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.
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