Past Events from 2024

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

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

Friday, January 12, 8-10PM

Lecture and Stargazing - Supernovae: The Brilliant Endings of Massive Stars
Lecturer: Michael Pajkos
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Dee Dunne, Nicholas Rui
Telescope Captain: Andreas Faisst
Telescope Volunteers (4): Sam Rose, Xander Hall, Soumyadeep Bhattacharjee
Attendees: 180
120 in-person + 60 online = 180 attendees. Really great event last night with good weather, an excellent
presentation, and a lively panel and audience. No technical difficulties this month after some issues in
December, and we had so many intriguing questions from the audience that we struggled to get through all
of them in time! A good problem to have. Jupiter, M42, and M33 were targets.

Tuesday, January 16, 5:30-7PM

Telescope Training on Dobs and eVscope
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Participants: Javier Roulet, Ed Nathan, Eliot Finch, Marco Crisostomi
Good group. We got through setting up and taking down 6" dob; viewing Moon and Jupiter.
Also setup and takedown of eVscope with a view of M42.

Saturday, January 27, 5:00-7:00PM

Astronomy Night at Kester Avenue Elementary
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (1-2): Ashish Mahabal
Attendees: 400
Elementary school in Thousand Oaks hosted an astronomy night for their 800 students. Ashish went out
and answered questions for a few hours at the Ask an Astrophysicist table. It sounds like the event went
really well overall. Clear weather for stargazing with the Burbank Sidewalk Astronomers.

Monday, January 29, 7:30-9:30PM

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Kaustav Das, Niyati Desai
Volunteer (3+): Sam Rose, Nicholas Rui, Jean Somalwar, Nik Prusinski
Attendees: 250
Great event with two great presentations and a good turnout. eVscope provided views of M1 and M42.
Lots of engagement by the audience and several compliments from attendees afterwards. Warm weather
and no event for 7 weeks may have contributed to the great turnout.

Friday, February 16, 8-10PM

Stargazing Lecture - Chasing the Solar Atmosphere using Eclipses and the Parker Solar Probe
Lecturer: Gabe Muro
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Ivey Davis, Robin Wen
Telescope Captain: Sam Rose
Telescope Volunteers (4): Xander Hall, Kira Nolan
Attendees: 130
90 in-person + 40 online = 130 attendees. Solid presentation and good audience engagement tonight.
The weather was hazy with a few clouds, so moon and Jupiter were the only possible observations.
The telescopes got some dew on the mirrors, but it should be OK. Lots of discussion during the Q&A
of the eclipse, the Carrington Event, as well as dark matter. Good event.

Thursday, February 22, 5:30-7:30PM

Telescopes with Annandale Elementary School
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (1-2): Adolfo Carvalho, Xander Hall
Attendees:75
We hosted the Annandale Elementary School's telescope night with two telescopes. It's a public school of about
100 students in grades K-5 in Highland Park. and they were very excited to welcome us. The event was quite early
in the evening, and we only had views of the full Moon for the first 15 minutes. Then we were able to view Jupiter and
finally the Orion Nebula using the eVscope2. We also brought HST lithographs, solar eclipse glasses, NASA stickers,
and Caltech Astro business cards to hand out to families. Pretty good overall.

Friday, February 23, 5:30-7:30PM

Telescopes with San Rafael Elementary Science Fair
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (1-2): Kira Nolan
Attendees: 150
We joined local school San Rafael Elementary for their event which was part science fair, part black history month celebration.
There were a number of outdoor activities for the kids to do, including our telescope set up, as well as indoor activities with
entries in the science fair, a Ghanaian drumming demonstration, an art demonstration and more. At our station, we had views
of Jupiter and the Orion Nebula, and at the very end of the night the Moon rose high enough that we could observe it.
Lots of enthusiastic children, but we were a little too close to the air-powered rocket demonstration and rockets kept coming
down on our group. If we do it again, it might be good to move.

Tuesday, February 27, 6:00-8:00PM

CANCELLED: Telescopes with Marshall Middle School Science Fair
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (1-2): Sam Rose
Attendees: 0
Weather was overcast and no chance of observing, so we bailed.

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Zach Weinersmith, Maria Camarca
Volunteer (3+): Harshda Saxena, Xander Hall, Jean Somalwar
Attendees: 250
Awesome event despite some initial setbacks. Wet weather was forecasted for Monday's event, and because our venue
is outdoors, I made the call on Saturday and rescheduled it for Wednesday. This is our first time rescheduling, and I wasn't
sure what to expect, but we seemed to get the word out successfully through social media and the calendar, and we had
a great turnout of 250. The talks were both really good, and people seemed to enjoy it all. Clear skies with views of M42 and M1.
Lots of positive feedback from attendees.

Thursday, February 29, 5:30-7:30PM

CANCELLED: Telescopes with Mayor at State of the City event
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers (1-2): Sam Rose, Max Goldberg, Adolfo Carvalho
Attendees:
Weather was cloudy.

Friday-Sunday, March 1-3

Death Valley NP Dark Sky Festival
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Kathryn Plant, Phil Jahelka, Sam Rose, Joanna Piotrowska-Karpov, Platon Karpov, Nils Vu, Kira Nolan, Harshda Saxena, Kaustav Das, Xander Hall, Aniket Sanghi, Qicheng Zhang, Nicholas Rui
Attendees: 6000
High winds throughout, which required some changes to the plan.