About us
Welcome to SJ Astronomy Meetup. We are an active group with a lot of events organized by the San Jose Astronomical Association. All events posted to this Meetup are open to the public but please note that joining this meetup does not automatically make you a member of SJAA. Becoming a formal member of SJAA provides members-only benefits, so we do encourage you to join. Please check out the membership benefits at https://www.sjaa.net/membership/benefits-of-membership-2/ to learn more and to join the club.
Also, please note that we need a profile picture for security reasons to join this group. Please consider uploading one before you send a request to join the group. Looking forward to sharing this cool hobby with all of you!
Upcoming events
43
Astro 101: Night Sky Tour and Tutorial
Houge Park, 3972 Twilight Dr, San Jose, CA, USThis event is one of several different introductions to astronomy offered by SJAA. Here, we'll prepare you for the subsequent In-Town Star Party and for your own explorations of the sky with a planetarium tour and mini Stellarium tutorial. We'll show you how to navigate and learn about the night sky using this software and help you plan your own observing sessions with a telescope, binoculars or just your eyeballs.
Stellarium is open source software that you can get and run for yourself. Native versions for Windows, MacOS and Linux are free to download from https://stellarium.org/. Stellarium also offers a less powerful but still quite capable version that runs directly in a web browser at https://stellarium-web.org/.
For this event, your presenter will be Rashi Girdhar, a seasoned backyard astronomer and longtime SJAA member with a deep fascination for outer space, both science and history. Join us as we reclaim the lessons of the past to better understand our place in the cosmos. Through this seasonal series and our other SJAA sessions, you will truly become a Celestial Explorer. Bring your curiosity; we’ll provide the universe!
This talk is free of charge. Just come and enjoy the show. After the talk, you can check out telescopes that will be set up as part of our In-Town Star Party. (See In Town Star Party event on Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/sj-astronomy/events/315826792/)
Many of SJAA’s events, like this one, are public and free to attend, but if you’re enjoying what SJAA has to offer, consider becoming a paid member for only $20 per year: https://www.sjaa.net/membership/benefits-of-membership-2/
During this event, we will ask all visitors to sign in, so that we can report attendance numbers to the city of San Jose, as San Jose has made Houge Park facilities available to SJAA to serve the public. The sign-in form will not require any detailed personal information.
The title image is a screenshot of Stellarium, showing the summer night sky from Bay Area towards the south.
62 attendees
Binocular Stargazing at Tilton Ranch
37°19'05.5"N 121°54'25.9"W, San Jose, CA, USBinocular Stargazing is hosted by the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority with help from members of the San Jose Astronomical Association.
Want to learn the night sky? Want to see the Milky Way and the stars contained in it? Did you know that you don’t need to spend a ton of money on a telescope to do so? All you need is a decent pair of binoculars.
Come out and attend the “Binocular Stargazing” event on Saturday August 8th at 9:30pm at Tilton Ranch. (Binoculars are required for this event) You will learn all about how the night sky changes by the hour, month, and year.
Our astronomy docents will lead you through the night sky so you can learn how to use your binoculars to find and view asterisms, open and globular clusters, nebulae, and planets. (You will need to have binoculars to attend this event. This is an interactive program in which you will need binoculars to follow along with the program)
Please bring the following items:
- 10x42mm binoculars or larger. (Tripod recommended on binoculars larger then 10x50)
- A chair to view in comfort (very important) (lawn chairs are great for this)
- A red lens flashlight, and warm clothes (extra layers).
Here are the directions to Tilton Ranch:
From San Jose Area: Highway 101 or Highway 85. Turn right (west) onto Bailey Avenue. At the intersection with Santa Teresa Blvd. turn left and drive about 6.8 miles to Willow Springs Road and turn right. There will be an entrance to Tilton Ranch where the road curves to the right, do not turn right but go straight into the Tilton Ranch parking area.
Turn your headlights off as you pull into the parking lot which is paved. Please park your car there on the paved lot and walk over to gravel lot where the program will be held
GPS Coordinates: https://tinyurl.com/ya8559wk
Rain or lots of clouds cancels. (Since you can't see anything). Dress warm! See you soon.45 attendees
Past events
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