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.
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…
February 19, 2025 Program Meeting
Topic: Zwicky, Rubin, and Friends – new tools and new questions for time-domain astronomy Speaker: Steve Murray, SDAA Member and NASA Solar System Ambassador Time Domain astronomy is the study of how astronomical objects change with time, from seconds to decades. Understanding these events is essential to understanding the workings of the Universe. A new field of study is centered on those objects with rapid change called “transients.” New…
November 20, 2024 Program Meeting
Topic: Annual Gadget Night Location: Green Acre Restaurant Treehouse Foyer at Campus Pointe Our Annual Gadget Night is around the corner! We look forward to seeing you face to face at this popular event where members are given the floor to share their favorite gadget! Gadgets can be an item you purchased or made, a concept or idea – just about anything you’d like to share about your astronomy…
October 16, 2024 Program Meeting
Topic: InterferometrySpeaker: Andrew Boden, Ph.D. Caltech Deputy Director for Caltech Optical Observatories Join us for an interesting and relevant talk about astronomical interferometry. An interferometer is a device that expresses the interference of wavelike phenomena and measures properties with high precision, such as are found in astronomy by taking advantage of the “small” *e.g. 500nm – green) wavelength of light. He covers the science of stellar interferometry, including…
September 11, 2024 Program Meeting
Topic: The International Space Station National Laboratory Speakers: Matt Pokross and Christina Cuttitta Is there really a “US National Laboratory” orbiting above that non-NASA scientists can utilize for their research? The answer is, Yes! It’s called the International Space Station National Laboratory, (ISSNL), and it’s been in operation since 2005. Join us September 11th, to hear from two scientists, Matt Pokross and Christina Cuttitta, whose experiments have traveled…
August 21, 2024 Program Meeting
Topic: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: NASA’s Next Flagship Mission Speaker: Rob Zellem BS, MSc, PhD Dr. Rob Zellem is an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. His research focuses on the characterization of the atmospheres of exoplanets using both the transit and direct imaging methods. Rob is the Deputy Project Scientist for Communications for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope where he is the primary…
July 17, 2024 Program Meeting
Topic: The Grand Canyon Star Party Speaker: SDAA Members https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ciap0ojE7z4