Astronomy Club at UC Davis

This page refers to the Astronomy Club at UC Davis. Perhaps you are looking for the Davis Astronomy Club at the Explorit Science Center?

The Astronomy Club on their Spring 2014 Meeks Bay camping trip

The Astronomy Club at UC Davis loves to hold events to bring astronomy to the public. They have public viewings, star parties, and field trips to various cool places like the Lick Observatory and Mono Lake. It has been around for a long time, even prior to the existence of the student organization registrar on campus. They can often be found looking up at the sky through telescopes atop the Physics building.

Staying up-to-date

• The club's public Facebook page is currently one of the best ways to get up-to-date information on the club. Announcements on upcoming public viewings, camping trips, movie nights, etc. are most often posted here. Photo albums from trips are posted here by members as well.
• The official club website can be found at http://ucdastronomyclub.com/ which provides some basic information about the club as well as the information listservs were you can sign up to be notified of upcoming events though email.

Public Viewings

Public Viewings are times when knowledgeable members of the club break out the telescopes on the roof of Physics and show anyone who comes many wonderful things like galaxies, double stars, and nebulae. These viewings are open to everyone and are held on certain Fridays from 8 to 9 pm (as announced on the Facebook page). There are "moon" nights where the moon is out, obscuring dimmer objects, so bright objects like double stars, the moon, and planets are shown. "Dark" nights are those without the moon and the objects focused on are deep sky objects generally invisible to the naked eye like galaxies and star clusters.

Field Trips

Are when the Astronomy Club leaves Davis for some sort of Astronomy outing. Included are things like

• UCO Lick Observatory Tour
• Chabot Space and Science Center
• Camping at Mono Lake
• Camping at Meeks Bay

Movie Nights

Yes, some of the members of the Astronomy Club are, how shall we say it, nerds who like Science Fiction. Movie Nights are where we get together with snacks and watch SciFi movies on the relatively large screen of 55 Roessler Hall. Bring some popcorn and a blanket, and watch the official Facebook page for announcements.

2015-16 Club Contacts

• For general questions, contact:  Jacob Lambeck (President) [email protected]
• For questions regarding public viewings, contact: Larissa Schumacher [email protected]
• For questions regarding other special events, contact: Kaycee Willis[email protected]

2011-10-18 00:40:36   the UCD Astronomy club is cooler the atmosphere on pluto. —katiegall

2014-06-20 12:00:57   Really wish their twitter was linked to the facebook posts. Can never tell what's going on without a FB account :( —ToddKaiser

• The club is working on it, Todd. The trouble with moving away from Facebook is that it's so damn convenient for everyone with an account. Over the next year we may find a more universal way of communication (be it listserv, twitter + facebook, all three, etc). —jlamoure
• keyword being "with" an account. Some people don't use fb Daubert Does the club ever get down with other campus rooftop telescopes?
• We definitely realize that not everyone has a facebook. This coming year the club will have an officer position specifically for public communicaton purposes; we'll figure something out. I'm not sure what you mean by your other question, though. Aside from the telescopes at the Physics building, there is the Hutchison observatory, which is sadly restricted to upper-div Astrophysics students. The club also owns a couple telescopes which it is allowed to haul around for public events. —jlamoure
• I can assure you I'm not an upper div Astrophysics student, but I can get access to the Hutch observatory... :D Would the club be interested in doing some hiking to Rubicon peak in Tahoe to watch the next iteration of the Perseids? It's not that grueling of a hike, & being removed from the vast majority of the glow from civilization coupled with being on a mountain peak at elevation makes for excellent gazing. Should bandy that idea about... Anyone wants to meet up & watch some iridium flares?
• We will definitely do something for the Perseid meteor shower! Last year the club went out to a field in West Davis and watched with binoculars. Tahoe would take a bit more planning but is definitely possible. The moon will be near full though, so the viewing won't be as great this year. edit: didn't happen, sadly. —jlamoure