Orange County Astronomers

Outreach - Brea Girl Scouts Campout
2024-06-21 21:00 - 22:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Brea CIty Hall Park, 401 S. Brea Blvd., Brea, 92823, United States
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OCA Astrophysics SIG Meeting
2024-06-21 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-05-17 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-04-19 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-03-15 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-02-23 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-02-16 19:00 - 21:00, 2024-01-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
The monthly meeting of the Astrophysics Special Interest Group is at 7:00 PM every third Friday of the month at the Heritage Museum of Orange County. Please contact the ASIG chair for details at mark@ocastronomers.org .
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Open Spiral Bar
2024-06-15 22:00 - 23:30, 2024-05-11 22:00 - 23:30, 2024-04-13 22:00 - 23:30, 2024-03-09 22:00 - 23:30, 2024-02-17 22:00 - 23:30 | Online
This is a free and open to the public online event.
Join Zoom

Come and socialize with your fellow astronomy enthusiasts face-to-face virtually!
Bring your latest astrophotography, mini-presentation, questions or none and your own refreshments.

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General Meeting – June 2024
2024-06-14 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
This is a free and open to the public hybrid event, held both inperson and online.
Due to the newly effective insurance requirements, we regret that we can not allow people under 18 on the Chapman Campus, they are welcome to attend online.
Join Zoom

This meeting’s speaker will present online from Washington, DC.

Extreme Astronomy

This program examines telescopes, space travel, planets, moons, mountains, stars, galaxies, clusters, and black holes in the quest to find the largest, highest, closest, furthest, hottest, coldest, most massive, brightest, and darkest among these various objects and also many firsts among astronomical discoveries and accomplishments.

Charles E. Allen III (“Chuck”)
Chuck is current League Vice-President and a past League President (1998-2002). A League Lifetime Member, he founded the National Young Astronomer Award in 1991, received the G. R. Wright Award for service in 1998, holds the League’s Master Outreach Award with over 550 public programs to his credit, and earned the League’s master observer gold progression with 43 observing programs completed. He co-chaired ALCon ’21 Virtual and currently coordinates three League Observing Programs. Chuck is past-president of the Louisville Astronomical Society and current Program Director of the Evansville Astronomical Society. He is a past judge for the Intel (now Regeneron) International Science and Engineering Fair and served as a United State Air Force officer before entering the practice of law. He’s been an amateur astronomer since age 7.
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Online Beginner's Class
2024-06-07 19:30 - 21:30 | Online
This is a free and open to the public online event, to attend please register with zoom by clicking here at or after 7:10pm.
The 4th session of the Beginners Astronomy Class covers the science behind the telescope.
How do our eyes actually perceive objects we see in the telescope and what is the physics that allows that perception.
For details, please visit here and download the sample information PDF package.
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Owens Valley Radio Observatory Tour
2024-06-07 13:00 - 2024-06-08 17:00 | Owens Valley Radio Observatory, 100 Leighton Lane, Big Pine, CA, 93513, United States
June 7th Star Party
June 8th Tour & Activities starting 1:00pm followed by a Star Party
Science Beyond The Book
With Dr. Doug Millar and Cecilia Caballero
For more information, please contact Dr. Millar

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General Meeting – May 2024
2024-05-10 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
This is a free and open to the public hybrid event, held both inperson and online.
Due to the newly effective insurance requirements, we regret that we can not allow people under 18 on the Chapman Campus, they are welcome to attend online.
Join Zoom

This meeting’s speaker will present online from Washington, DC.

