Join Us!

The Astronomy Department Events are open-to-the-public and take place at the Ocean Campus, 50 Frida Kahlo Way, San Francisco. These include our Lecture Series and Star Party events.

Star Party / Open House

All Star Party/Open House Events will take place on CCSF's Ocean Campus, 50 Frida Kahlo Way San Francisco, CA 94112.

All Star Party Events are held on the roof of Science Hall which is accessible only via stairwell through Room 405.  As this is the only means of access, we, unfortunately, cannot accommodate anyone who is unable to climb a stairwell.  These telescopic events are held, Weather Permitting; it will be indicated if alternate events are scheduled.

Astronomy Dept Star Party Upcoming Events 

TBA

Access to the Roof is through Science Hall 405. An elevator reaches the 3rd floor; reach the 4th floor by the middle staircase of about 30 steps. 

Alternate events are often scheduled if the sky is not clear. 

Lecture Series

All lectures will last for an hour and be held on CCSF's Ocean Campus unless otherwise noted.

Astronomy Department Lecture Series Seminar: TBA

  • April 18, 2018 "The Use of Internet-based Robotic Telescopes in a General Education Astronomy Course" by Kim Coble, Associate Professor of Physics, SFSU
  • March 21, 2018 "Another Pale Blue Dot: The SETI Institute’s Search for Exoplanets" by Franck Marchis, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Unistellar and Senior Planetary Astronomer  & Exoplanets Research Group Chair at SETI Institute
  • March 14, 2018 "Meet the Neighbors: Searching for Nearby Planets with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite" by Dr. Courtney D. Dressing, Assistant Professor of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley
  • February 21, 2018 “Monks Under the Moon” by Vivian White, Director of Free Choice Learning, Astronomical Society of the Pacific
  • February 21, 2018 "Sgr A* Emission Parametrizations from GRMHD Simulations" by Richard Anantua, Astronomy Department, UC Berkeley
  • November 8, 2017 "Introduction to Virtual Reality" by Paul Dravis, owner of FuturePerfect Machine
  • September 9 and 11, 2013
    • CCSF Student Alumni from UCSC and UC Berkeley
    • Goldstein, Nofi, Lange, Schumacker, and Kuznetsov
  • March 19, 2012. Tristan Smith, UC Berkeley "Neutrinos in Cosmology"
  • September 12, 2011: Dr. Claude-Andre Faucher-Giguere, UC Berkeley "From the Big Bang to Stars, Galaxies, and Balck Holes"
  • May 13, 2011: Dr. Samantha Edgington, City College of San Francisco
  • May 6, 2011: Dr. James Gibson, City College of San Francisco
  • April 29, 2011: Dr. Peter Williams 
  • April 22, 2011: Dr. Lancelot Kao, City College of San Francisco
  • April 15, 2011: Dr. Orkan Umurhan, City College of San Francisco
  • April 8, 2011: Dr. Alessando Airo-Farulla, City College of San Francisco
  • March 11, 2011: Dr. Claia Bryja, City College of San Francisco
  • November 18, 2005: Dr. Bill" Pezzaglia, "Is E = mc² wrong or is something missing?"
  • October 12, 2005: Dr. Mark Hurwitz, Physics at Lick-Wilmerding High School "The Puzzling Local Interstellar Medium"
  • November 21, 2002: Dr. Ben McCall, Miller Research Fellow, University of California Berkeley "The Mystery of the Diffuse Interstellar Bands."
  • November 7, 2002: Dr. Gibor B Basari, Professor University of California Berkeley "What Is A Planet?"
  • May 14, 2002: Dr. Chandra Vanajakshi, Consultant, NASA Ames Research Center "Star Formation"
  • May 8, 2002: Dr. Adrienne Cool, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, SF State University "High-Resolution X-Ray Studies of Globular Clusters with the Chandra Observatory"
  • December 12, 2001: Dr. Emily R. Morey-Holton, Chief Gravitational Research Branch, NASA Ames Research Center "How Gravity Shapes Life"
  • November 28, 2001: Sarah Church, Assistant Professor of Physics, Stanford University "The Afterglow of the Big Bang"
  • November 7, 2001: Dr. Susan Lea, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, SF State University "Life After Death: The Story of Neutron Stars"
  • May 2, 2001: Jim Gibson, UC Berkeley Graduate Student "Calibration of a Radio Telescope, and Why You Shoud Care"
  • April 27, 2001: Dr. Andrew Jaffe, UC Berkeley Center for Particle Astrophysics "Thoroughly Modern Measurements of the Density and Curvature of the Universe."
  • March 16, 2001: Dr. Scott Severson, UC Santa Cruz Lick Observatory "A Clearer View of the Universe: Adaptive Optics in Astronomy"
  • December 4, 2000: Dr. Van Dixon, UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory "So Much Hot Air: Searching for Hot Gas in the Galaxy"