Orange County Astronomers

Earthshine
2021-04-08 | Online
The Waxing and Waning Crescent Moon phases in April and May are the best time to see earthshine, where the unlit part of the Moon becomes visible. It is also known as Da Vinci glow.
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Online General Meeting - April 2021
2021-04-09 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
This is a free online event, to attend please register with zoom using the “View Event Website” link on the box above.
What will astronomy be like in 2121?

Astronomy texts of 2121 will be filled with answers to questions we haven’t thought to ask in 2021. I say this based on how unpredictably our cosmic view has changed in the past century. How did Canadian astronomer John Stanley Plaskett see the Universe in 1921 when his namesake telescope saw its first light? How might he have answered the question “What will astronomy be like in 2021?” In 1921, the Milky Way was the entire Universe, and almost all astronomers were sure we were near its centre. In 1921, the most sensitive thing at the focus of a telescope was photographic emulsion on a piece of glass, and the only light recorded was what we see by eye, a sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum. The first radio telescope was more one decade away. People dreamt of space travel but no one included a telescope in those dreams. So space telescopes weren’t yet even a fantasy. In 1921 (and for the next five decades), the recipe of the Universe was simple. Everything was made of atoms, made of particles of ordinary matter. There was one type of matter, so nobody said “ordinary matter”, just “matter”. No one in 1921 had predicted, or even imagined, dark matter and dark energy. No one in 1921 predicted the expansion of the Universe. Well, Einstein did, or his Theory of General Relativity had. But Einstein thought it was a flaw in his theory. Einstein predicted black holes in 1916 but they weren’t named that until 1967 and the first wasn’t found until 1971. He predicted gravitational waves in 1916; it was a century before that prediction was confirmed. Fast forward to 2021, as I try to forecast the state of astronomy in 2121. Like Plaskett, there are advances I can confidently predict. We’ll know the nature of dark matter, maybe within a decade. Gravitational wave detectors will see things so distant we couldn’t study them in any other way. We’ll have mapped stars across our Galaxy. Our sample of planets around those stars will grow from a few thousand today to maybe a few million in 2121. And we’ll have evidence of aliens – maybe only microbes, but alien microbes nonetheless. The biggest breakthroughs will be the ones no one sees coming. Whenever we look at the Universe with new eyes (telescopes and instruments), new insights (analyses powered by new computers and young minds) or new perspectives, we are always caught off guard. I hope to catch you a bit off guard with my look back across a century of astronomical history and with my speculative look forward across the next century of discovery

Jaymie Matthews calls himself an astrophysical “gossip columnist” who unveils the hidden lifestyles of stars by eavesdropping on “the music of the spheres.” His version of interstellar Spotify is Canada’s first space telescope, MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars), which detects vibrations in the light of ringing stars too subtle to be seen by the largest telescopes on Earth. MOST also makes Professor Matthews an “astro-paparazzo” by helping him spy on planets around other stars that might be homes for alien celebrities. Celebrities? Maybe not Wookies, but finding microbes on another world would qualify those microbes as newsmakers of the century. Matthews is a Professor of Astrophysics in University of British Columbia’s Department of Physics & Astronomy. Prof. Matthews is an expert in the fields of stellar seismology (literally using the surface vibrations of vibrating stars to probe their hidden interiors and histories) and exoplanetary science. He’s a member of the Executive Council for NASA’s Kepler satellite mission hunting for Earth-sized exoplanets in the Habitable Zones of their stars. He serves on the Science Team for BRITE Constellation (BRIght Target Explorer) – a Canadian–Austrian–Polish satellite mission monitoring the brightest stars in the night sky. He’s an Associate Editor of the astronomy journal Frontiers, and an author on more than 200 refereed scientific papers. In 2006, Prof. Matthews was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2012, he received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Astronomy education and public outreach are important facets of Matthews’ life and career. He’s UBC’s astronomy undergraduate advisor. He served on the Board of Directors of Vancouver’s H.R. MacMillan Space Centre for almost 20 years, and on the Board of Youth Science Canada. In 2015, he received the Canada-Wide Science Fair Alumni Award. He was awarded a 1999 Killam Prize for teaching excellence in the UBC Faculty of Science, and the 2002 Teaching Prize of the Canadian Association of Physicists. In 2016, Dr. Matthews was awarded the Canadian Astronomy Society’s Qilak Award for his efforts in astronomy education and public outreach. Qilak is the Inuit word for the “canopy of the heavens” or the sky overhead. Matthews is a co-founder of and regular instructor in UBC’s Science 101 course for residents of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, and a mentor for Canada’s Loran Scholar programme. He was a storyteller at the Kootenay Storytelling Festival in Nelson, BC in 2013. Last year, Dr. Matthews provided astronomical context on stage for a sold-out concert by the UBC Symphony Orchestra of Holst’s The Planets.
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Open Spiral Bar
2021-04-10 22:00 - 23:30, 2021-05-15 22:00 - 23:30, 2021-06-12 22:00 - 23:30
This is a free online event, to attend please register with zoom using the “View Event Website” link on the box above.
Come and socialize with your fellow astronomy enthusiasts face-to-face virtually!
Bring your latest astrophotos, mini-presentation, questions or none and your own refreshments.

