Orange County Astronomers

OCA Board Meeting
2023-05-07 11:30 - 14:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Online
The OCA board is meeting via zoom on Sunday May 7,2023 at 11:30am. The meeting is open to all current members. If you would like to attend contact Alan Smallbone.
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Online Beginner's Class
2023-05-05 19:30 - 21:30 | Online
This is a free and open to the public online event, to attend please click 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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OCA Astrophysics SIG Meeting
2023-04-21 19:00 - 21:00, 2023-03-17 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
2023-04-15 22:00 - 23:30, 2023-03-11 22:00 - 23:30, 2023-02-18 22:00 - 23:30, 2023-01-14 22:00 - 23:30, 2022-12-10 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 2023
2023-04-14 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

Observing the universe in the Ultraviolet

Prof. Hamden is a telescope builder, with a focus on UV astronomy and developing new detector technology. She will describe why the UV is so interesting scientifically and why is it criminally understudied. She will also discuss her own work on several different UV missions in development, including FIREBall-2 and Aspera.

Dr. Erika Hamden is a professor of astrophysics at the University of Arizona. She specializes in building telescopes that go into space and the stratosphere, and developing technology to make telescopes better. Erika is a leader in the field of space astrophysics, and has developed programs to teach early career scientists how to develop their own space missions. She is the deputy principal investigator of Aspera, a NASA orbiting telescope in development. She is a former chef, a TED Fellow, a AAAS If/then Ambassador, an aspiring astronaut, and is working on her pilots license.
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Online Beginner's Class
2023-04-07 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.
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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Adopt-a-Scope Pickups
2023-03-11 10:00 - 12:00 | South Coast Self Sorage, 3480 W Warner Ave, Santa Ana, CA, 92704, United States
Adopt-a-Scope Pickups
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General Meeting – March 2023
2023-03-10 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

Hunting Isolated Black Holes

Black holes are fascinating, but enigmatic celestial objects. Long predicted by theory, as the product of some of the most energetic events in the universe, they have always presented severe challenges to observational astronomers. If the have a binary companion, accretion or the gravitational waves released during a merger can reveal their presence, but isolated black holes offer no such signatures. Yet understanding the Milky Way’s population of stellar remnants – both isolated and binary – will place important constraints on models of stellar evolution. The phenomenon of microlensing provides the means to detect massive objects, even when they emit no light at all. Modern surveys are capable of detecting these transient events across a huge swathe of the Galaxy, and will chart the population of stellar remnants in the Milky Way. This talk will explore how black holes fit into our understanding of the lives of massive stars, how microlensing can reveal even singleton stellar remnants, and describe how recent work has confirmed the first such discovery.
More on microlensing: http://www.microlensing-source.org/

Dr. Rachel Street completed her Ph.D. at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where her thesis focused on searching for exoplanets in open clusters. This work led to her first post-doctoral position at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she was a founder member of the SuperWASP transit survey, for which she received the RAS Group Achievement Award and a PPARC Postdoctoral Fellowship. Rachel considers herself fortunate to have joined Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO), soon after it was founded, giving her the opportunity to watch the LCO Telescope Network develop into full operation. Rachel started to study first exoplanets and later stellar remnants through the phenomenon of microlensing using LCO’s telescopes, and she now leads the LCO Microlensing group as a Senior Scientist. Rachel recently stepped down as a co-chair of the Rubin Observatory Transients and Variable Stars Science Collaboration, which aims to prepare for groundbreaking science with the Legacy Survey of Space and Time.

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OCA Board Meeting
2023-03-05 10:30 - 13:30 | Online
The Board of Directors for the OCA will meet online at 10:30am on March 05, 2023. All current members may attend. Please contact the club secretary for the link to the meeting.
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Online Beginner's Class
2023-03-03 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.
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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Postponed!!!! Astrophysics Special Interest Group
2023-02-24 19:30 - 21:30 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
Astrophysics Special Interest Group

This meeting has been postponed, please contact the SIG chair Mark Price for further details. A new date when available will be posted.

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General Meeting – February 2023
2023-02-17 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

Puzzles in Galaxy Evolution

I will describe a pair of sharp puzzles suggesting a possible mismatch between our theory of galaxy evolution and recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). First, current models predict that most distant galaxies found by JWST should be seen at a time when they are transitioning from the initial assembly of their ingredients to the later processes by which they form stars, and other structures we recognize as a galaxy. Instead, fully-formed, massive galaxies appear to exist impossibly early, before their ingredients should even have been able to assemble. Second, a possible explanation for this would be that most galaxies grow very differently from the processes we have observed in star-forming regions of our own Milky Way. I will discuss whether such a difference might be able to reconcile both problems, or whether something is still “broken”.

Charles Steinhardt is an associate professor at the Cosmic Dawn Center and University of Copenhagen, having previously spent time at Caltech, Kavli IPMU, Harvard, and Princeton. His research is inspired by astrophysical phenomena whose explanation has been cast into doubt, either by new theoretical ideas or new observations. Recently, this includes several different areas of astronomy and astrophysics, including galaxy evolution, black hole accretion, and gamma-ray bursts. Recent work also includes developing machine learning and statistical methods for making full use of the large datasets modern astronomy produces. He also runs a summer undergraduate research program that brings American students to Copenhagen each summer.
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In-Person Beginner's Class
2023-02-03 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
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
2023-01-29 10:30 - 13:30 | Online
The Board of Directors for the OCA will meet online at 10:30am on January 29, 2023. All current members may attend. Please contact the club secretary for the link to the meeting.

