Astronomy on Tap Davis, CA

You may have heard about comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3), which is now visible both in the evening and morning skies close to the horizon. Davis' flat terrain and cloudless summer skies make for excellent viewing! The comet is fairly bright and appears near dawn and dusk, so dark skies are not necessary to view. An AoT member was able to see the comet by eye in the morning hours last week by looking to the northeast, though it was much more spectacular through binoculars or a l...onger 5-10 second exposure camera photo (with a tripod). Here is a photo taken at 4:30am from Road 99 just north of Davis, looking to the Northeast: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_schmidt/50097712543/ In the evening sky the comet will appear very low to the horizon to the Northwest, for example here is a photo, again from Road 99, taken at 10:00pm. https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_schmidt/50107316877 The comet is speeding away from the Sun on it's very long 6800 year orbit, and its position in the sky will change as it moves away. This article from Sky and Telescope provides some convenient finding charts by day for where to look to spot the comet for both morning and evening views: https://skyandtelescope.org//comet-neowise-delights-at-da/ Happy comet hunting!

Hey space fans! The first joint NASA-SpaceX crewed mission to the International Space Station is launching TODAY at 1:30pm Pacific time!!! Watch the livestream here: https://www.cbsnews.com//spacex-launch-today-nasa-time-ch/ #LaunchAmerica

Do you thirst for a live Astro on Tap, and awesome awe inspiring knowledge of the cosmos during the covid crisis? Check out Caltech's AOT *live* tonight at 7:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BKxSGsIrUI&feature=youtu.be

Check out Astronomy on Tap Saint Louis from earlier today! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u_nTLwy_Os

Dr. Mubdi Rahman from the Dunlap Institute in Toronto has posted another episode of A Picture in 1000 Words, watch if you want to hear a little bit about the nearby Whirlpool Galaxy and its large companion galaxy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlWatTuxVys&feature=youtu.be

To both support our host brewery and encourage more questions, if we get enough suggestions for topics that you might be interested in hearing more about, we will pick our favorite and the submitter will get a *$20 gift card* from Sudwerk, redeemable toward beer, wine, food, snacks, merchandise, or even donation to feed frontline workers and first responders. You can reply below, send a message with facebook messenger, or reply via twitter. Questions and topics can be almost anything you've ever wanted to know about astronomy, from the very general: "why are stars different colors", or "how do we know how far away all of these objects are?", to the very specific, e.g. "I want to hear more about that comet that just disintegrated" or "any updates on Betelgeuse?". We look forward to hearing what interests you may have!

Hey AoT fans, we miss seeing you at Sudwerk Brewing Co.! Since we don’t know when our next in person Davis Astronomy on Tap will be, we thought we’d do a Davis AoT team Q&A. So... what are your most burning questions about space?

If you need more astronomy to tide you over until AoT returns live, tomorrow at 8pm PDT on the Science Channel there will be a 2 hour documentary celebrating 30 years of the Hubble Space Telescope. https://www.space.com/science-channel-hubble-space-telescop

Do you have 20 minutes to learn about astronomy? This is just wrapping up now! Dr. Mubdi Rahman from the Dunlap Institue is talking about "A picture in 1000 words". In this short 20 minute video Mubdi talks about the Orion Nebula.

Epic live-stream event TODAY (9th April) from 12pm pacific to 7pm! Brought to you by AoT locations worldwide to celebrate the 7th orbit-versary of the first ever AoT in NYC 7 years ago!!! More information on speakers and talks can be found at http://astronomyontap.org/2020/04/watch-this-space/ Youtube channel for live-stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWuQq3ljCpc&feature=youtu.be... Tune in at any time for your dose of astronomy in these uncertain times

Looking to get an Astronomy fix? Check out Caltech's new lecture series! The first one is up on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUD6GoXisSs) and features *real* pictures of exoplanets