Astronomy on Tap

Astronomy on Tap is a nontraditional outreach event held in a pub. The general format is to have a few different short and informal science talks hosted in a local bar, with extended intermission between them so that members of the public can interact with the scientists present. It was originally organized in NYC in 2013, and has since spread to many cities around the US. We're partnering with other local astronomy institutions to organize the events for Los Angeles, and hopefully we'll expand to other parts of the city eventually. Between alcohol and science, what can go wrong?

Events typically take place at Der Wolfskopf, a German beer bar located in Old Town Pasadena, and are held one Monday a month. Additional events have occurred at the Mountain Rambler Brewery in Bishop in the Eastern Sierra and at The Thunderbird in Brentwood on the West side of Los Angeles. These bars offers happy hour prices on a few drink and food items for our group throughout the event. For photos from our previous Astronomy on Tap events, please see our Flickr Page.

The talks are on the astronomical topic of the speaker's choosing, but they're meant to be pretty informal. Drinking is encouraged for both speakers and audience members. Talks should be about 10-15 minutes long with 5 minutes for questions. In between talks, we'll have a 15 minute intermission for the astronomers present to interact with members of the public directly, answering questions, talking about astronomy, etc. by going around to tables. During the intermission period, we also have a series of slides playing on the TVs with astronomy-themed quiz questions. Audience members are encouraged to write down their guesses at the answers on a piece of paper and submit them to a box at the front. The person who gets the most answers correctly at the end of the night will get some sort of astronomy-themed prize. Lastly, we go through the quiz answers with the audience and then award a prize for the top person/team! In order to pay for the awesome prizes we give out, we sell Astro on Tap merchandise that we designed and sell at just above cost.

Rough Schedule of Event

Instructions for Volunteers

We typically need ~5+ volunteers for each event. Click on each role to see the instructions/responsibilities for it:

• 1 MC - Announcements, organization, panel, and quiz answers
• 2 Speakers - Presentation for 15 minutes
• 2+ Volunteer - Interact with public, help with organization, sell merchandise

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