Orange County Astronomers

Kuhn reservation
2020-01-28, 2020-01-27
Rick Wasson has reserved the club observatory and Kuhn telescope.
Views: 2

OCA Board Meeting
2020-01-26 11:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Urban Workshop, 365 Clinton St A, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
OCA Board Meeting. Please email Alan Smallbone if you plan to attend. The meeting starts at 11am and can last till 2pm.
Views: 2

Private: Anza Star Party
2020-01-25
Private star party at the Anza Site. Open to members and their guests only.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Canceled
2020-01-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Dysinger Elementary School Canceled., 7770 Camellia Drive, Buena Park, CA, 90620, United States
Event: Dysinger Elementary School
Date: Friday, 1/24/2020
Time: Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 5:14 PM
Place: Dysinger Elementary School
Address: 7770 Camellia Dr.; Buena Park, 90620
Location: 33°50’57″N, 117°59’25″W
Directions: From North: Take CA-91 West to exit 23C for Magnolia Ave. Turn left onto S Magnolia Ave; go 0.8 mi. Turn right onto W La Palma Ave; go 0.9 mi. Turn right onto Camellia Dr; go 0.2 mi. Turn right on Periwinkle to gain access to blacktop area.From South: Take the I-5 Fwy north, exit Brookhurst north. Turn left on La Palma. Take La Palma west, to Camellia Dr. Turn right at Camellia Dr and go one block to Periwinkle (south of school). Turn right on Periwinkle to gain access to blacktop area.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Canceled
2020-01-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Dale Junior High, 900 South Dale Ave, Anaheim, CA, 92804, United States
Event: Dale Junior High
Date: Thursday, 1/23/2020
Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 5:13 PM
Place: Dale Junior High
Address: 900 South Dale Ave; Anaheim
Location: 33°49’11″N, 117°58’58″W
Directions: From North County: Take CA-91 Fwy west to Beach Blvd. Exit to Beach Blvd and go south 2.8 mi to Ball Rd. Turn left onto W Ball Rd; go 0.5 mi. Turn left onto S Dale Ave. School is on the right. Enter blacktop area through gate on south side of the school.
From South County: Take I-5 N. Take the Harbor Blvd exit toward Ball Rd; go 0.3 mi. Turn right onto S Harbor Blvd; go 0.1 mi. Turn left onto W Ball Rd; go 4.0 mi. Turn right onto S Dale Ave. School is on the right. Enter blacktop area through gate on south side of the school.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Castille Elementary School
2020-01-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Castille Elementary School, 24042 Vía La Coruna, Mission Viejo, CA, 92691, United States
Event: Castille Elementary School
Date: Wednesday, 1/22/2020
Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 5:11 PM
Place: Castille Elementary School
Address: 24042 Via La Coruna; Mission Viejo
Location: 33°36’50″N, 117°39’28″W
Directions: Take CA-91 E to CA-241. Take CA-241S toward Irvine; go 16.5 mi. Take exit 7 for Portola Pkwy. Keep right and merge onto Portola Pkwy; go 0.7 mi. Continue on Santa Margarita Pkwy; go 0.7 mi. Turn right at Marguerite Pkwy; go 2.8 mi. Turn right at Trabuco Rd; go 0.3 mi. Turn right at Puerta de Luz; then turn right at Via la Coruna. School is on the left. Set up on the field up the hill in the back. Enter through gate on the right side of the school.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Bethel Baptist School
2020-01-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Bethel Baptist School, 901 S. Euclid St., Santa Ana, CA, 92704, United States
Event: Bethel Baptist School
Date: Tuesday, 1/21/2020
Time: Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 5:11 PM
Place: Bethel Baptist School
Address: 901 S. Euclid St.; Santa Ana, 92704
Location: 33°44’09″N, 117°56’13″W
Directions: Take CA-55 to Edinger Ave exit. Go west on Edinger Ave for 6 miles to Euclid Ave. Turn right (North) on Euclid; go 0.4 mi. Turn right in driveway. School is on the right.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - To Be Rescheduled
2020-01-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Oxford Prep Academy Saddleback Valley, 22882 Loumont Dr, Lake Forest, CA, 92630, United States
Event: Oxford Prep Academy
Date: Friday, 1/17/2020
Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 5:07 PM
Place: Oxford Prep Academy
Address: 22882 Loumont Dr; Lake Forest
Location: 33°37’43″N, 117°42’03″W
Directions: Take CA-55 South towards Costa Mesa. Take the exit for I-5 South towards San Diego; merge onto I-5 South, 8 mi. Use the Right two lanes to take exit 92 for Bake Parkway, 1mi. Turn Left onto Bake Parkway, 1 mi. Turn Right onto Muirlands Blvd, 1 mi. Turn Left onto Loumont Drive. Turn Left onto Corta Cresta Drive which then turns right and becomes Costa Bella. Turn Right onto Blackfoot Drive. Turn Left onto Loumount Drive. School will be on your Right.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Canceled
2020-01-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Barbara Benson Elementary School, 12712 Elizabeth Way, Tustin, CA, 92780, United States
Event: Barbara Benson Elementary School
Date: Thursday, 1/16/2020
Time: Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 5:06 PM
Place: Barbara Benson Elementary School
Address: 12712 Elizabeth Way; Tustin, 92780
Location: 33°45’05″N, 117°48’15″W
Directions: Take CA-55 North from 405 or 5. Take exit 55 for Irvine Blvd towards 4th St. Use the Right two lanes to turn Right onto Irvine Blvd, 1.1 mi. Use the Left two lanes to turn Left onto Newport Ave, 0.2 mi. Turn Right onto Wass St, 0.2 mi. Turn Left onto Elizabeth Way. School will be on your right.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Canceled
2020-01-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Aliso Viejo Middle School, 111 Park Ave, Aliso Viejo, CA, 92656, United States
Event: Aliso Viejo Middle School
Date: Wednesday, 1/15/2020
Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 5:05 PM
Place: Aliso Viejo Middle School
Address: 111 Park Ave; Aliso Viejo
Location: 33°34’49″N, 117°42’45″W
Directions: Take I-5 South towards San Diego (if taking 405 South, continue to merge onto I-5 South). Take exit 91 towards El Toro Rd. Continue straight onto Paseo De Valencia, 1.8 mi. Turn Right onto Laguna Hills Dr., 0.7 mi. Continue onto Aliso Viejo Pkwy, 0.4 mi. Turn Left onto Cedarbrook, 0.8 mi. School will be on your right.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Heritage STEAM Elementary
2020-01-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Heritage STEAM Elementary, 15400 Lansdowne Rd, Tustin, CO, 92782, United States
Event: Heritage STEAM Elementary

