SUNSET: 
Upcoming Astronomy Events
As a service to our community, Sky & Telescope lists astronomy-related events, including star parties, observatory public nights, astronomy talks, and more. Star parties offer dark skies and astronomical fellowship and often cater to families and feature special activities for kids. Public nights give the general public a chance to view the sky through large telescopes, and public talks are a great place to learn the fundamentals of the science and the craft.
You’ll also see online events offered here.
And if you’d like free copies of Sky & Telescope’s Let’s Go Stargazing flyer or door prizes for your next star party, you can fill out this form.
Ventura County Astronomical Society Monthly Lecture series
We bring Astronomy, Space and Science to Ventura County monthly. We meet the 2nd Friday night of every month at 403 W. Hillcrest Thousand Oaks, CA. at 7:00pm
Our guest speaker for March 13th is Sarah Elizabeth McCandless. She works for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a navigation engineer. She has flown eleven different missions exploring our solar system, including the Mars Perseverance rover, Artemis I, Psyche, and Europa Clipper. Working as an “interplanetary Google maps”, she ensures we know a spacecraft’s location and can precisely predict its trajectory to ensure successful orbit insertion about or landing on another planet or body. In 2024, she was selected for NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) Campaign 7 Mission 3 and served as an “analog astronaut”, simulating a mission to Mars for 45 days at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. McCandless earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and minor in French at the University of Kansas, and earned a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, focusing on orbital mechanics. Outside of work, she enjoys running, camping, piloting Cessna 172s and traveling with friends and family.