Views: 53

Adopt-a-Scope Pickups
2023-01-28 10:00 - 12:00 | South Coast Self Sorage, 3480 W Warner Ave, Santa Ana, CA, 92704, United States
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General Meeting – January 2023
2023-01-13 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

COSMIC ARTIST:

THE WORK OF JON LOMBERG

Artist Jon Lomberg will talk about his long career working with Carl Sagan on projects like the Voyager Golden Record, the TV series COSMOS, and the movie CONTACT. He will also discuss work with Mauna Kea observatories and his creation of the Galaxy Garden, the worlds first scale model, walk through galaxy.

Jo Lomberg is one of the world’s most distinguished space artists. He was Designer of the Voyager Golden Record and Emmy-Award winning Chief Artist of Carl Sagan’s COSMOS series. He is a winner of the ASP’s Klumpke Roberts Award for astronomy popularization and has an asteroid named after him. He lives in Kona, Hawaii.

www.jonlomberg.com
www.galaxygarden.net

Special Offer
Jon is offering two of his best-known pieces with Carl Sagan, one from COSMOS and one from CONTACT at a special price of $60 (+$15 shipping) each. You can see the details of each by clicking on the respective words. These prints can be ordered directly from Jon at this special members price. Do not order through the website but send payment via PayPal to lomberg@aloha.net

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Beginner's Class In-person event
2023-01-06 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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First Quarter Moon
2022-12-29 | CA

NEW MOON
2022-12-23 | CA

Ursids Meteor Shower
2022-12-21 - 2022-12-22 | CA
This minor meteor shower runs Dec. 17-25 and offers about five or 10 an hour. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet 8P/Tuttle, discovered in 1790. A nearly new moon will mean dark skies to view what could be a good shooting show, and the last one of 2022
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Astrophysics Special Interest Group
2022-12-16 19:30 - 22:00 | Heritage Museum of OC, 3101 W Harvard St, Santa Ana, CA, 92704, United States
The monthly meeting of the Astrophysics Special Interest Group at 7:30 at the Heritage Museum. Please contact the SIG chair for details and requirements. See the Contacts section of the website for details on contacting the group.
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Third Quarter Moon
2022-12-16 | CA

Geminids Meteor Shower
2022-12-13 - 2022-12-14 | CA
Meteor experts say the Geminid meteor shower is hands-down the best in the heavens, producing 120 multicolored meteors at the peak. Produced by debris left behind by the asteroid 3200 Phaethon discovered in 1982, it runs from Dec. 7-17. Moonlight will wash out some of the faintest meteors, but the Geminids are so bright and prolific they should still offer a good show
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Adopt-a-Scope Pickup
2022-12-10 10:00 - 12:00 | South Coast Self Sorage, 3480 W Warner Ave, Santa Ana, CA, 92704, United States

General Meeting – December 2022
2022-12-09 19:30 - 21:00 | 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
The meeting is held at the Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, the exact street address can be found on the section above under “VENUE”.

The Voyager Spacecraft

Where they are, how they got there,

and where they are going

Twin Voyager spacecraft were launched in the summer of 1977 on a four-year mission to study Jupiter, Saturn and their natural satellites. A fortuitous option existed for one of them to continue on to Uranus five years later and Neptune after another three years. Space missions at the time were typically of days to months duration, and technology for even a four-year mission was considered pushing the limits of technology. A 12-year mission was seen as a pipe dream. But the Voyagers were outfitted with some new innovations, and techniques were developed in flight to make enhanced science possible at Uranus and Neptune if they should survive that long. The only thought given to a purpose beyond Neptune was in the form of a video record of sounds, music and greetings from the people of Earth to any intelligent beings that might happen upon the derelict remains of either craft somewhere in the cosmos. As the world has seen, expectations were exceeded beyond anyone’s imagination. The spacecraft are still operating well, with data being transmitted continuously and received daily.
This talk is intended to focus on the spacecraft technologies and highly creative techniques developed in flight, in the hands of a dedicated flight team, that allowed these intrepid explorers to extend their four-year prime mission to 45 years now, with the expectation of another possible five to ten years before they finally succumb to the inevitable loss of enough electrical power to keep them running.

Tim Hogle became hooked on astronomy at age 12 after building a 3″ Newtonian telescope and seeing Saturn with it in the dark skies of his front yard. These interests, astronomy and telescope making, have stayed with him ever since. After graduating in electrical engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1971, he joined the Navy Air Corps as a Naval Flight Officer for a few years, then left the Navy and serendipitously joined JPL and the Voyager flight team shortly after their launches; a dream opportunity to explore the solar system in a detail he never could through a telescope. This was so much fun that he accepted an offer to continue with the team to explore Uranus and Neptune.
Starting as a real time analyst, seeing the data coming in before anyone else saw it, he soon became the senior spacecraft systems engineer, responsible for a wide variety of duties including data and anomaly analysis, sequence, test, and contingency planning, and being involved in nearly all aspects of the mission. By the Neptune encounter, the Voyagers were as close as family members to him, and Tim wanted to continue using his years of experience to extend the mission as long as possible. His total time with Voyager was 27½ years. He has been retired since 2006, but kept in touch with former colleagues on the flight team to keep abreast of the progress of the Voyagers in his absence. In retirement, his astronomical interest has continued with visual observing at every opportunity, especially of faint galaxies through an 18″ telescope.
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