Data Driven Discovery

In Evolving Planetary Systems

A Mineral Informatics Approach

The key to answering many compelling and complex questions in Earth, planetary, and life science lies in breaking down the barriers between scientific fields and harnessing the integrated, multi-disciplinary power of their respective data resources. We have a unique opportunity to integrate large and rapidly expanding data resources, to enlist powerful analytical and visualization methods, and to answer multi-disciplinary questions that cannot be addressed by one field alone.
Rapidly expanding mineral data resources have created an opportunity to characterize changes in near-surface mineralogy through deep time and to relate these findings to the geologic and biologic evolution of our planet over the past 4.5 billion years. Data-driven studies employing advanced analytical and visualization techniques such as mineral ecology, network analysis, and association analysis, allow us to begin tackling big questions in Earth, planetary, and biosciences, including those related to (1) the relationships of mineral formation and preservation with large-scale geologic processes, such supercontinent assembly, the oxidation of Earth’s atmosphere, and changes in ocean chemistry. (2) The abundance and likely species of as-yet undiscovered mineral, as well as the probability of finding a mineral or mineral assemblage at any locality on Earth or another planetary body. (3) Exploring the possibility that Earth’s mineral diversity and distribution is a biosignature. (4) Characterizing the origins of all mineral species through the development of the Evolutionary System of Mineralogy – a system that will provide a framework for predicting the formational conditions of mineral species of unknown origin. (5) Lastly, integrating across disciplines and exploring ideas that one field alone cannot fully characterize (e.g., how the geochemical makeup of our planet affected the emergence and evolution of life, and, likewise, how life influenced chemical composition and geological processes throughout Earth history).

Shaunna M. Morrison is a mineralogist and planetary scientist with expertise in crystallography, crystal chemistry, and the application of data driven techniques. Morrison is the 4D (Deep Time Data Driven Discovery) Initiative Co-Director at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Earth and Planets Laboratory, former Project Manager of the Carnegie led Deep-Time Data Infrastructure (DTDI), a Co-Investigator of the CheMin X-ray diffraction instrument on the NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, a collaborator on the NASA Astrobiology ENIGMA Project, a Co-Investigator of the NASA Astromaterials Data System, and a data contributor and collaborator of the RRUFF Project, including the Mineral Evolution Database (MED), and the Evolutionary System of Mineralogy Database (ESMD). Morrison builds on her technical and theoretical background in crystallography, crystal chemistry, and martian mineralogy, to explore new techniques in multidimensional, multivariate analysis and visualization by employing a range of advanced analytics and machine learning techniques to better understand the complex relationships among Earth and planetary materials, their formational environments through deep time, and their coevolution with the biosphere, including identifying and characterizing mineralogical signs of life.

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OCA Board Meeting
2024-05-05 11:30 - 14:30 | Online
May 5 at 11:30am is the next scheduled board meeting to be held via Zoom. The meeting is open to all OCA members in good standing. If you want to attend contact the Secretary, Alan Smallbone and link will be sent for the meeting.
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Online Beginner's Class
2024-05-03 19:30 - 21:30 | Online
This is a free and open to the public online event, to attend please register with zoom by clicking here at or after 7:10pm.
The 3rd session of the Beginners Astronomy Class covers different methods of finding objects in the night sky. Special topic is learning the constellations.
For details, please visit here and download the sample information PDF package.
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General Meeting – April 2024
2024-04-12 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
This is a free and open to the public hybrid event, held both inperson and online. Due to the newly effective insurance requirements, we regret that we can not allow people under 18 on the Chapman Campus, they are welcome to attend online.
Join Zoom

This meeting’s speaker will present online.

How to Work Amateur Satellites

with Your Handheld Radio

You do not need 100W of transmit power nor expensive antenna arrays to work the FM voice amateur satellites! Many hams already have the necessary equipment to “work the birds.” This presentation will walk you through ALL the steps needed to successfully work several ham satellites – including the International Space Station.

Clint K6LCS has been a ham since 1994, and found his niche in the hobby: working amateur satellites with minimal equipment and telling ALL about it! He has served a liaison between NASA, the ARISS team, and schools coordinating amateur radio contacts between the International Space Station and students (and also orchestrated a wildly successful ARISS contact). Audiences have never found his presentation slides “wordy” nor dull. Trivia questions are included throughout the session – audiences are never bored.
For reference materials, Clint has created a support Web site at work-sat.com. The Web site has become a one-stop source for ALL the citations and equipment recommendations and software suggestions made in the presentation.
Professionally, Clint was sales manager for ADI / Premier Communications / Pryme, worked for a Motorola commercial two-way dealer a couple of years, and for Ham Radio Outlet a couple more. He resides in Jurupa Valley, California, with his wife, Karen, and their new addition to the family: Huck, a two-year-old 75-pound Lab.

