th graders spilling out into the parking lot.  We brought the eVscope and the 8" dobsonian, and there<br>
were probably 20 other telescopes from Carnegie and a bunch of amateur groups.  Ilaria staffed the "Ask an Astrophysicist"<br>
table inside with some good questions.  Comet views!<br>

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

[[20230130][Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Tina Seeger, Justin Foley<br />
*[[AoTVolunteer][Volunteer]] (3+)*:  Sam Rose, Xander Hall<br>
*Attendees*: 170<br>
Despite cold weather and a 20% chance of rain, we still had a great turnout!  Excellent talks by<br>
Justin Foley on rockets and Tina Seeger on Mars.  We took some video clips and posted online.<br>
Clouds cleared some and provided some views of the first quarter moon through the eVscope2.<br>
TVs were super finicky and caused problems.  Seemingly need to re-plug in the HDMI every time<br>
we plug in a new computer?<br>

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

[[20230201][Comet Viewing]]<br />
*Organizer*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*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<br>
*Attendees*: 500<br>
Overall a successful event.  The weather forecast was uncertain until just a day or so prior to the closest passage of the comet,<br>
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<br>
comet viewing about 24h before it took place.  The conditions weren't perfect, with the waxing gibbous moon overhead, but the<br>
atmosphere was very clear, which helped.  The primary impactor, as always, was the light source from the nearby stadium lights<br>
 at Caltech that are so egregious.  We had 12 or so volunteers throughout, all on duty on the athletic fields on our 6 telescopes:<br>
2 eVscopes, 1 C8 (all on the comet!), and then the three dobs looking at Moon, Jupiter, and Pleiades.  Some technical glitches<br>
getting things pointed at the beginning, but after 20 minutes, everything seemed to work OK.  Cameron gave a 25-minute presentation<br>
on the comet that seemed to get positive feedback.  150 attendees during the first talk at 7PM and 100 attendees during the second<br>
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<br>
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<br>
of astronomical targets that can be shown to people as they wait in line.  Starting setup maybe 15-30 minutes earlier to ensure no<br>
technical glitches.  Having a greeter at the entrance letting people know where to go and what to expect.  Having rope lights to better<br>
define where the queues should go..<br>

---++++ Thursday, February 2

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

---++++ Friday-Sunday, February 10-12

[[20230212][Death Valley NP Dark Sky Festival]]<br />
*Organizer*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*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<br>
*Attendees*: 5600<br>
After months of planning and organizing with NPS ranger Matt Lamar, this weekend finally arrived and by all accounts, it seemed like a  <br>
great success. We brought over a dozen volunteers to death valley for a few days and several educational activities.  This year, we  <br>
produced an astronomy on tap event at Stovepipe Wells' Badwater Saloon on Friday night, featuring talks by Kat de Kleer and Max Goldberg <br>
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<br>
and spilling out to the stargazing.  Observing conditions were terrific for telescopes, with great views of Orion Nebula, Comet ZTF (you could see <br>
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. <br>
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<br>
volunteers.  On Saturday and Sunday, we hosted a booth at the science expo, featuring our solar observing, marshmallow ignition, and build<br>
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.<br>
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<br>
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<br>
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, <br>
glow stick identifiers for all caltech astro volunteers, and a red-illuminated caltech astro table cloth with a greeter to direct to each telescope.<br>
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,<br>
and M31 and M45 on the 10" Dob.  Great job, team!<br>

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

[[20230213][Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Rocio Kiman, Peter Boorman<br />
*[[AoTVolunteer][Volunteer]] (3+)*:  Sam Ponnada, Viraj Karambelkar, Nivedita Mahesh<br>
*Attendees*: 60<br><br>
Cloudy skies and a light turnout.  I think the diminished crowd was due to this only being two weeks following our last event.<br>
Good talks and music and trivia.  No observing.  I got heckled by a guy in the crowd, but other than that, good event.<br>

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

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

---++++ Friday, February 24, 7-9PM

[[20230224][Lecture and Stargazing - Can exoplanets keep their atmospheres long enough for life to develop?]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Jessica Spake<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (2+)*: Qicheng Zhang, Sam Rose, Andreas Faisst<br />
*[[TelescopeCaptain][Telescope Captain]]*: <br />
*[[TelescopeVolunteer][Telescope Volunteers]] (4)*: <br>
*Attendees*: 70<br>
30 in-person + 40 online = 70 attendees total. Historical rain storm with flash flood warnings all day definitely affected<br>
the in-person turnout on this event.  But we still had a wonderful lecture and a lively Q&A session tonight.  Good one<br>
overall.<br>