Date: Tuesday, 1/14/2020

Time: Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 5:04 PM

Place: Heritage STEAM Elementary

Address: 15400 Lansdowne Rd; Tustin

Location: 33°43’05″N, 117°49’45″W

Directions: Take CA-55 South towards Costa Mesa, 4 mi. Take exit 9 for Edinger Ave. Use Right two lanes to turn onto E Edinger Ave, .7 mi. Turn Right onto Redhill Ave, .4 mi. Turn Left onto Valencia Ave and make another immediate Left onto Lansdowne Rd. School will be in front of you.

Views: 2

Private Outreach - Northwood High School
2020-01-13 19:00 - 21:00 | Northwood High School, 4515 Portola Pkwy, Irvine, CA, 92620, United States
Event: Northwood High School

Date: Monday, 1/13/2020

Time: Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 5:03 PM

Place: Northwood High School

Address: 4515 Portola Pkwy; Irvine

Location: 33°44’04″N, 117°44’57″W

Directions: Merge onto CA-91 E/Riverside Fwy toward Riverside; go 1.1 mi. Take exit 40 for California 241 South Toll toward Irvine; go 1.0 mi. Continue onto CA-241 S; go 5.8 mi. Keep right at the fork to continue on CA-261 S, follow signs for California 261 Toll S/Irvine; go 3.1 mi. Take exit 3 for Portola Pkwy; go 0.4 mi. Turn left onto Portola Pkwy; go 1.4 mi. Turn left onto Yale; go 0.3 mi. Turn left. Turn right. Turn left. School is on the right.

Views: 2

General Meeting - January 2020
2020-01-10 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
Music of the Spheres: Gravitational Waves from Black Holes

The Nobel prize in 2016 was awarded for the detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO interferometer. So faint are these ripples that the only events powerful enough to produce detectable signals are the collisions of black holes and neutron stars, some forty times the mass of the sun. I’ll explain how gravitational waves work, how they are detected and explain some of the weird and interesting properties of black holes.

