Orange County Astronomers

Private Outreach: Portola Hills Elementary
2025-11-06 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Portola Hills Elementary School, 19422 Saddleback Ranch Road, Lake Forest, CA, 92679, United States
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Online Beginner's Class
2025-11-07 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
This is a free and open to the public online event, to attend please register with zoom by clicking here at or after 6:40pm.
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: 2

General Meeting – November 2025
2025-11-07 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
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This meeting’s speaker will present inperson from the Chapman campus.

From OCA School Star Parties

to 4K Cameras in Orbit

In this presentation, Liam Kennedy, amateur astronomer, former president of the Orange County Astronomers, and now SpaceTV Director at Sen, shares his remarkable journey from local astronomy outreach to developing technology that now operates aboard the International Space Station.
During his years supporting OCA’s public school programs in the 2000s, Liam discovered how few people realized that astronauts were living and working overhead. That awareness gap sparked the idea that would later become ISS-Above — a small device that alerts users whenever the Space Station passes overhead and, eventually, displayed live video of Earth from orbit.
What began as a personal project to inspire his grandchildren soon attracted global attention, support from The Planetary Society and NASA, and partnerships that placed ISS-Above units in classrooms across the U.S. When NASA’s original HDEV Earth-viewing cameras were retired, Liam refused to let the public lose that connection to space. His persistence led him to collaborate with Sen, a company dedicated to sharing real-time 4K views of Earth from orbit.
Through his initiative, Sen’s SpaceTV-1 camera system became part of the ISS via Airbus’s Bartolomeo platform — fulfilling a vision that began two decades earlier with OCA telescope nights under the stars.
This talk brings that full-circle story to life — showing how one amateur astronomer’s outreach mission grew into a global window on our planet from space.

Liam Kennedy joined Sen in July 2023 as Space TV Director. For over a decade, he has championed live Earth views from the International Space Station (ISS) through his invention of ISS-Above, a Raspberry Pi-based device delivering real-time ISS tracking and video feeds. Since its 2013 Kickstarter launch, ISS-Above has expanded to more than 5,000 installations worldwide, inspiring students, educators, and the public.
In 2019, NASA contacts connected Liam with Sen CEO Charles Black to explore building a commercial UHD camera payload for the ISS. That partnership led to SpaceTV-1, a three-camera system launched in March 2024 and now operating on the Columbus module’s Bartolomeo platform.
Liam’s background blends media production, live streaming, and product innovation, with a focus on astronomy, science, and space outreach. He is a frequent presenter and thought leader in the commercial space sector, featured on technology and space podcasts, and a regular speaker at the ISS R&D Conference, where he has presented five times since 2015.

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OCA Board Meeting
2025-11-09 10:30 - 12:30, 2026-01-18 10:30 - 12:30 | Online
A meeting of the OCA Board to Trustees, the meeting is held online via zoom starting at 10:30am. The meeting is open to current members, please contact the club secretary to have a link sent to you for the meeting.
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Astroimagers Special Interest Group
2025-11-14 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-12-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
Meeting of the Astroimaging Special Interest Group at Orange Coast College Astronomy House. Meeting is from 7pm to 10pm. Parking fees will apply and must be purchased online.
Any questions please contact Kyle Coker
Views: 2

Anza Star Party
2025-11-15, 2025-11-22, 2025-12-20, 2026-01-17, 2026-02-14 | On the Sky, CA, United States
The new moon weekend for the monthly star party. The Anza site is open to members and their guests only. Join other members for viewing and imaging. Contact any board member if you have any questions.
Views: 2

Private Outreach: Stanley Elementary
2025-11-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Stanley Elementary Schol, 12201 Elmwood St., Garden Grove, 92840, United States

OCA Astrophysics SIG Meeting
2025-11-21 19:00 - 22:00, 2025-12-19 19:00 - 22:00, 2026-01-16 19:00 - 22:00, 2026-02-20 19:00 - 22:00 | 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 Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House. Please contact the ASIG chair for details at mark@ocastronomers.org .
Views: 2

Online Beginner's Class
2025-12-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
This is a free and open to the public online event, to attend please register with zoom by clicking here at or after 6:40pm.
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.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Springbrook Elementary
2025-12-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States

General Meeting – December 2025
2025-12-12 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
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This meeting’s speaker will present live from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

Settling Space with Microbes

Microbes from extreme environments help us search for life on other planets like Mars, but they can also be used to advance the human exploration and settlement of space by producing useful products including mining metals.

Charles Cockell is Professor of Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh. His scientific interests encompass microbial life in extreme environments, the habitability of extraterrestrial environments and the exploration and settlement of space. He established the UK Centre for Astrobiology at Edinburgh in 2011, a national node of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which has led many scientific and educational projects. He has published many papers, academic and popular books including the Wiley-Blackwell textbook, ‘Astrobiology’, in its third edition. Recently, he organised and led the Life Beyond project with the Scottish Prison Service, which engaged prisoners in the design of human settlements in space, drawing on their experience of confinement. He has previously worked at NASA Ames Research Centre, the British Antarctic Survey, and The Open University. He received his first degree in biochemistry from Bristol University and his DPhil in molecular biophysics at the University of Oxford.
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Beginner's Class In-person event(New Location)
2026-01-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Orange Coast College, Outside Planetarium, 2701 Fairview, 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.
Event is held at Orange Coast College, near Planetarium.
Look for Planetarium Parking, LOT E
Parking is $5.35 for a virtual daily parking permit and can only be paid online or by app at this time. There is no kiosk at the parking lot.
For instructions click on:
https://orangecoastcollege.edu/about/parking-and-public-safety/parking/index.html

Scroll down to: PURCHASE VIRTUAL DAILY PARKING PERMITS. You want LOT E which is ZONE 92847.

