Past Events from 2026

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.

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Jesse Han, Allison Matthews
Volunteer (3+): Maggie Li, Delaney White, Advait Mehla, Ipek Kerkeser, Jake Summers, Tim Proudkii, Sasha Mintz
Attendees: 250
Great turnout for a winter event. Weather was clear and not too cold. Telescope views of Orion Nebula and Pleiades in eVscope.
We also tried a new activity by having the GR VR headsets present on a table and staffed by Jake and Ipek, which appeared to be
a success. Each of the talks were solid, and Allison's talk about Grote Reber was a real winner. The audience was enthusiastic as
always. No live music.

Friday, January 16, 7:30-9:30PM

Fire & Ice Festival Astro Trivia in Ely, NV
MC: Cameron Hummels
Volunteer (3+): Katie Jameson
Attendees: 80
This event was for the Fire and Ice Festival in Ely, NV to support DSA education efforts there. As part of the festival, there was a
musical act playing at the convention center in town. We were asked to perform astro-themed trivia in the break between sets.
Cameron assembled a pub trivia similar to those at Astronomy on Tap, although a bit easier than usual. A good amount of enthusiasm
from the crowd considering they weren't specifically attending the event to learn about astronomy. Several requests for us to host
more events in town. Cameron also operated a telescope for the hour after the program ended and provided views of Jupiter and the moon.

Saturday, January 17, 7:00-9:00PM

Fire & Ice Festival Guided Stargazing in Ely, NV
MC: Cameron Hummels
Volunteer (3+): Katie Jameson
Attendees: 100
The Fire & Ice Festival in Ely, NV featured fireworks being set off the Nevada Northern Railway as it drove into the countryside. Directly
following the fireworks display, there was a large bonfire ignited at the railway station with a couple hundred attendees. We set up
a Caltech Astro table and telescopes at the event, providing views of the heavens to attendees. Despite the cold weather, there was a lot
of interest. We had the eVscope pointing towards the Orion Nebula and the 6" dobsonian pointed alternately between the Saturn and Jupiter.
We also handed out some DSA and outreach literature and NASA swag.

Sunday, January 18, 11:00AM-3:00PM

Fire & Ice Festival Solar Observing in Ely, NV
MC: Cameron Hummels
Volunteer (3+): Katie Jameson
Attendees: 50
The final day of the Fire & Ice Festival featured a snowman content in Broadbent Park. We arrived an operated solar telescopes over the course
of the day, providing people views of the solar surface. We had two dobsonians with solar filters and the SeeStar with a solar filter. Lots of sunspot
activity and chances to describe solar convection, sunspots, and the solar winds' interaction with the earth's magnetosphere, and aurorae.

Friday, January 23, 8-10PM

Stargazing Lecture - Simulating Galaxies, Stars, Planets, and Giant Black Holes on a Computer
Lecturer: Phil Hopkins
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Harshda Saxena, Isabel Sands
Telescope Captain: Maggie Li
Telescope Volunteers (3+): Tirth Surti, Laura Fredericks, Yabo Ogunduyile, Ai-Dan Le, Sasha Mintz, Tim Proudkii
Attendees: 160
120 in-person + 40 online = 160 attendees. Hazy evening, but we were still able to view first quarter moon, Jupiter, and Orion Nebula.
Phil's talk was solid, and lots of good questions from the audience afterwards. Some challenges with the A/V, since the sound system
in Hameetman was recently upgraded, but I had no prior knowledge, so I could not connect the sound for the livestream directly
to the house speaker system. I relied on the shot mic on the video camera to record, which worked, but the sound is super echoey
and pretty hard to understand. I'll try to fix this up for next time. Tim Proudkii saved the day when Maggie Li bailed as Telescope Captain
with <3 hours prior to the event.

