What's happening in the sky this month? Friday, February 12 7-8 p.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube Join Chabot's astronomers for a short tour of this month's nighttime sky. Learn to recognize many of this month's constellations and bright stars, and even learn a little about celestial navigation! Your Support Matters Your support fuels exciting STEM programs like these. While this event is free, please consider making a donation to make fun learning opportunities available for our community. Donate

Fasten your seat belts – this is going to be a bumpy ride! Tuesday, January 19 7-8 p.m. Free, Watch on Facebook and YouTube  In 2020, we took a cruise to the center of the Milky Way.  In 2021, we leave the comfort of our home galaxy and head to the Times Square of the Universe – the Virgo Cluster.  Along the way, we will visit a whole zoo of different galaxies, the biggest star factory in the cosmos and…

Talk by Gerald McKeegan   Friday, January 29 7-8 p.m. Free, Watch on Facebook and YouTube Get ready to land on Mars! The Mars 2020 spacecraft, carrying the Perseverance rover, is already close to Mars, and the rover will land on February 18, 2021.  Join us Friday evening as astronomer Gerald McKeegan gives a Mars 2020 mission update. He'll describe the final phase of the flight and the "seven minutes of terror" NASA controllers will undergo as Perseverance descends to the Martian…

What's happening in the sky this month? Every 2nd Friday of the month 7-8 p.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube Join Chabot's astronomers for a short tour of this month's nighttime sky. Learn to recognize many of this month's constellations and bright stars, and even learn a little about celestial navigation! Dates:  February 12 March 12 April 9 May 14   Your Support Matters Your support fuels exciting STEM programs like these. While this event is free, please consider making…

Watch NASA's Perseverance Rover land on Mars! Thursday, February 18 12-2 p.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube Join our community for a special Mars rover landing watch party and Q&A with NASA experts who worked on the mission. The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover will make history when it lands on the red planet at 12:55 p.m. PST!  We are coming together virtually to make observations, ask questions and celebrate this moment in history. Connect with Chabot astronomers and experts as…

Talk by NASA’s Jose Santos, Aerospace Engineer and MEDLI2 Deputy Project Manager Friday, February 19 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube Entry, Descent, and Landing – often referred to as "EDL" – is the shortest and most intense phase of the Mars 2020 mission. It begins when the spacecraft reaches the top of the Martian atmosphere, travelling nearly 12,500 miles per hour (20,000 kilometers per hour). It ends about seven minutes later, with Perseverance stationary on…

Did you know there's a telescope flying through the sky? Talk by Dr. Dana Backman Tuesday, February 23 7-8 p.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube Get to know SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, which recently helped scientists find water on the Moon. SOFIA is a specially-modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that carries a very powerful 106-inch reflecting telescope. Soaring above 40,000 feet allows astronomers to study the Universe in ways that are not possible from the ground. What have…

We’ve made it to Mars! Now what comes next? Talk by Faride Khalaf Friday, February 26 7-8 p.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube The best part of traveling is when you arrive at your destination. You gather your belongings, freshen up and then start your trip. The Mars rover goes through a similar process. When a spacecraft approaches the planet Mars, there is an important process that requires extremely reliable technology! Learn more about the advanced techniques that deliver rovers…

What's happening in the sky this month? Every 2nd Friday of the month 7-8 p.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube Join Chabot's astronomers for a short tour of this month's nighttime sky. Learn to recognize many of this month's constellations and bright stars, and even learn a little about celestial navigation! Dates:  February 12 March 12 April 9 May 14   Your Support Matters Your support fuels exciting STEM programs like these. While this event is free, please consider making…

Join Chabot astronomers for the ultimate astronomy challenge! March 13-14 7:30 p.m. - 6 a.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube Tune in virtually as we explore the skies with a Messier Marathon, an event where astronomers observe as many Messier Catalog objects as they can. During this favorable time of the year, the Moon is absent and the sky orientation allows us to observe all of them through Chabot’s most powerful telescope, Nellie. There are 110 Messier objects, all galaxies,…

SETI Talk with Daniel Peluso  Tuesday, March 16 7-8 p.m.  Watch on Facebook and YouTube Learn about how students are using the Unistellar eVscope smart telescopes to engage in citizen science and exoplanet research! With the eVscope a novice astronomer can partake in exciting astronomy observation even from the heart of a city thanks to intelligent Light Pollution Reduction.  Our team (University of Southern Queensland, Unistellar, American Modeling Teachers Association, and Global Hands on Universe) is developing a novel citizen science astronomy observing research program at K-14 schools in collaboration with…

Your news desk on space...in space! Thursday, March 18 7-7:30 p.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube What’s going on in space? Chabot’s Breaking Space News live stream shines a light on recent and upcoming events in space exploration, astronomy, and any other startling or amazing things going on in the solar system and universe beyond.    Your Support Matters Your support fuels exciting STEM programs like these. While this event is free, please consider making a donation to make fun…

