Orange County Astronomers

OCA Astrophysics SIG Meeting
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, 2023-10-20 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 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
2024-04-13 22:00 - 23:30, 2024-03-09 22:00 - 23:30, 2024-02-17 22:00 - 23:30, 2023-12-09 22:00 - 23:30, 2023-11-11 22:00 - 23:30, 2023-10-14 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 – 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, 2023-10-06 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.
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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.
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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.
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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 .
Views: 4

General Meeting – December 2023
2023-12-08 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 inperson from the Chapman University’s campus.

Brave New Worlds

Thirty years ago, the astronomical world finally had an answer to one of the most profound questions humanity has ever asked: do the distant stars have worlds of their own? In the last three decades, we have gone from a handful of initial discoveries to an avalanche of information. Internationally published science illustrator and long time OCA member Chris Butler will bring it all together and offer his perspective of where we stand now, and what the implications are of all these brave new worlds.

Chris Butler is an internationally published science and nature artist best known for his work on astronomical subjects and for his work as a science speaker and educator.  Chris is the senior artist and animator for the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, where he has been involved in public program production and exhibit design for 26 years.  Chris has been a member of the Orange County Astronomers since 1984, and has served as Vice President and a member of the Board. Chris holds memberships in numerous other astronomical organizations, is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and was honored to have an asteroid named after him by the International Astronomical Union.
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Online Beginner's Class
2023-12-01 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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OCA Astrophysics SIG Meeting
2023-11-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
THE NOVEMBER 2023 ASIG MEETING WILL NOT BE HELD AT HMOC. FOR INFORMATION PLEASE SEE THE ASIG NOVEMBER 23 AGENDA OR CONTACT THE ORGANIZER mark@ocastronomers.org .
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 .
Views: 4

General Meeting – November 2023
2023-11-10 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 inperson from the Chapman University’s campus.

RACING WITH THE MOON

DANCING WITH THE STARS

In RACING WITH THE MOON / DANCING WITH THE STARS. Richard Lederer, Ph.D., will share the etymology of words and phrases derived from our moon sun, galaxy and the stars. He’ll also welcome your questions about the English language — puns to punctuation, pronouns to pronunciation, and palaver to palindromes.

San Diego Union-Tribune language columnist Richard Lederer, Ph.D., is the author of 60 books about language, history, and humor, including his best-selling Anguished English series and his current title, Lederer’s Language & Laughter.
He is a founding co-host of “A Way With Words,” broadcast on Public Radio.
Dr. Lederer has been named International Punster of the Year and Toastmasters International’s Golden Gavel winner.
There will be a book signing after the event.
You can find the list of books authored by Dr. Lederer along with instructions for ordering, here: RichardLedererBookList
You can find the text of the talk here: RichardLedererMoonAndStars
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Online Beginner's Class
2023-11-03 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.
Views: 4

General Meeting – October 2023
2023-10-13 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 Flagstaff, Arizona.

The Discovery of Pluto

The search for, and eventual discovery of, Pluto is a colorful tale of dedication, perseverance. and personal triumph. It was a real needle-in-haystack effort that is as much about the human spirit as it is scientific pursuits.

Kevin Schindler is the historian at Lowell Observatory – where he has worked for 28 years – and an active member of the Flagstaff history and science communities. He has written more than 600 magazine and newspaper articles on subjects ranging from local history and astronomy to baseball and the Lincoln Memorial, and contributes a bi-weekly astronomy column, “View from Mars Hill”, for the Arizona Daily Sun newspaper. He has written seven books, including Historic Tales of Flagstaff (written with Mike Kitt). Fun fact: Kevin has both a fossil crab and asteroid named after him.
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