Friday - Sunday, February 6 - 8

Death Valley NP Dark Sky Festival
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteers: Harshda Saxena, Ipek Kerkeser, Sam Rose, Advait Mehla, Delina Levine, Leo Betancourt, Becky Williams, Tim Proudkii, Sasha Mintz, Demet Kirmizibayrak, Delaney White, Audrey Martin, Oscar Kamps, Will Lawrence, Samantha Baker
Attendees: 6250
Very good weekend. This years group was about the same number as past years, but we expanded (overreached) in terms of what we could do.
I had additionally brought in 4 members of the GPS department to staff a minerals and meteorites table, which ended up going really well.
Audrey Martin was the leader of that group, and she brought in a postdoc and two grad students to staff the table over the weekend.
They didn't participate in the Astro on Tap events, which was fine since we had a good group for that. The remaining 12 volunteers took
different shifts at the Science Expo throughout the day (2-3h each) and then all 12 contributed to the Astro on Tap events in the evenings.
Aside from these responsibilities, Gregg Hallinan gave a keynote talk on DSA, and I gave a lecture on galaxies on Saturday which were both
well attended (mine was the largest non-keynote talk of the program). We also had a Q&A panel on Sunday with Sasha, Delaney, Advait, and Becky.
The first Astro on Tap at Stovepipe Wells was challenging in that they didn't have anything set up for us beforehand, and the staff didn't seem to know
that the event was happening, despite a long email chain with POWDR in the months prior to this event and a confirmation 2 days beforehand
Very disappointing, and I'm not sure if we'll work with them again. On the other hand, Furnace Creek was on top of things this year and
had everything ready to go when we arrived. It's not as dark at Furnace, but we set up telescopes and had great talks and the pub trivia went well.
We had record numbers with 220 show up at the Furnace night. The weather was perfect with no clouds and no wind and good temperatures.
We shared our campsite with the USC SSP students, which was a bit loud and raucous, so I'm not sure I'd recommend working with them again.
One challenge we faced at the science expo was that we only ever had ~3-4 people on our marshmallow+solar+comet demos at a time, so it was
hard to get photographs of the event since I was constantly working. Hopefully in future years we can get 4 volunteers per shift to ensure this goes
more smoothly, or atlernatively have fewer activities.

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Jack Kiraly, Tom Greene
Volunteer (3+): Ai-Dan Le, Randy Muñoz, Bruno Bitencourt, Maggie Li, Delaney White
Attendees: 180
Busy night after the Death Valley Dark Sky Festival over the weekend. Good turnout for a winter event with ~180 in attendance.
Large contingent from astronomical community to see both Tom and Jack speak (with a lot of Planetary Society employees turning out).
Weather conditions were partly cloudy, but we were still able to make out Jupiter in the haze with the 6" dob. Great talks by Jack and Tom
with a lot of enthusiam for both. Dog Haus installed an additional outlet for us on the roof so we could plug in the 3rd TV without running a
long extension cable to the alley, but unfortunately there wasn't enough power on the circuit and it caused the overhead lights to flash when
we plugged it in. So no go this time, and we just used the old method with the long extension cord. Lots of new volunteers this time, but
Delaney and Maggie were helpful in getting everyone up to speed. No real A/V problems, which is good.

Monday, February 23, 6:30PM - 9:30PM

DSA Science Fiction vs Fact Film Series in Ely, NV
Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteer: Katie Jameson
Attendees: 100
This was a first attempt at starting a science fiction film series in Ely as part of the DSA education efforts there. I collaborated with Don
Purinton, the owner of the Ely Central Theater to host a free movie for the community. We screened the movie Interstellar, since it has
significant science themes and is a good film overall. In the hour preceding the event start, I operated a 6" dob in front of the theater, offering
views of Jupiter and the first quarter Moon to visitors. Katie Jameson staffed a DSA/Caltech table in the lobby with various swag as well as
perfumes that are designed to replicate the smell of the Moon and being on board a spacecraft (i.e., plastic). At event start, I gave a 15-minute
introductory presentation on the relevant science themes addressed in the movie: black holes, time dilation, exoplanets, worm holes, etc.
Then we watched the movie. Afterwards, I operated the telescope again. There was a very strong turnout for this event in such a small town,
with a lot of enthusiastic attendees. We advertised it through White Pine County tourism and it got some good reach. Overall the event was a
success, although there were a few points of improvement for next time. The film choice was good, but it has some challenges with audio
in that some scenes are ear-blastingly loud, while much of the dialogue in other scenes is very quiet. I imagine this is a product of the film mastering
as well as maybe a misconfiguration of the speakers in this theater, as we didn't have challenges with a different film the next day. The science
lesson presentation went well to occur prior to the movie, as the movie was long and when we finished at 9:30PM, everyone promptly left. I had
some challenges with the range of my presentation slide advancer remote, preventing me from standing at the front of the theater, so next time
I will use my iPhone to do this (iPhone+MacBook using keynote on the same wifi network allows for long-range slide advancer functionality).
Beyond that, I think we just need to find more movies for the series and do it again quarterly. It only cost $100 to rent the theater and $150 for
the film rental. A good start!