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

[[20230228][Marshall Fundamental HS Science Night (Stargazing and Ask an Astronomer)]]<br />
*Coordinator*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*Volunteers* (3-4): Margaret Lazzarini, Nicholas Rui, Qicheng Zhang<br>
*Attendees*: 300<br>
Patrick Shopbell organized a science night at his son's public high school with lots of local science groups.<br>
Several Caltech departments were represented including IQIM, LIGO, and a solid state physics group with<br>
superconductors, but some JPLers were there and Carnegie brought their inflatable planetarium too.  We<br>
had originally planned to setup telescopes outside but the heavy rains prevented that, so we brought out <br>
a few telescopes and Qicheng's spectrograph to demonstrate how telescopes and spectroscopes work.<br>
This worked pretty well, but all of the light bulbs in the hallway were LEDs, so we didn't have a lot of spectral<br>
emission lines to showcase.  We'll have to investigate finding an appropriate portable light source like gas <br>
discharge tubes or something.  We were also able to hand out business cards for our outreach program, and<br>
many people seemed pretty interested in following up to come to some of our future events!<br>

---++++ Saturday, March 4, 10AM-1PM

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

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

[[20230313][Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Dee Dunne, Ben Roulston<br />
*[[AoTVolunteer][Volunteer]] (3+)*:  Emily Silich, Sam Rose, Isabel Sands<br>
*Attendees*: 90<br>
Some changes tonight.  Cameron re-purchased some additional merchandise since we were out of several things: pint glasses,<br>
buttons, stickers, magnets, etc.  We also had a larger table: 6' long, and a Square chip card reader for making purchases easier.<br>
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.<br>
In addition, we purchased a new camera setup, so that we could record the event and potentially post it on YouTube afterwards.<br>
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,<br>
but hopefully this worked OK.  Presentations by Dee and Ben went well, with some nice descriptions and topics.  The audience<br>
was pretty enthusiastic and interested.  No live music tonight, and the skies were just cloudy enough to prevent us from using the<br>
telescope, although Sam tried.<br>

---++++ Friday-Sunday, March 17-19

[[20230317][Great Orion Dark Sky Festival]]<br />
*Organizer*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*Volunteers* (2-3): Qicheng Zhang, Nicholas Rui, Carlos Ayala<br>
*Attendees*: 200<br>
A successful weekend overall.  Cameron went up Thursday, giving a lecture Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights to the attendees.<br>
The grad students arrived Friday midday and together with Cameron organized several science demos for the public for 2 hours on <br>
Friday and Saturday afternoons: H-alpha observing of the Sun, Sun funnel on the 4" dob, spectroscopy of the Sun, and the marshmallow<br>
ignition demo.  Following the science demos, the four Caltech Astro representatives hosted a 1-hour "Astrophysicist Q&A" on Friday and <br>
Saturday with 50-60 attendees each afternoon.  Some great discussions were had on cosmology, relativity, starquakes, cometary objects, <br>
sci-fi movie physics, and the biggest scientific discoveries and disappointments of the last decade.  Each night, we also observed with<br>
some of the provided telescopes as well as our own telescopes various night-sky targets.<br>

---++++ Friday, March 24, 8-10PM

[[20230324][Lecture and Stargazing - Black Holes, Spaghettification, and Time Travel]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Nils Deppe<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (2+)*: Peter Boorman, Nivedita Mahesh<br />
*[[TelescopeCaptain][Telescope Captain]]*: Andreas Faisst<br />
*[[TelescopeVolunteer][Telescope Volunteers]] (4)*: Albert Wandui, Qicheng Zhang, Margaret Lazzarini<br>
*Attendees*: 110<br>
110 = 70 in-person and 40 online attendees.  Lots of improvements this week.  One, we had clear weather after a very wet winter,<br>
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<br>
the last six years of lights shining down on us.  The tennis court lights remained on, but they were not a major problem.  Additionally,<br>
we used a new camera setup to record and broadcast our lecture to YouTube, which seemed to work pretty well.  We still need to <br>
make some adjustments to broadcast in HD instead of SD, but the image quality is already improved.  Nils' presentation went very well<br>
as he was very articulate and covered a challenging topic.  The Q&A panel handled the questions well, and the stargazing seemed to<br>
operate successfully too.<br>