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New Moon
2021-04-11, 2021-05-11, 2021-06-10
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Online Ventura County Astronomical Society's General Meeting
2021-04-16 20:30 - 22:00, 2021-05-21 20:30 - 22:00
This is an online event held by OCA for VCAS.
No prior registration is required but when entering the webinar, zoom will ask for your name and email.
At the time of the meeting, to attend via zoom app click here, via your browser click here.
To install the zoom app click here.

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First Quarter Moon
2021-04-20, 2021-05-19, 2021-06-17

Lyrid Meteor Shower
2021-04-22, 2021-04-23
The Lyrid meteor shower is expected to peak around April 22 and 23, depending on your location.
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Full Moon
2021-04-26, 2021-05-26, 2021-06-24

Super Moon / Pink Moon
2021-04-27
April’s Full Moon is traditionally known as the Pink Full Moon. This year, it’s also a Super Moon, so it will look a little larger than a usual Full Moon.
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Online Beginner's Class
2021-05-07 19:30 - 21:30
This is a free and open to public online event, to attend please register with zoom using the link on the box above.
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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Online General Meeting - May 2021
2021-05-14 19:30 - 21:30
This is a free online event, to attend please register with zoom using the “View Event Website” link on the box above.
The Last Stargazers

A bird that mimicked a black hole. The astronomer that discovered microwave ovens. A telescope that got shot. The science of astronomy is filled with true stories (and tall tales) of the adventures and misadventures that accompany our exploration of the universe. Join Dr. Emily Levesque, author of the new popular science book The Last Stargazers, to take a behind-the-scenes tour of life as a professional astronomer. We’ll learn about some of the most powerful telescopes in the world, meet the people who run them, and explore the crucial role of human curiosity in the past, present, and future of scientific discovery.

Emily Levesque is an astronomy professor at the University of Washington. Her work explores how the most massive stars in the universe evolve and die. She has observed for upwards of fifty nights on many of the planet’s largest telescopes and flown over the Antarctic stratosphere in an experimental aircraft for her research. Her academic accolades include the 2014 Annie Jump Cannon Award, a 2017 Alfred P. Sloan fellowship, a 2019 Cottrell Scholar award, and the 2020 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize. She earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from MIT and a PhD in astronomy from the University of Hawaii.
Website
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OCA Board Meeting
2021-05-23 10:30 - 13:00
The OCA Board will be meeting at 10:30. If you are a member and would like to be at the meeting contact Alan Smallbone for details.
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Blood Moon Total Eclipse
2021-05-26 04:00 - 17:00