Simeon Bird, professor at UCR’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and did postdocs at the IAS in Princeton, Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins. His research interests are in cosmology and galaxy formation. His tool of choice is numerical simulations, so he is interested in high performance computing, as well as machine learning. His most notorious work connected the gravitational wave sources of LIGO with the very early universe.
Views: 2

Beginner's Class
2020-01-03 19:30 - 21:30 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
This is the “How to Use Your Telescope” session of the Beginners Astronomy Class. If you have a telescope and would like some help learning to set it up and use it, bring it along to this class. Or attend to just learn and look through a telescope.
The Beginners Astronomy Class is held at the Heritage Museum of Orange County in Santa Ana. For details, please visit /special-interest-groups/beginners-class/ and download the sample information PDF package.
Free and open to the public as well as members of OCA.
Note: All who attend will be invited to visit our monthly Orange County star party.
Views: 2

Astroimagers (AISIG) Meeting
2020-01-01 18:30 - 21:00 | The Urban Workshop, 365 Clinton St A, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
Tonight is the meeting of the AstroImagers Special Interest Group (AISIG). The meeting will start at 6:30pm and ends at 9pm at the Urban Workshop. This meeting is open to all members of the OCA. We have members of all skill levels and this is the place to ask questions, learn and meet other members interested in imaging the sky. All skill levels are welcome, experience is not necessary. Please arrive promptly as the meetings do start at 6:30pm, the venue closes at 9pm so we must leave by then.

Views: 2

Private star party – Anza
2019-12-28 18:00, 2019-12-21 18:00
Views: 2

New Moon
2019-12-25 00:00

Private Star Party - Orange County
2019-12-21 18:00 | Bob Swenson Memorial Air Field @ Irvine Lake, CA, United States
Monthly Star Party in the OC Parks Open space (Location may vary), open to OCA Members and their guests only. NOTE: The actual time the gate opens may be different from what is shown above. The Orange County star parties generally begin with the opening of the gate about 30 minutes before sundown and close at midnight. Please contact Steve Mizera, the Star Party Coordinator, at mizeras@cox.net for details, and to be put on the OC Star Party mailing list.
Views: 2

Astrophysics SIG Meeting
2019-12-20 19:30 - 21:30 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
Our Astrophysics group meets to discuss and learn about how the universe works as a seminar group that bases its discussions on topics of interest introduced by the participants and the videos that are shown during the meetings on different aspects of astrophysics. The meetings are held in the classroom at the Heritage Museum of Orange County, located at 3101 W. Harvard Ave., Santa Ana. The museum is located about a half-block west of Fairview; Harvard is about two miles north of the 405 Fwy, between Warner and Edinger. The driveway is at the western end of the museum property; follow it around to the back of the property to the parking area; the classroom faces the parking area. All members are welcome – come join us for a stimulating evening!

Views: 2

Private Outreach - Adams Elementary School
2019-12-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Adams Elementary School, 2130 S Raitt St, Santa Ana, CA, United States
Event: Adams Elementary School
Date: Wednesday, 12/18/2019
Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 4:46 PM
Place: Adams Elementary School
Address: 2130 S Raitt St; Santa Ana
Location: 33°43’04″N, 117°53’48″W
Directions: Take CA-55 South towards Costa Mesa. Take Exit 8A-8B for Dyer Road East towards Dyer Road West. Turn Right onto S Grand Ave, 0.3mi. Turn Left onto E Warner Ave, 2.6mi. Turn Right onto S Raitt St, 0.2mi. School will be on your Left.
Views: 2

Last Qtr Moon
2019-12-18 00:00

Private Outreach - Canceled
2019-12-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Beacon Park Elementary School, 200 Cultivate, Irvine, CA, Irvine, United States
Event: Beacon Park Elementary School
Date: Tuesday, 12/17/2019
Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at
Place: Beacon Park Elementary School
Address: 200 Cultivate; Irvine
Location: 33°41’28″N, 117°44’00″W
Directions: Take CA-133 to Irvine Blvd. From North turn left on Irvine Blvd or from South turn right on Irvine Blvd. Go 0.4 mi to Ridge Valley. Turn right onto Ridge Valley; go 0.1 mi. At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit and stay on Ridge Valley; go 0.3 mi. Turn left onto Benchmark; go 0.1 mi. Continue past Cultivate and enter the gate on the side of the school.
Views: 2