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

[[20230406][Virtual Stargazing with Prison Inmates Students]]<br />
*Coordinator*: Cameron Hummels & Luke Bouma<br />
*Attendees*: 10<br>
Luke Bouma has been working with the Prison Education Project for the last couple of months, leading a class of incarcerated<br>
students in Hawaii on general astronomy education.  As part of this class, Cameron joined to help enable a stargazing class to<br>
occur.  We set up Cameron's eVscope on the roof of Cahill, controlling it with an iPhone that was manually tethered to a laptop.<br>
The laptop could connect to Zoom and share the iPhone's screen, showing what was being observed by the eVscope to participants<br>
on the Zoom call.  Luke started the zoom call and connected to the incarcerated students in Hawaii.  Over the course of the two hours<br>
we were able to observe around 8 objects, discussing the targets, the mythology behind the targets, as well as showing different views<br>
of each from other telescopes (HST, Keck, etc.).  We looked at the Pleiades, Venus, Mars, Polaris, Procyon, Whirlpool Galaxy, Cigar Galaxy,<br>
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<br>
and provided some clear views of Hercules Cluster to finish off.  Overall, it seemed like it was a success and the students got something<br>
out of it.  We'll definitely try to do this again for live-streaming stargazing sessions.<br>

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

[[20230410][Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Rob Manning, Shannon Statham<br />
*[[AoTVolunteer][Volunteer]] (3+)*:  Emily Silich, Andreas Faisst, Xander Hall, Isabel Sands<br>
*Attendees*: 250<br>
Biggest turnout yet to an in-person Astro on Tap!  Wonderful presentations but some technical hiccups despite all the preparations.<br>
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<br>
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 <br>
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<br>
some problems with Shannon Statham's PC Laptop.  It worked initially but a few minutes in and the new TV just stopped picking up<br>
the HDMI feed, despite a change in cords and changing broadcast ports several times.  Not sure what to make of that, other than to<br>
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 <br>
panasonic camera ended up with some visual artifacts in the video.  At certain points in the recording when the brightness of the TV<br>
screen is high, there are dark rolling horizontal bands that travel up the recorded video feed, which really look crummy.  Investigations<br>
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<br>
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 <br>
video from potentially one of our most important recordings. Bummer.  Other than that, the night went pretty well.<br>

---++++ Friday, April 14, 8-10PM

[[20230428][Lecture and Stargazing - The Quest for Cosmic Dawn: First Results from the James Webb Space Telescope]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Richard Ellis<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (2+)*: Emily Silich, Dee Dunne, Kaustav Das<br />
*[[TelescopeCaptain][Telescope Captain]]*: Qicheng Zhang<br />
*[[TelescopeVolunteer][Telescope Volunteers]] (4)*: Josh Liberman, Sam Rose<br>
*Attendees*: 130<br>
130 = 80 in-person + 50 online attendees.  Despite some overcast weather, we had a great night overall.  Richard gave a wonderful<br>
presentation on Cosmic Dawn, and then we had a rousing Q&A.  Qicheng brought his spectrograph and set up in the lobby with a<br>
portable compact fluorescent light, so you could see its emission lines, which tied in very nicely with the method of determining <br>
redshift described by Richard in his talk.  And we got zoom upgraded to broadcast at 1080p resolution (FHD), which I think really<br>
helped make the YouTube broadcast look better.  I think I need to remember to change the white balance and ISO brightness next<br>
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<br>
focus, but I need to investigate this further.<br>

