Private Outreach: Stanley Elementary
2025-11-20 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Stanley Elementary Schol, 12201 Elmwood St., Garden Grove, 92840, United States
Views: 2

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

Anza Star Party
2025-11-22, 2025-12-20, 2026-01-17, 2026-02-14, 2026-03-14 | 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

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

Astroimagers Special Interest Group
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

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
Join Zoom

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.
Views: 2

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

OCA Board meeting
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.
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.
Views: 2

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

Private Outreach - Cypress Village Elementary (Rescheduled)
2026-03-06 19:00 - 20:30 | Cypress Village Elementary School, 355 Rush Lily, Irvine, CA, 92620, United States
This event is a replacement for the event on January 23, 2026 that is being canceled due to bad weather.
Views: 2

Online Beginner's Class
2026-03-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
This is a free and open to the public online Zoom event, to attend please click here at or after 6:40pm
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.
Views: 2

General Meeting – March 2026
2026-03-13 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.

The Milky Way’s Central Black Hole:

Lessons on accretion physics

Every large galaxy hosts a black hole at its center. These black holes’ feedback on their host galaxies shapes the evolution of galaxies and, ultimately, affects the Universe as a whole. The Milky Way’s own supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, is the closest such object and the only one that can be studied in unprecedented detail – down to individual orbiting stars, small infalling clouds, and even its event horizon. Yet, despite its proximity and decades of observations, its behavior remains among the most challenging to explain. This talk explores Sagittarius A*, its immediate surrounding, and the challenges of describing black hole accretion physics. Particular emphasis is placed on the recent discovery of a wind associated with Sagittarius A*. The talk will also address what our own black hole can teach us about supermassive black holes across the Universe.

Elena (Lena) Murchikova is an astrophysicist interested in black holes. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University. Originally from Moscow, Lena holds two PhDs: one in astrophysics from Caltech and another in particle physics from Moscow State University. She completed her postdoctoral studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and at Harvard University’s Black Hole Initiative. Outside of research, Lena enjoys mountaineering and (drone) photography.
Views: 2

Private Outreach - Ball Junior High
2026-03-18 20:00 - 22:00 | Ball Junior High School, Anaheim, 1500 W. Ball Road, Anaheim, 92802, United States

OCA Astrophysics SIG Meeting
2026-03-20 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. Our April Meeting will be available in-person.
Please contact the ASIG chair for details at mark@ocastronomers.org .
Views: 2