General Meeting - December 2019
2019-12-13 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
Astro-cinematography from the Mount Laguna Observatory

The stars and galaxies that fill the night sky appear roughly today as they have throughout human history. However, close inspection shows that these objects change, sometimes dramatically, over decades or months, or occasionally over just minutes. The field of time-domain astronomy has arisen in recent years thanks to technological advances, and we can now record these changes and reveal celestial mergers, catastrophic explosions, and the shadows of distant worlds. In this talk I will discuss our study of the time-variable universe from San Diego State University’s Mount Laguna Observatory including a new, ultra-wide field imaging system that is beginning to survey the skies.
Robert Quimby

Robert Quimby is the Director of the Mount Laguna Observatory and an Associate Professor of Astronomy at San Diego State University. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1998 and then worked as a research assistant for the Supernova Cosmology Project before entering graduate school. Robert earned his masters and PhD in Astronomy from the University of Texas, Austin in 2004 and 2006, respectively. He went on to work as a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech and then at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Japan before joining the faculty at San Diego State University. Robert’s research interests include thermonuclear supernovae, core-collapse supernovae, the use of supernovae as cosmological probes, detection of supernovae in the early universe, gamma-ray bursts, and other rare transient phenomena. For his research contributions, Robert has received the Trumpler Award (Astronomical Society of the Pacific), the Hyer Award (American Physical Society), and, a share of the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
Views: 2

Full Moon
2019-12-11 00:00

Beginner's Class
2019-12-06 19:30 - 21:30 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
The 4th session of the Beginners Astronomy Class covers the science behind the telescope.
How does our eyes actually perceive objects we see in the telescope and what is the physics that allows that perception.
The Beginners Astronomy Class is held at the Heritage Museum of Orange County in Santa Ana. For details, please visit /special-interest-groups/beginners-class/ and download the sample information PDF package.
Free and open to the public as well as members of OCA.
Note: All who attend will be invited to visit our monthly Orange County star party.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Canceled
2019-12-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Utt Middle School, 13601 Browning Ave, Tustin, CA, 92780, United States
Event: Utt Middle School
Date: Thursday, 12/5/2019
Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 4:44 PM
Place: Utt Middle School
Address: 13601 Browning Ave.; Tustin
Location: 33°44’03″N, 117°48’21″W
Directions: Take CA-55 to I-5 South. Merge onto I-5 South; go 1.6 mi. Exit on Red Hill Ave. Turn left at Red Hill Ave; go 0.3 mi. Turn right at San Juan St; go 0.5 mi. Turn left at Browning Ave. School is on the left.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Canceled
2019-12-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Lomarena Elementary, 25100 Earhart Rd, Laguna Hills, CA, 92653, United States
Event: Lomarena Elementary

Date: Wednesday, 12/4/2019

Time: Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 4:44 PM

Place: Lomarena Elementary

Address: 25100 Earhart Rd; Laguna Hills

Location: 33°35’42″N, 117°41’36″W

Directions: Take the CA-55 South to the I-5. Take the I-5 South towards San Diego – go 13 mi. Take the Alicia Pkwy exit. Turn right on Alicia Pky – go 0.6 mi. Turn left on Wilkes Pl – go < 0.1 mi. Turn left on Barents – go 0.1 mi. Turn right on Earhart Rd.

Views: 2

Private Outreach - Canceled
2019-12-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Lampson Elementary School, 13321 Lampson Ave, Garden Grove, CA, 92604, United States
Event: Lampson Elementary
Date: Wednesday, 12/4/2019
Time: Viewing at 7:00 PM, Sunset at 4:44 PM
Place: Lampson Elementary
Address: 13321 Lampson Ave; Garden Grove, 92604
Location: 33°47’01″N, 117°54’00″W
Directions: Take CA-55 to CA-22W and go 3 mi to the City Dr exit. Exit then turn left at W Metropolitan Dr/The Block; go 0.5 mi. Continue on Lampson Ave; go 0.2 mi.
Views: 2
