Orange County Astronomers

OCA Board Meeting
2025-05-04 11:30 - 14:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Online
A meeting of the OCA Board to Trustees, the meeting is held online via zoom starting at 11:30am. 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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Online Beginner's Class
2025-05-02 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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Astroimagers Special Interest Group
2025-05-02 19:00 - 22:00, 2025-04-04 19:00 - 22:00, 2025-03-07 19:00 - 22:00 | 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
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Crystal Cove State Park Grunion Run
2025-04-27 21:00 - 23:00 | Cottage 21, Los Trancos Beach, Crystal Cove State Park, Newport Coast, 92651, United States
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Anza Star Party
2025-04-26, 2025-03-01 | 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.
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OCA Astrophysics SIG Meeting
2025-04-18 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-03-21 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-02-21 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 Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House. Please contact the ASIG chair for details at mark@ocastronomers.org .
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General Meeting – April 2025
2025-04-11 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
Join Zoom

This meeting’s speaker will present inperson.

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab:

Quantum Science

and Technology Maturation

on the International Space Station

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab (CAL) launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in May 2018,
and has been operating since that time as the world’s first and only multi-user facility for the study of ultra-cold quantum gases in space. The unique microgravity environment of the ISS is utilized with CAL by a national group of principal investigators to achieve sub-nanokelvin temperature gases, to study and utilize their quantum properties in an environment free from the perturbing force of gravity, and to observe and interact with these gases in the essentially limitless freefall of Earth’s orbit. In addition to the toolbox of capabilities originally built into CAL, an upgrade in 2020 enabled the study of atom interferometry in orbit, and a 2021 upgrade and repair facilitated investigations of the interactions between mixtures of 87Rb, 39K, and 41K and a demonstration of dual-species (87Rb – 41K or 87Rb – 39K) atom interferometry. This talk will review the up-to-date quantum gas research explored with CAL and the technical accomplishments to operate, maintain, and upgrade CAL during its tenure in the microgravity environment of the ISS. The research of CAL has broad applications in fundamental physics and precision sensing to open the door for future quantum-enabled mission opportunities.

This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

2019 Tech Highlights ReportRequesters: Micaela Velasco, Elina SolisPhotographer: R. LannomDate: 13-MAY-2019Photolab order: 070915/171297
Dr. Jason Williams specializes in developing light pulse atom interferometers and optical atomic clocks, and their applications to both fundamental and applied physics in space. He currently serves as Project Scientist and a Principal Investigator for NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, a multi-user facility operating on the ISS dedicated to the study of quantum gases in space. Dr. Williams received his Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University, studying ultracold Fermi gases, and held a NIST NRC Postdoctoral RA in Professor Jun Ye’s lab at JILA and the University of Colorado developing high-precision optical lattice clocks.

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Online Beginner's Class
2025-04-04 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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Anza Star Party - Messier Marathon
2025-03-29 | 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. This night is also recommended if you want to do a Messier Marathon.
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Private Outreach - Del Lago Elementary School
2025-03-22 20:00 - 22:00 | Del Lago Elementary School, 27181 Entidad, Mission Viejo, 92691, United States

General Meeting – March 2025
2025-03-14 19:30 - 21:30 | Irvine Lecture Hall of the Chapman University, 336 N Center St, Orange, CA, 92866, United States
Join Zoom

This meeting’s speaker will present inperson.

Mars Helicopter Telecom

The highly successful Ingenuity – Mars Helicopter – technology demonstration came to an end in January 2024 after 72 flights over 1000 sols (1.5 Mars years) exploring Mars. The author led the telecommunications team for Ingenuity from conception through flight operations and describes it here.

Courtney Duncan retired from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – California Institute of Technology in July 2021 shortly following the initial demonstration flights of the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity.
His 35-year career included support for space shuttle missions and experiments, GPS radio occultation technology from space, stellar interferometry, deep space navigation software, lunar gravity mapping, Deep Space Network transponders for deep space CubeSats, and finally, Ingenuity telecom.
Courtney has been a licensed radio amateur with since 1972, callsign N5BF, and has been involved in many aspects of the hobby from that time. He is a past president of the San Bernardino Microwave Society, a past official of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, AMSAT-North America, and of the JPL Amateur Radio Club, and frequently gives talks on both the Mars Helicopter and on the profound value to society of avocations such as amateur radio.*
Courtney was married to Viann WD5EHM (SK) for 45 years and has three children, Viannah KG6GXW, Katherine KG6HUI, John KG6HCO, and two grandchildren. He is also a classically trained pianist and is routinely involved in a variety of musical performances.