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Online Beginner's Class
2024-04-05 19:30 - 21:30 | Online
This is a free and open to the public online event, to attend please register with zoom by clicking here at or after 7:10pm.
The 2nd session of the Beginners Astronomy Class covers the different types of equipment used to observe the night sky, including telescopes, mounts, eyepieces, filters, and advantages and disadvantages of different options.
This session is a must if thinking about buying a telescope.
For details, please visit here and download the sample information PDF package.
Views: 5

General Meeting – March 2024
2024-03-08 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
This is a free and open to the public hybrid event, held both inperson and online.
Due to the newly effective insurance requirements, we regret that we can not allow people under 18 on the Chapman Campus, they are welcome to attend online.
Join Zoom

This meeting’s speaker will present online from Waterloo, Canada.

Cosmic Mirages: Seeing Dark Matter

with Gravitational Lenses

Most of the matter in the Universe is dark matter: an elusive particle that is completely invisible. But we can “see” this matter by studying how it distorts the light from galaxies in the distant Universe, a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. I will give a whirlwind tour of gravitational lensing’s “greatest hits” showing how it can be used as a tool to understand some of the most mysterious things in the Universe: from black holes to the “cosmic web” of dark matter that links galaxies together.

Mike Hudson received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge in 1993 where studied the expansion of the Universe. He did post-doctoral research work at Durham University and at the University of Victoria in Canada, where he was a National Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics. In 1999, he moved to the University of Waterloo, where he is currently Professor. His scientific interests include the nature of dark matter and dark energy, how the Universe expands, and how galaxies form and evolve. He can be found on Twitter as @MikeHudsonAstro
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OCA Board Meeting
2024-03-03 10:30 - 13:30 | Online
March 3 at 10:30am is the next scheduled board meeting to be held via Zoom. The meeting is open to all OCA members in good standing. If you want to attend contact the Secretary, Alan Smallbone and link will be sent for the meeting.
Views: 5

Online Beginner's Class
2024-03-01 19:30 - 21:30 | Online
This is a free and open to the public online Zoom event, to attend please click here at or after 7:10pm
The 1st session of the Beginners Astronomy Class gives a general overview of all of the different objects you can see in the night and day time skies, with some history and information about what they are and their significance. An overview of the current scientific understanding of the Universe’s beginning, present and future is also covered.
For details, please visit here and download the sample information PDF package.
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General Meeting – February 2024
2024-02-16 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
This is a free and open to the public hybrid event, held both inperson and online. Due to the newly effective insurance requirements, we regret that we can not allow people under 18 on the Chapman Campus, they are welcome to attend online.
Join Zoom

This meeting’s speaker will present online from Connecticut.

The Wild West of Star Formation

Tonight we saddle up to explore the extreme center of our Milky Way galaxy – a chaotic region containing dense gas, stars, and a supermassive black hole. The normal rules for star formation don’t seem to apply here and scientists are chasing down these law-breaking clouds in our Galaxy’s Center. We will explore a multi-wavelength perspective of our Galaxy’s Center and what fuels this extreme region. By understanding what is causing the rules of star formation to break down in this region, we can better understand how stars are born across the cosmos.

Cara Battersby is a PhD astrophysicist with a lifelong passion for education and community outreach. She is currently an associate professor of physics at the University of Connecticut where she leads the Milky Way Laboratory. This research group is funded by NSF and NASA and uses our Milky Way as a laboratory to explore physics across the cosmos, using both large observational surveys and numerical simulations. Dr. Battersby has authored over 70 publications and given over 50 invited research presentations. She has worked with folks at NASA on developing space mission concepts, is a co-founder of major outreach programs UConn STARs and BiteScis, and secretly wants to be Carl Sagan when she grows up. She loves being active outdoors (hiking, climbing, etc!), playing music and spending time with her wonderful family and friends.

