Come hang out with us every month and learn something new! SDAA programs feature a wide array of speakers who share their expertise on unique and intriguing astronomy-related topics. We hold most of our meetings virtually via Zoom on the third Wednesday of every month. The meetings start at 7PM and last about one hour. We meet in-person for the March and November meetings at the Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor Center. Programs start with a few key club announcements and include information tailored to our new club members. Our featured speaker follows as the main event. Try your luck at winning SDAA club stickers with the fun astronomy quiz that closes out every meeting. Attendees are encouraged to engage and ask questions after speaker presentations. If you miss a program, you can catch the recordings on the SDAA YouTube page.
Please register in advance for the Zoom meetings at the following link. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkf-2rrTgsE9D7YsRX-mGVVgS_ovMJHX5B#/registration
To attend the March and November in-person meetings, head to the Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor Center at One Father Junipero Serra Trail, San Diego, CA 92119. The main gates into the park remain open for our evening meetings, however the Visitor Center doors are not unlocked until 6:30PM. Please drive through the gates and park in either of the two dirt parking lots adjacent to the Visitor Center Building. Once inside the building, head to the Auditorium. Park Rangers can be reached at 619-668-3281 and for more information visit https://mtrp.org/visitor-center/
The SDAA Board welcomes your comments on our presentations! Please contact [email protected] if you have suggestions for future program topics.
April 20, 2022 Program Meeting
Speaker: Kalind Carpenter Topic: Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS) Kalind is a Robotics Engineer in the robotic Vehicles and Manipulators group (347B) at JPL. The lab he works in focuses on rapid technology development and end effectors specifically tailored to gripping and mobility. Current work includes Principal Investigator of the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS), an adaptable mobility capability aimed to traverse through the plume vent crevasses on Enceladus…
Future Program Meeting
Speaker: Allan Rahill Topic: Weather Forecasts. Postponed from March 2022. Future date TBD. The program meeting speaker is Allan Rahill, a meteorologist who will discuss the weather forecasts behind many of the forecast tools we amateurs use. In 2000, Allan Rahill, a meteorologist at the Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC) and amateur astronomer, created a forecast processing step that took data from CMC’s Global Element Multi-scale (GEM) forecast model…
March 16, 2022 Program Meeting
Speaker: Mike Bertin Topic: Galileo’s Finger: The Birth and Death of Galileo History of the famous “Father of Modern Science” with obscure details most amateurs are not familiar with. Mike Bertin is a senior docent at Palomar Observatory and has spoken on Galileo, Palomar Observatory, and George Hale in numerous venues. He holds a BS in Physics from M.I.T and a PhD in nuclear physics from Rutgers. You…
January 19, 2022 Program Meeting
Speaker: Zoltan Levay Topic: Creating the Pillars: Visualizing Hubble’s Colorful Universe Zoltan G. (Zolt) Levay was Imaging Group Lead in the Office of Public Outreach at Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD. Since 1993 he was primarily responsible for producing publicly accessible images from Hubble Space Telescope data to illustrate Hubble’s science discoveries. He is a member of the Hubble Heritage Team, a grant-funded program within STScI…
November 17, 2021 Program Meeting
Topic: SDAA Elections and Gadget Night Bring your astronomy-related or imaging garage-built objects, tools, ideas, new hardware, software to share with SDAA on our traditional Gadget Night – only this year via ZOOM. This includes astro-images, views of your home or TDS observatories, videos of telescope equipment, software and neat techniques. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, program meetings are currently being held via Zoom. You can register in…
October 20, 2021 Program Meeting
Speaker: Cecilia Sanders, California Institute of Technology Topic: You’ll Know It When You See It: Defining, Describing and Detecting Life in the Universe SDAA’s October speaker is Caltech graduate student Cecilia Sanders, a Ph.D. candidate in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. She will give a presentation titled “You’ll Know It When You See It: Defining, Describing and Detecting Life in the Universe.” Her descriptions of what evidence…
September 15, 2021 Program Meeting
Speaker: Dr. David A. Williams, Arizona State University Topic: The Psyche Mission Our September speaker is Dr. David A. Williams, Ph.D., Research Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and the Co-Investigator and Deputy Imager lead for the NASA Psyche Mission. Dr. Williams is the Director of the Ronald Greeley Center for Planetary Studies, the NASA Regional Planetary Image Facility at ASU. He is…
August 18, 2021 Program Meeting
Speaker: Dr. Julie Castillo-Rogez, JPL planetary scientist Topic: NASA Near Earth Object Missions Our August speaker is Dr. Julie Castillo-Rogez, a JPL planetary scientist specializing in water-rich objects from a modeling and experimental perspectives applied to the formulation, design, and planning of planetary missions. She is the principal science investigator at JPL for the NEA Scout mission. Talk summary: NASA Near Earth Object Missions ongoing and in development and NEA…
July 21, 2021 Program Meeting
Speaker: Steve Murray – NASA Solar System Ambassador Topic: New Concepts in Astrobiology (Biosignature and Tech Signature Methods) Abstract: Dr. Murray discusses new techniques for finding signatures of exoplanet life An SDAA member and popular speaker, Steve Murray, a NASA Solar System Ambassador, has been a space enthusiast since the Apollo era, and counted several Space Shuttle astronauts as friends during his years flying in Navy fighters. His…