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Total Lunar Eclipse
2025-03-13 21:00 - 2025-03-14 03:00 | On the Sky, CA, United States
Tonight the moon will be eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow. It will be viewable throughout North America. It will start just before 9PM and end just before 3AM on 03/14/2025.
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OCA Board Meeting
2025-03-09 11:30 - 14:30 | Online
The Board of Directors for the OCA will be having their meeting on March 9,2025 at 11:30am via Zoom. All current members are welcome, please notify the OCA secretary and a link will be sent out on the day of the meeting. Contact any board member with questions.
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Online Beginner's Class
2025-03-07 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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Private Outreach - Robinson Ranch School
2025-03-07 18:15 - 20:00 | Robinson Ranch Elementary School, 21400 Lindsey Drive, Trabuco Cnyon, 92679, United States

Public Outreach - Cerritos Library Astronomy Night
2025-03-05 18:00 - 20:30 | Cerritos Library, 18025 Bloomfield Ave., Cerritos, 90703, United States

Private Outreach - Cerro Villa Middle School, Villa Park
2025-02-27 19:00 - 20:30 | Cerro Villa Middle School, 17852 Serrano Ave, Villa Park, CA, 92861, United States

OCA Private Outreach - Cadence Park Elementary
2025-02-20 19:00 - 21:00 | Cadence Park Elementary, 750 Benchmark, Irvine, CA, 92618, United States

General Meeting – February 2025
2025-02-14 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 inperson.

44 years as a “career Martian” at JPL

Tim Parker began working at JPL as a consultant and a contractor in January 1981. He carried his experience mapping geomorphology in Utah and Nevada for the Air Force’s MX Missile siting program, to his search for evidence of what might have happened to the flood waters from Mars’ catastrophic flood channels, using Viking Orbiter data. By the mid-1980s, Parker had developed a hypothesis suggesting that Mars had an ancient ocean that left behind familiar lakeshore landforms, comparable to those of Pleistocene lakes Bonneville and Lahontan. In 1987, Parker became a JPL employee. He has worked on numerous planetary missions, including CRAF (Comet Rendezvous/Asteroid Flyby), MRSR (Mars Rover Sample Return study), Magellan Venus orbiter, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity), Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity), Initial Heliscout (later became Inegnuity), Mars Science Helicopter study, and Mars 2020 (Perseverance). Beginning with the Mars Global Surveyor mission in 1997, a flood of new, high-resolution imagery and topography data has become available for Mars, enabling Parker to further refine and update the ocean hypothesis. Parker is continuing that work in retirement.

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Open Spiral Bar
2025-02-08 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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In-person Beginner's Class(New Location)
2025-02-07 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 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.
Event is held at Orange Coast College, Building 40, Astronomy House.
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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Private Outreach: Maxwell Elementary, Anaheim
2025-02-07 19:00 - 20:30 | Maxwell Elementary, Anaheim, 2613 Orange Avenue, Anaheim, 92804, United States

Private Outreach: Ball Junior High School
2025-02-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Ball Junior High School, Anaheim, 1500 W. Ball Road, Anaheim, 92802, United States

OCA Outreach - Portola Springs Elementary
2025-01-31 19:00 - 21:00 | Portola Hills Elementary School, 19422 Saddleback Ranch Road, Lake Forest, CA, 92679, United States

OCA Outreach - Castille Elementary, Mission Viejo
2025-01-28 19:00 - 21:00 | Castille Elementary School, 24042 Vía La Coruna, Mission Viejo, CA, 92691, United States
It is with great reluctance that I must cancel the scheduled OCA Outreach at Castille Elementary School in Mission Viejo scheduled for today at 7:00 PM. However, the Weather Channel forecast for the city indicates in excess of 70 percent cloud cover for the entire period of the event, and we cannot have an outreach with that much cloudiness.
Martin Christensen
Outreach Coordinator, OCA

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