Evening with the Stars – July 11, 2025

Evening with the Stars – July 11th, 2025 8:30pm

Lecture: Exploring the Extreme Universe

Astronomer: Dr. Olivier Hervet

Program Information

7:30 pm	Doors Open
	Lecture Hall	36-inch Great Refractor Dome
8:30pm	Science Lecture	History Lecture
9:30 pm	Science Talk (repeated)	Telescope Viewings
10:30 pm	History Talk (repeated)	Telescope Viewings
1:00 am	Doors Close

Observing passes are handed out when you check in at the door so please plan to arrive early!

Observing only ends when everyone has had a chance to look through the telescope.

Gift shop is open from 7:00pm until 11:00pm.

Weather may restrict telescope viewings, but all other activities will still take place.

Science Lecture

Exploring the Extreme Universe

Behind the apparent peacefulness and stillness of the sky we see when stargazing, the universe teems with invisible catastrophic events such as exploding stars and insatiable eating black holes. Cosmic gamma-rays are the messengers providing us with the clearest picture of this extreme universe. We will explore together the journey of gamma rays through the cosmos, starting from how we can detect them from ground-based telescopes up to their origin in the most extreme environments.

Dr. Olivier Hervet – UC Santa Cruz

Olivier Hervet is an assistant project scientist and lecturer at UC Santa Cruz. He received his PhD in astrophysics at the Paris Observatory in 2015. Olivier’s research focuses on understanding blazars’ structure and emission processes and studying the universe’s cosmological properties through gamma rays’ propagation. Olivier is a member and chair of the time allocation committee of the VERITAS collaboration, which observes the universe with very high-energy gamma rays. He is also involved in developing telescopes for the future Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), the world’s largest project of very-high-energy astronomy.

Telescope Targets

Tonight’s guests will have the chance to observe:

Great 36″ Reflector
Objects chosen each evening

Nickel 40″ Reflector
Epsilon Lyra / the Double Double

Outside Telescopes
More telescopes will be available outside looking at galaxies, star clusters, and more!

Epsilon Lyra / the Double Double – Image Credit: Nikolay NIkolov

Featured Observatory Volunteers & Staff

Hosts

Dr. Lauren Corlies

TBD

History Lecture 1

TBD

History Lecture 2

TBD

Great Refractor Operators

TBD

Nickel Reflector Operator

TBD

Nickel Reflector Control Room

TBD

Thanks to all of our volunteers for making this evening possible!

Tips and Additional Information

Refreshments

Snacks and beverages are available at the refreshment table in the main foyer. All proceeds help support the public programs. In the past, we have used proceeds to purchase an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), additional wooden benches in the main building, new speakers and amplifiers for the main building hallway, and partial funding of two spotting telescopes by the flag pole.

Dark Adjustment

Your experience at the telescopes will be better if your eyes have had an opportunity to adjust to the dark. For this reason, we try to keep the light levels low in both wings of the main hall.

Lights

Please refrain from use of flash photography or white light flashlights in the domes or adjoining hallway.

Assistance

We strive to make your visit as complete and meaningful as possible. Please let us know if you will need special assistance (for example, if you will have difficulty climbing stairs) by emailing tickets@ucolick.org, so we can make the necessary arrangements.

Our Volunteers

All of Lick Observatory’s public programs are greatly enhanced by the valuable participation of our many dedicated volunteers.

Interested in volunteering? Learn more here!