Saturday, March 27 11:00 a.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube  In honor of Women’s History Month and World Water Day, join us for an exciting talk from the founder of Solvatten, Petra Wadstrom. She will talk about her company's solar safe water system, that provides people living in developing countries with safe and hot water in a portable, environmentally friendly way.  Solvatten (Swedish for “Sun Water”) Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Sweden, Solvatten AB is a social enterprise that develops the Solvatten Solar Safe Water System, a cost-effective solution for use at the…

What's happening in the sky this month? Every 2nd Friday of the month 7-8 p.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube Join Chabot's astronomers for a short tour of this month's nighttime sky. Learn to recognize many of this month's constellations and bright stars, and even learn a little about celestial navigation! Dates:  February 12 March 12 April 9 May 14   Your Support Matters Your support fuels exciting STEM programs like these. While this event is free, please consider making…

Your news desk on space...in space! Thursday, April 15 7-7:30 p.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube What’s going on in space? Chabot’s Breaking Space News live stream shines a light on recent and upcoming events in space exploration, astronomy, and any other startling or amazing things going on in the solar system and universe beyond.    Your Support Matters Your support fuels exciting STEM programs like these. While this event is free, please consider making a donation to make fun…

Friday, April 23rd  7pm  Free, Watch on Facebook and YouTube Join us for a special screening of Saving The Dark, a documentary movie on astronomy and light pollution. Learn more about the significance of astronomy and the night skies, effects of light pollution on astronomy, human health, wildlife and beyond, what we can do to fight it.  Panelists will include Saving the Dark film producer Sriram Murali, joined by astronomers Richard Ozer and Gerald McKeegan. We will discuss the costs of…

SETI Talk by Dr. Michael Busch  Tuesday, April 27th  7pm  Free, Watch on Facebook and YouTube Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are small solar system bodies in orbits that come near or cross the orbit of Earth. Dr. Michael Busch will review NEAs as unique physical worlds, as potential impact hazards to Earth, and as accessible destinations for spacecraft.  Michael W. Busch, PhD, is a planetary astronomer and research scientist at the SETI Institute.  His research focuses primarily on studying individual asteroids with radar and radio technique;…

What's happening in the sky this month? Every 2nd Friday of the month 7-8 p.m. Watch on Facebook and YouTube Join Chabot's astronomers for a short tour of this month's nighttime sky. Learn to recognize many of this month's constellations and bright stars, and even learn a little about celestial navigation! Dates:  February 12 March 12 April 9 May 14   Your Support Matters Your support fuels exciting STEM programs like these. While this event is free, please consider making…

Talk by The SETI Institute's Beth Johnson Tuesday, May 18 7-8 p.m. Free on Facebook and YouTube We’ve all traveled to Tatooine, and some of us to Vulcan or Pandora, but how do these sci-fi worlds compare to the real life exoplanets like Kepler 16b, or the seven planets of TRAPPIST 1?  Join us on a journey to alien landscapes, real and imagined, and see if you can tell which are science fact, and which are science fiction.   About…

Talk by Dr. Dimitris Menemenlis, Research Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.  Friday, May 21 7 p.m. Free on Facebook and YouTube Learn more about climate science at NASA with Dr. Dimitris Menemenlis, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Working with the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, or ECCO, Menemenlis and colleagues attempt to make the best possible estimates of ocean circulation and use these to investigate ocean interactions with sea ice, land ice, atmosphere,…

Get cozy for this special virtual event! Wednesday, May 26 1:30-5 a.m. PDT Watch on Facebook and YouTube Stay up with Chabot astronomers to virtually watch a total eclipse of the Moon as it passes through the shadow of the Earth. It has been more than two years since we’ve enjoyed a total lunar eclipse, and this one will be extra special: it will happen during a perigean full Moon – a “supermoon.”  Starting at 1:47 a.m. PDT, the Moon…

Wednesday, June 30 7-8 p.m. Free on Facebook and YouTube  Join us for an asteroid day celebration, a global effort to highlight asteroid detection, research, as well as the current and future missions to explore them. Our celebration will include a recorded interview by a panel of Chabot’s teen Galaxy Explorers of Astronaut Dr. Edward Lu, Executive Director of the Asteroid Institute and one of the founding members of B612, an organization that works towards protecting the Earth from asteroid impacts.  Our speakers of the evening will be Dr. Thomas Prettyman, Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on what small bodies have to…

Every Saturday 9:30 p.m. Free, Watch on Facebook and YouTube Join our resident astronomers on Facebook Live and YouTube every Saturday evening live from Chabot’s Observation deck! Each week, our astronomers will guide us through spectacular night sky viewing through Nellie, Chabot‘s most powerful telescope. Weather permitting we will be able to view objects live through the telescopes and our astronomers will be available for an open forum for all of your most pressing astronomy questions. About Nellie Nellie is…