Click on the link for PassportParking.com to pay online. Go to the Menu and click on the PayOnline Button and follow the prompts. If you want to download the app, also usable at many other locations in the region and in the US, please follow the instructions provided by the App.
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General Meeting – January 2026
2026-01-09 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
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This meeting’s speaker will present live from Kutchan, Japan.

Untangling the Rate of

Black Hole Mergers:

A Cosmic Tug of War

On September 14th, 2015, humanity detected a ripple in spacetime 10,000 times smaller than the nucleus of an atom coming from over one billion light-years away. This awesome feat of physics, astronomy, and engineering confirmed Einstein’s prediction of gravitational waves made over one hundred years earlier, and opened the door to a whole new means of studying the Universe. Adam is one of many so-called “gravitational wave paleontologists” seeking to use gravitational waves to unravel the formation, lives, and deaths of stars and black holes that merge, emitting the tiny waves that we now detect daily. Adam will be discussing how he used simulations of millions of massive stars to provide insight into the rates and demographics of mergers throughout the history of the Universe.
Link to paper

Adam Boesky is a rising PhD candidate at Harvard University studying a broad array of topics relating to astrophysical transients. As an undergraduate at Harvard, he focused on mergers of compact objects (black holes and neutron stars), and developed machine learning pipelines for classifying events detected from large-scale astrophysical surveys. Recently, Adam has been focusing on the detection and analysis of the exotic, elusive transients that occur on the timescales of several years.
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OCA Astrophysics SIG Meeting
2026-01-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
The January ASIG meeting will feature Bob Buchheim speaking on Amateur Astronomy and Astrophysics Research for OCA ASIG. Please click this talk title to be linked to ZOOM. Bob’s talk will also be broadcast at our regular ASIG meeting location, Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House. Please contact the ASIG chair for details at mark@ocastronomers.org .
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Cypress Village Elementary
2026-01-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Cypress Village Elementary School, 355 Rush Lily, Irvine, CA, 92620, United States

Private Outreach - Linda Vista Elementary STEAM Night
2026-02-05 18:00 - 20:30 | Linda Vista Elementary, 5600 S. Ohio St., Yorba Linda, 92886, United States

Online Beginner's Class
2026-02-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
This is a free and open to the public online event, to attend please register with zoom by clicking here at or after 6:40pm.
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. Free and open to the public as well as members of OCA.
For details, please visit here and download the sample information PDF package.
Views: 2

General Meeting – February 2026
2026-02-13 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
Join Zoom

Free and open to the public but per our host’s policy, minors (under 18) are welcome to attend as long as they are accompanied by their parent or guardian at all times.
This meeting’s speaker will present inperson from the campus of the Chapman University.

Planetary Habitability in the

Solar System and Beyond

Understanding planetary habitability is one of the major challenges of the current scientific era. Though traditionally viewed through the lens of our home planet and its evolutionary history, data from other Solar System objects, and a plethora of planets outside of our Solar System, are shedding new light on habitability research. This presentation will discuss the factors that contribute to planetary habitability, and how these pieces fit together in an inter-disciplinary pathway that will benefit both the understanding of the evolution of Earth’s habitability and identifying possible abodes of life elsewhere throughout the universe.

Stephen Kane is a Professor of Planetary Astrophysics at the University of California, Riverside. His work covers a broad range of topics and he has discovered hundreds of planets orbiting other stars. He is a leading expert on the topic of planetary habitability, the habitable zone of planetary systems, and the study of why Venus and Earth underwent divergent evolutions. He has published hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific papers as well as several books on the topic of exoplanets and habitability. He is also a prominent scientific leader for several NASA missions designed to search for life in the universe.
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OCA Astrophysics SIG Meeting
2026-02-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa, CA, 92626, United States
Our February ASIG meeting will feature a discussion of a potential research collaboration: the “Hunting Outbursting Young Stars (HOYS)” citizen science project, sponsored by Kent University (UK).
The meeting will take place at 7:00 PM on Friday, February 20. Click the title/link below to join.
The HOYS project discussion will be available both remotely and in person at OCC Astronomy House. The Introduction to Astrophysics course video (“Dark Matter”) and other meeting discussions and events will be in person only at OCC Astronomy House. For more information, please contact the ASIG Chair at mark@ocastronomers.org .
MEETING LINK: Hunting Outbursting Young Stars
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Private Outreach: Serrano Intermediate School Space Night, Lake Forest
2026-02-26 17:30 - 20:00 | Serrano Intermediate School, 24640 Jeronimo Road, Lake Forest, 92630, United States
This is an excellent opportunity for OCA members who don’t have, or don’t want to bring, large telescopes to an outreach event to participate. If you know something about space exploration, then bring your expertise to this school’s Space Night on Thursday, February 26. There may even be a former NASA astronaut on hand to add to the excitement!
Views: 2

Private Outreach: Cielo Vista Elementary, Rancho Santa Margarita
2026-02-27 18:00 - 20:30 | Cielo Vista Elementary, 21811 Avenida De Los Fundadores, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, 92688, United States