Last Quarter Moon
2021-06-02

200" Hale Telescope Dedicated 1948
2021-06-03

Online Beginner's Class
2021-06-04 19:30 - 21:30
This event is free and open to public; to attend please register using the zoom.us link on the box above.
Session 4 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.
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Online General Meeting - June 2021
2021-06-11 19:30 - 21:30
This is a free online event, to attend please register with zoom using the “View Event Website” link on the box above.
Hearing the Stars:

New Insights into Stellar Interiors

Space-based observations from the Kepler satellite have provided a remarkable new tool for studying stars. Simply by measuring how bright a star is over many years, we can now directly measure its mass, radius, rate of rotation, and sometimes, the magnetic field it possesses. This has now been done for tens of thousands of stars across the Milky Way, also allowing us to identify those few stars that are in short-lived phases of their evolution. It’s a great story of how theory and observation, together, can make a remarkable impact on our understanding of the universe.

Lars Bildsten is the Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) and the Gluck Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his PhD in theoretical physics from Cornell University in 1991, where he held a Fannie and John Hertz Graduate Fellowship. Dr. Bildsten is a theoretical astrophysicist recognized for his work on the properties and behaviors of stars, both when they are burning their thermonuclear fuel for billions of years and when they explode as supernovae or emit gravitational waves. He was at Caltech for three years as the Lee A. DuBridge Research Fellow in Theoretical Astrophysics and was an assistant and associate professor in both the Physics and Astronomy departments at University of California, Berkeley. Moving to Santa Barbara in 1999 as a Permanent Member at the KITP, he held the Rosing, Raab Chair in Theoretical Astrophysics prior to becoming Director in 2012. Among his awards are the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Cottrell Scholar of the Research Corporation, the Helen B. Warner Prize from the American Astronomical Society and the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the American Astronomical Society and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018. He is presently Chair of the Board of Directors of both the Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the Las Cumbres Observatory.
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Online Ventura County Astronomical Society's General Meeting
2021-06-18 20:30 - 22:00
This is an online event held by OCA for VCAS.
No prior registration is required but when entering the webinar, zoom will ask for your name and email.
At the time of the meeting, to attend via zoom app click here, via your browser click here.
To install the zoom app click here.

The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill tells the untold story of the life and influence of the late physicist and space colony pioneer Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill. In 1977, O’Neill wrote the book The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space, which sparked an enormous grassroots movement to build Earth-like habitats in space in order to solve Earth’s greatest crises. The film is told through “Gerry’s Kids” as they affectionately call themselves; his peers, family, and the younger generation who followed that movement and are now leading the modern day space industry. Find out more at www.thehighfrontiermovie.com
Will Henry is a Filmmaker and Writer based in Los Angeles, CA. Born and raised in Princeton, NJ, Will later attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City as a Directing/Screenwriting double major where he graduated top of his class. Will began his career in development at Tribeca Film under Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro, and later as a Creative Executive at Cindy Cowan Entertainment. Will moved into the independent film industry as a Filmmaker and Writer shortly after relocating to Los Angeles, CA, gaining recognition for his first feature documentary film, The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill.

Will Henry (Producer & Writer)
Filmmaker & Writer, Creative Director & Senior Producer at Multiverse Media

Dylan Taylor (Executive Producer & Writer)
Chairman, Multiverse Media, CEO Voyager Space Holdings, Founder, Space for Humanity. Co-Founding Patron, Commercial Spaceflight Federation

Ryan Stuit (Director & Editor)
Accomplished artist, designer, and composer. Creative Director and Designer at Subtractive Inc. Future directorial slate includes “Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon” based on Robert Heinlein’s 1950s Sci-Fi short story.

Kyle Schember (Producer)
Co-Founder and CEO of Subtractive Inc, specializing in scripted film, television, music videos, and music. Producer and Executive Producer for “Anna” with Emma Stone and “Who Cares” with Paul McCartney & Emma Stone. Producer on Prince EA’s “One Planet” produced for the Bloomberg Global Business Forum.
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Moon at Perigee
2021-06-23
