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 VicePresident@sdaa.org if you have suggestions for future program topics.
November 19, 2025 Program Meeting
November 19, 2025 SDAA Program Topic: Annual Gadget Night Location: Ballast Point Brewing at Miramar https://ballastpoint.com/location/miramar Gadget Night is Back – Fresh Ideas, Cool Tech, Great Company! ***Seating is limited – stay tuned for sign-up details!*** Join us for SDAA’s Annual Gadget Night on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, from 6–9 PM at Ballast Point Miramar! This is one of our most hands-on and inspiring events of the year –…
October 15, 2025 Program Meeting
Speaker: Rich Kagawa, NASA-JPL Solar System Ambassador Topic: Not Just Mars: NASA’s Search for Life on Europa, Enceladus, and Titan Please plan to join us for an exciting talk that will include: Why NASA thinks life may exist today on several worlds in our solar system other than Mars How and when NASA is planning to explore these worlds Why each of these worlds is a unique and amazing place Several…
September 17, 2025 Program Meeting
Topic: American Women Astronauts Speaker: Dr. Neil Farber We are excited to welcome back Dr. Neil Farber for our September program! The topic will be: American Women Astronauts This presentation traces the inspiring history of women who aspired to become NASA astronauts. It begins with the “Mercury 13,” highly qualified women pilots who passed the physical requirements for spaceflight but were denied the chance by NASA. From there, it…
August 20, 2025 Program Meeting
Speaker: Richard Wolff-JacobsonTopic: Historical and Modern Tools for Celestial Wayfinding We’re excited to welcome Richard Wolff-Jacobson for a talk that will explore how we describe, measure, and communicate positions in the night sky. He’ll provide helpful background information and introduce modern tools such as encoders, plate solving techniques, and a closer look at the PiFinder. The PiFinder uses plate solving technology to quickly and accurately determine where your…
July 16, 2025 Program Meeting
Topic: Astrobiology: The Search for Life Speaker: Dr. Neil Farber People have often pondered the question of whether we are alone in the universe. More than seeking intelligent life, a fundamental question is whether life of any form exists on other planets or moons. This talk will examine how NASA is seeking out the possibility of life on other worlds—from planets that orbit other stars, to planets and…
June 18, 2025 Program Meeting
Topic: You can almost touch the stars – An Introduction to Astronomical Spectroscopy Speaker: Tom Field Even if you wanted to touch a star, they’re all impossibly distant. In spite of these great distances, astronomers have learned an enormous amount about stars. How? The most common method to study the stars is called spectroscopy, which is the science of analyzing the colorful rainbow spectrum produced by a prism-like…
May 21, 2025 Program Meeting
Topic: From Backyard to Mount Wilson: The Evolution of Boyce-Astro Speaker: Pat Boyce Since 2013, Boyce-Astro has grown from a local education project into a global network having engaged over 1,000 students worldwide in real astronomical research. With observatories at TDS, SRO, Las Cumbres, and now Mount Wilson’s 60” and 100”, its scope has expanded to photometry, spectroscopy, and data science. Pat and Grady Boyce will share how…
April 24, 2025 Program Meeting
SDAA April Program: Night Sky Celebration at Mission Trails with DarkSky International WHEN: Thursday, April 24 at 6:00pm-9:30pm WHERE: In-person at Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor Center, 1 Father Junipero Serra Trail San Diego, CA 92119 TOPIC: Join us on Thursday, April 24 at the Mission Trails Regional Park (MTRP) Visitor Center for a special event in honor of International Dark Sky Week (Apr. 21-28). The evening will include…
March 19, 2025 Program Meeting
Topic: Robots in the solar system – the next decade of exploration Speaker: Steve Murray While both public and private programs are working hard to send humans to the moon and Mars, the work of exploring the solar system continues to be shouldered by an armada of machines. New probes – with increasingly capable onboard intelligence – will land on and roam the surfaces of planets, moons, and…