Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Take Your Black Holes With Beer

[photo credit: Astronomy on Tap]

August 3 brings two of them. Gabriel Muro, a senior postdoctoral fellow in Caltech’s Department of Physics, opens at 7:30 with “Black Holes Tearing Apart Stars,” a title that is not exaggerating whatsoever. Xiaoshan Huang, a Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Scholar in theoretical astrophysics, follows at 8:30 with “What Makes a Solar Eruption Extreme?” Her published work runs to tidal disruption events and some of the most luminous stellar explosions on record, so the woman knows her way around a catastrophe. Two talks, one patio, no prerequisites.

Then comes the part that separates this from a lecture hall: you get to ask questions. The format pairs the talks with audience Q&A, which means a working astrophysicist will stand on a restaurant patio and field whatever you have been wondering since the third grade. On clear nights, the telescopes come out between talks for guided viewing. At 9, trivia, with prizes.

The chapter is not new at this. Astronomy on Tap runs in bars and social venues around the world, and Caltech’s astronomy outreach arm has handled the Los Angeles edition since 2016 under Dr. Cameron Hummels. It hit its 150th show and its ten-year mark in July. That is a decade of Mondays, more than 140 of them logged, and the format is well past its shakedown cruise.

One housekeeping note, offered in the spirit of saving you a disappointment. Organizers plan to circulate information about the August 12 total solar eclipse, and it is a genuine spectacle — from Iceland, Greenland, and Spain. Pasadena sees nothing that day, not even a partial. Book flights, not lawn chairs.

The evening itself costs nothing. No tickets, no reservations, no age limit. Food and drink are there if you want them and entirely optional if you don’t, which makes this the rare night out that scales to whatever you feel like spending. Bring the kid who asks too many questions at dinner. Bring the friend who claims not to like science. Bring a notebook, if you are that person.

Best of all, this happens one Monday a month, so a conflict this week is not a tragedy. Show up August 3, take the black holes, stay for the trivia — and put the next one on your calendar before you leave.

Astronomy on Tap, Dog Haus Biergarten, 93 E. Green St., Old Pasadena. Monday, Aug. 3, 7:30–9:30 p.m. One Monday monthly. Free, all ages, no reservations; food and drink optional. Event details via Caltech’s Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy events calendar.