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In-person Beginner's Class
2024-02-02 19:00 - 21:30 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
This is a free and open to the public event (in person event only)
The 6th session of the Beginners Astronomy Class covers the basics of astrophotography, covering different types of imaging, how different types of cameras are used for this kind of photography, and other equipment and considerations for taking a good picture.
This session is taught by Kyle Coker, who is active in the club’s AstroImaging special interest group.
Free and open to the public as well as members of OCA.
For details, please visit here and download the sample information PDF package.
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OCA Board Meeting.
2024-01-28 10:30 - 13:30 | Online
The next Board Meeting of the OCA will be held on 01/28/24 at 10:30am via zoom. All members in good standing can attend, contact Alan Smallbone for details.
Views: 5

General Meeting – January 2024
2024-01-12 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
This is a free and open to the public hybrid event, held both inperson and online. Due to the newly effective insurance requirements, we regret that we can not allow people under 18 on the Chapman Campus, they are welcome to attend online.
Join Zoom

This meeting’s speaker will present inperson from the Chapman University’s campus.

The [2nd] Great North American

Solar Eclipse

For the second time in just under seven years, the United States will experience another total solar eclipse (TSE) — the first such occultation since the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, which traced a path from the Oregon coastline to Charleston, South Carolina, observed by nearly 215 million people. On April 8th of next year, another TSE will be seen (weather cooperating) in the continental U.S. This event shall be the last such eclipse visible in the domestically, until August 23, 2044, followed by another TSE on August 12, 2045.
Like the 2017 event, many large cities lie in the path of totality — chief among them being San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and Waco, TX, as well as Indianapolis, IN, Cleveland, OH, and Buffalo and Rochester, NY.
The presentation shall focus on the overall circumstances of the April 8th eclipse, synoptic weather prospects for selected observation venues, as well as providing some helpful suggestions regarding preparations for those interested in attempting to view totality.

Professor Joel Harris has been traveling throughout the world to observe solar eclipses since 1973 — totaling 50 years of eclipse chasing, encompassing some 22 total eclipse events, and having spent over an hour within the lunar umbra.
His first eclipse experience was as part of a scientific team supporting the noted American solar astronomer, Dr. Donald Menzel of Harvard Observatory, in the Mauritanian Sahara Desert in 1973.
Professor Harris spent 17 years in the defense and aerospace industries as a senior systems engineer, having earned both his bachelor’s degree in electrical/electronic engineering, and his master’s in systems engineering.
He has been awarded the NASA Group Achievement Award for his public relations work as project information officer supporting the Galileo Project at Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1982 – 1986, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2018.
Harris currently lives in Newbury Park, CA, with his wife of 23 years, Patti, their rescue dogs Bailey and Sadie, and his “B flat Grey Tabby” cat, Miranda.
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Beginner's Class In-person event
2024-01-05 19:30 - 21:30 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
This is a free and open to the public event (In-person event only).
The 5th session of the Beginners Astronomy Class is the “How to Use Your Telescope”.
If you have a telescope and would like some help learning to set it up and use it, attend this Hands-on class.
For details, please visit here and download the sample information PDF package.
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OCA Astrophysics SIG Meeting
2023-12-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
NOTE: THE DECEMBER ASIG MEETING WILL BE HELD DECEMBER 8, 2023 AT 7 PM AT HMOC. WE RETURN TO OUR REGULAR SCHEDULE OF THIRD FRIDAY OF THE MONTH JANUARY 2024.

The monthly meeting of the Astrophysics Special Interest Group is at 7:00 PM every third Friday of the month at the Heritage Museum of Orange County. Please contact the ASIG chair for details at mark@ocastronomers.org .
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