---++++ Wednesday, April 19, 8-10PM

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

---++++ Thursday, April 20, 12-1PM

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

---++++ Saturday, April 22, 12-5:00PM

[[20230422][PUSD Science Fair 12-5:00PM (split into two 2.5h shifts)]]<br />
*Coordinator*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*First Shift Volunteers (11:30-2:30)* (3+): Rocio Kiman, Qicheng Zhang, Yash Tomar, Ed Nathan, Kaustav Das, Kathryn Plant<br>
*Second Shift Volunteers (2:30-5:30)* (3+): Xander Hall, Isabel Sands, Carlos Ayala, Qicheng Zhang<br>
*Attendees*: 2000<br>
Great event overall!  Around 100 different booths were assembled for this 5-hour festival.  After some<br>
pestering, I finally got a good number of volunteers to help out.  We staffed the marshmallow and <br>
comet demos, and we had a few additional components.  The H-alpha telescope and the sun funnel<br>
were out, which worked really well, especially with the Baade zoom eyepiece that I borrowed from Kat.<br>
Qicheng brought his spectroscope, which provided some great views of the Fraunhofer lines, and he <br>
also brought a small spotting telescope to point at Venus.  Lastly, we also had a small solar cell attached<br>
to an electric car motor, which spun its tires, which was a nice demo of PVs.  Good day overall.<br>

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

[[20230427][Stargazing at eCALS High School]]<br />
*Coordinator*: Margaret Lazzarini<br />
*Speaker*: Peter Boorman<br>
*Volunteers* (4+): Morgan Saidel, Kim Paragas, Michael Gutierrez, Qicheng Zhang, Rocio Kiman, Amruta Jaodand<br>
*Attendees*: 20<br>
A very energetic group of students turned out for the eCALS event.  Great views of the first-quarter moon<br>
and Mars and Venus.  Peter gave a great talk on black holes.<br>

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

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

---++++ Saturday, April 29, 10AM-4PM

[[20230429][International Astronomy Day at Museum of Natural History in Santa Barbara]]<br />
*Coordinator*: Rocio Kiman<br />
*Volunteers* (3): Kaustav Das, Javier Roulet, Qicheng Zhang. Carlos Ayala<br>
*Attendees*: 360<br>
Rocio led a group up to Santa Barbara to partner with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History for <br>
International Astronomy Day.  They had several educational activities including build-a-comet, warped spacetime,<br>
and telescopes set up.  Sounds like it went well overall.<br>

---++++ Saturday, May 13, 11AM-3PM

[[ScienceTrain][Science Train]]<br />
*Organizer*: Cameron Hummels<br>
*Volunteers* (4): Nicholas Rui, Nivedita Mahesh, Carlos Ayala, Yoonsoo Kim, Qicheng Zhang, Nik Prusinski<br>
*Attendees*: 80<br>
Probably our best Science Train yet, as we mixed in some new strategies.  We met at the Gold Line stop at Del Mar @ 11AM.<br>
We put on nametags and carried with us two: "Ask an Astrophysicist" signs, the H-alpha telescope, and the mount.  Two<gr>
groups of three people set up on the ends of the gold line heading towards Union Station, gave a quick announcement that<br>
we were scientists from Caltech there to engage with people about science.  Each group had a couple of engagements, including<br>
one with Louis Friedman, one of the co-founders of the Planetary Society!?!  When we arrived at Union Station, we asked<br>
security if we could set up the telescope on the train platform and they refused, so we headed to the outdoor space between the<br>
buses and the train station, found a security officer, and asked him if we could set up.  He was initially pretty hesitant, but said<br>
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<br>
about 25-30 people over the course of the 30 minutes we were there, including several security guards.  Most who stopped were really <br>
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<br>
Market.  The walk took about 25-30 minutes and was pretty uneventful, but it was sort of a pain hauling the telescope + mount there.<br>
When we arrived, we set up the telescope near the East entrance on Broadway.  Initially people were not very responsive for about<br>
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<br>
people over the course of an hour, both with the telescope, as well as Yoonsoo and Nik walking around with the sign.  Finally, we<br>
walked back to the train and rode it back to Pasadena, chatting with a few people on the return.  Definitely a success.<br>
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,<br>
and more eclipse glasses.<br>

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

[[20230515][Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Sofia Gallego, Leonidas Moustakas<br />
*[[AoTVolunteer][Volunteer]] (3+)*:  Josh Liberman, Isabel Sands, Nicholas Rui<br>
*Attendees*: 160<br><br>
Great talks from Sofia and Leonidas.  TVs worked fine this month, but we had problems during Leonidas' talk with some RFI on the microphone.<br>
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!).<br>
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.<br>
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).  <br>
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.<br>  
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 <br>
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 <br>
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.<br>

