Lecture and Stargazing Nights

We regularly host free lecture / stargazing nights, typically held once a month on a Friday evening. These events consist of a 30 minute public lecture, given by a member of the Caltech Astro, Physics, GPS, or IPAC departments, on some topic related to astronomy or space science. After the lecture, we provide 90 minutes of telescope-aided stargazing if the weather is cooperative and an extended Q&A Panel where attendees are welcome to ask any questions they have about astronomy, physics, planetary science, etc. The lecture and Q&A panel occur in the Hameetman Auditorium in the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at 1216 E California Blvd. The guided stargazing occurs on the adjacent athletic fields (the North Fields) accessible through a gate just south of the main entrance to Cahill near the parking structure stairs. Hameetman Auditorium seats 150 with some room in the aisles for standing room. We also have the capacity to live-cast the lecture on the back patio or in the library for popular overcapacity events and seat ~50-100 more. The event is staffed by volunteers from the department, mostly by graduate students and postdocs.

Events are typically scheduled to coincide with the first quarter moon, which makes a good stargazing target. They always occur on Friday evenings, and usually start at 7PM during the winter and 8PM during the summer to assure dark enough skies for observation. You can look at photos of all of our previous events.

Schedule of Event

Instructions for Volunteers

We typically need ~10 volunteers for each event. Click on each role to see the instructions/responsibilities for it:

• 1 Lecturer
• 1 Lecture Captain - Announcements, organization, and panel
• 3 Lecture Volunteers - Lecture setup and panel
• 1 Telescope Captain - Telescope setup and organization
• 4 Telescope Volunteers - Telescope operation and answering questions
• 1 AV Manager - Controlling the camera, setting up the overfill room, generating the YouTube video

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