Tuesday, February 24, 9:00AM - 11:30AM

White Pine County Schools Film and Science Lesson
*Organizer: Cameron Hummels
Volunteer: Katie Jameson
Attendees: 80
Consistent with the activities of the previous night with the film series, we repeated this effort with the fifth grade classes from David E. Norman
and Learning Bridge Elementary Schools as a field trip for the students. We rented out the Ely Central Theater for a screening of WALL-E for
the students. The kids arrived, bought popcorn and sat down in their seats with teachers and some chaperones in tow. We watched the movie
straight through, and then I gave a 30-minute lesson on the relevant science topics addressed in the film: photosynthesis, solar power generation,
orbits, rocket propulsion, Newton's third law, and more. Then we hosted a brief science Q&A with the kids, which was useful at identifying some
additional lessons from the movie. The event went well and I got feedback from the teachers about the kids enjoying it and learning from it.
Don, the owner of the theater, doesn't really like children, so it was challenging to get him to agree to this. We had to make sure that the kids
were on their best behavior and that they had identified how many kids would want refreshments (kid's packs of popcorn and a drink) beforehand
so that it was more efficient at getting the kids in the theater. This seemed to work pretty well. I think we'll build on this for the next school year.

Friday, February 27, 8-10PM

Stargazing Lecture - Revealing the Primordial Universe Through Its Oldest Light
Lecturer: W.L. Kimmy Wu
Lecture Captain: Cameron Hummels
Lecture Volunteers (2+): Dee Dunne, Isaac Cheng
Telescope Captain: Delina Levine
Telescope Volunteers (3+): Julia Johnston, Yabo Ogunduyile, Carl Crum, Randy Muñoz, Luke Handley, Ethan Potter
Attendees: 210
170 in-person + 40 online = 210 attendees. Great presentation on the CMB by Kimmy Wu with very good content. Clear weather all night.
We were able to view Jupiter, Crab Nebula, and first quarter moon. A solid turnout of volunteers from CalState LA to join us. Challenging
questions all night for the Q&A panel. Still some challenges with the new A/V system. Cameron spent over an hour beforehand working with
James to get the sound/video working OK so there were no feedback loops and so the sound would broadcast through HDMI to the house
speaker system. In general, many reboots of the computing infrastructure in the lectern are required, even though this is a brand new $50k
system. But we were able to mostly make it work. Happy attendees.

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

Astronomy on Tap @ Dog Haus
MC: Cameron Hummels
Speakers (2): Sasha Mintz, Tim Proudkii
Volunteer (3+): Isaac Cheng, Ethan Potter, Jaeden Bardati, Randy Munoz, Julia Johnson
Attendees: 300
Great turnout and event! I got there at 7:15, which slowed us down some, but we were able to get the event started by 7:40PM. The weather
was clear, so I brought a dob for Jupiter and the Galileian Moons as well as the SeeStar for the Crab Nebula. Some problems with the SeeStar
being disrupted and not working, but after several resets, it finally worked. Our speakers did a very good job and got lots of questions and compliments.
Crazy parrot flyby several times over the course of the night that was deafening. Damn those parrots--hahahah. Arjun said they had the external
outlet fixed to address the drop in power capacity that prevented us using it previously, but when we plugged in the 3rd TV it still had insufficient power
and caused the lights to flicker, so we had to use the long extension cable as previously. Beyond that, no real A/V problems. I'll have to remember to
not allow anyone to sit adjacent to the speaker with food, otherwise we get someone on video just eating the whole time which is quite distracting.
Very big turnout, and even Mike Brown showed up, which was funny except that he was shouting out answers to the trivia. hahahaha.

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