---++++ Friday, May 26, 8-10PM

[[20230526][Lecture and Stargazing - Seeing the Invisible: Astronomical Radio Waves]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Nitika Yadlapalli<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (2+)*: Dee Dunne, Jean Somalwar, Kaustav Das<br />
*Attendees*: 90<br>
130 = 50 in-person + 40 online attendees.<br>
Cloudy all week, and somewhat depressed turnout due to cloudy weather.  Sad, because the<br>
SN2023ixf was discovered in M101 1 week ago and it's still on the rise, so it would've been visible<br>
from Pasadena with the eVscope2.  Good presentation by Nitika on radio astronomy, followed by<br>
a lively discussion and Q&A Panel.<br>

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

[[20230612][Astronomy on Tap 100th Event @ Dog Haus]]<br />
*[[AoTCaptain][MC]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[AoTSpeaker][Speakers]] (2)*: Mike Brown, Laurie Leshin<br />
*[[AoTVolunteer][Volunteer]] (3+)*:  Nicholas Rui, Andreas Faisst, Anna Gülcher, Jessie Christiansen, Isabel Sands<br>
*Attendees*: 500<br>
Wow, what a great event.  We had a huge turnout, far overwhelming the capacity of the venue with about twice<br>
as many people as we've had at our next largest event.  But the talks were great and the music was good, and<br>
there were no major technical glitches (both the video and audio worked without issue).  We couldn't record from<br>
our normal location, so Andreas Faisst stood on the back stairwell and attempted to record.  There were also a number<br>
of people in the audience recording, so hopefully we got something out of it that can be put online.  Overall, a great<br>
100th event, and hopefully we will continue to have a solid turnout moving forward.  We are very lucky that it didn't rain.<br>

---++++ Friday, June 23, 8-10PM

[[20230623][Lecture and Stargazing - Dark Matter: The Elusive Fibers of the Universe]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Jacob Shen<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (2+)*: Nicholas Rui, Stephanie Deppe<br />
*[[TelescopeCaptain][Telescope Captain]]*: Dee Dunne<br />
*[[TelescopeVolunteer][Telescope Volunteers]] (4)*: Karina Barboza, Sam Rose, Carlos Ayala, Max Goldberg<br>
*Attendees*: 150<br>
100 in-person attendees and 50 online attendees = 150 total.  High-level but solid presentation by Jacob on dark matter.<br>
Good questions for our Q&A panel.  Clear weather for the stargazing with views of Moon, Venus, and Pinwheel Galaxy<br>
(and SN 2023ixf!) despite this event being the day after the summer solstice with sunset at 8:10PM.  I think the audience<br>
was really into the topic of dark matter with lots of creative questions.<br>

---++++ Friday, June 30, 8-10PM

[[20230630][Lecture and Stargazing - Finding Supermassive Black Holes with Pulsars]]<br />
*[[Lecturer]]*: Aaron Johnson<br />
*[[LectureCaptain][Lecture Captain]]*: Cameron Hummels<br />
*Panel Q&A*: Patrick Meyers, Sophie Hourihane, Katerina Chatziioannou, Joe Lazio
*[[LectureVolunteer][Lecture Volunteers]] (1)*: Reinier Janssen <br />
*[[TelescopeCaptain][Telescope Captain]]*: Qicheng Zhang<br />
*[[TelescopeVolunteer][Telescope Volunteers]] (4)*: Xander Hall, Maria Camarca, Thomas<br>
*Attendees*: 130<br>
90 in-person attendees and 40 online attendees = 130 total.  Really great evening overall.  Aaron gave a good introductory<br>
presentation on the recent NANOGrav discovery, and the panel Q&A went extremely well with lots of great questions and<br>
discussion on a variety of topics related to black holes, gravitational waves, radio astronomy, pulsars, etc.  Observations<br>
went well too with views of M101, Moon, Venus, and Hyades.  Really happy with this one.<br>

---++++ Monday, July 10 - Friday, July 14
Planet Finder Academy<br>
Andrew Howard's Keck Planet Finder Academy for local high school students 9-5PM every day this week.<br>
*Volunteers*: Cameron Hummels<br>
*Attendees*: 30<br>

Link back to [[http://www.astro.caltech.edu/twiki_outreach/bin/view/Main/WebHome][home page]].
Topic revision: r31 - 2023-07-11 - OutreachAdmin
~~Edit~~
~~Attach~~