What we’re about
The Astronomical Association of Northern California is a non-profit corporation for fostering astronomy in Northern California. We serve as a central location for member astronomy clubs, amateur astronomers and professionals throughout the area to share information about events and news regarding their organizations.
Clubs and other interested organizations: Appoint a PR person to post events here. Once your group is a supporting member - a sponsor link to your organization's web-site will be added here - as seen in the left column of this page.
Everyone is welcome to join the AANC Meetup group, receive notices of events posted in your area or bay-area wide. If you would, please let others who might be interested in local astronomy know about this Meetup Group. When you respond to one of the AANC posted Meetups, you are given an option to share it on other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Please, spread the word!
Photo credit background image: Rogelio Bernal Andreo
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Astronomy Lecture: What’s Wrong with Right Ascension (RA)?Lindsay Wildlife Experience, Walnut Creek, CA
Please join the Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society for our September 23 general meeting featuring Jeff Adkins, an astronomy and physics teacher at Deer Valley High School in Antioch and Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, who will explain celestial coordinate systems including Altitude/Azimuth, Equatorial Right Ascension (RA) and declination (Dec), eliocentric and galactic coordinates, and how they relate to your telescope. He will answer questions like: Why is RA in hours and Dec in degrees? Why does RA count backward in the sky? And what do other coordinate systems have to do with it? The meeting starts at 7:15 p.m. with a short “What’s Up?” presented by MDAS President Tara Mostofi, who will discuss her Barcroft and Yosemite dark-sky adventures. Our meetings are held in the Lindsay Wildlife Experience Community Room, 1931 First Avenue, Walnut Creek, CA 94597
The Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society's past monthly lectures are available online on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0b_iOjsBldgdjs4aEOas_w?app=desktop
Check our web site www.mdas.net or email outreachinfo@mdas.net - A Short Non-credit Course on "Atomic Science for Poets"Link visible for attendees$1.00
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State Presents:
A non-technical 6-week class with Professor Andrew Fraknoi
The Mysterious World Inside the Atom: Atomic Science for Poets
Tuesdays from 12:30 to 2:30 pm via Zoom (Oct. 7 – Nov. 11, 2025)
Space is Limited: Register Early
Join us for a 6-week, richly illustrated tour of the atomic world that lies beneath our everyday conception of reality. Using historical anecdotes, analogies from everyday life, thought experiments, and touches of humor, we’ll explore atomic theory from the Greeks to today, and look especially at the revolution in our understanding of the world of the very small that was begun by Einstein and others at the start of the 20th century.
We’ll focus particularly on quantum mechanics, and its bizarre, yet experimentally verified, ideas of how things work inside the atom. We’ll cover the work of Einstein, Rutherford, Schroedinger, Heisenberg, among others, all explained in everyday language. We will conclude with an introduction to quantum black holes, with which Stephen Hawking combined two wildly different arenas of science that were thought to be incompatible. No background in science or math will be assumed or necessary, but some of the ideas might just make your brain sizzle.
Three easy steps to register:- Sign in or create a free account at: https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/account/signin.aspx
- Join the Institute at: https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/course/course.aspx?catId=14 (a modest fee)
- Register for the class at:
https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/course/course.aspx?C=559&pc=138&mc=0&sc=0
Andrew Fraknoi retired as Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College in 2017. He was chosen the California Professor of the Year in 2007 by the Carnegie Endowment and has won several national prizes for his teaching. He is the lead author of OpenStax Astronomy, a free, electronic textbook, which is now the leading astronomy textbook in North America. Recently, he has been writing science fiction stories with good astronomy in them; 11 of his tales have been published so far. He appears regularly on local & national radio, explaining astronomical ideas in terms everyone can understand. The International Astronomical Union has named Asteroid 4859 Asteroid Fraknoi to recognize his contributions to the public appreciation of science. See: http://fraknoi.com for more information about his work.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State is a community of inquiring adults, age 50+, offering non-credit courses, lectures, and interest groups. Many are held remotely, so you don’t need to reside in San Francisco to participate. You must become a member of the Institute to take the class, but the cost is quite reasonable.
- Free Virtual Talk All About Black HolesLink visible for attendees
The Stockton Astronomical Society presents
Black Holes: Space Warps, Time Machines, and the Gruesome Deaths of Stars
A nontechnical illustrated talk by Prof. Andrew Fraknoi
Free and open to the public via Zoom.
Although black holes have become part of our movies and our everyday language, few people really understand the exciting science ideas behind the science fiction. You will learn why falling into a black hole is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, how black holes make a serious kind of time machine possible, and how new instruments have allowed astronomers to detect the presence of these elusive dark objects in our Galaxy and beyond. No background in science will be required or assumed.
These days, Andrew Fraknoi teaches non-credit courses for retired adults through several universities in Northern California. He is the lead author of the free, online book "Astronomy," published by the nonprofit OpenStax project, which has become the most frequently-used introductory astronomy textbook in North America. In recent years, he has had 11 astronomically-oriented science-fiction stories published in anthologies and magazines. He served as Executive Director of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for 14 years, and was selected California Professor of the Year in 2007. The International Astronomical Union has named Asteroid 4859 Asteroid Fraknoi, in recognition of his contributions to the public understanding of science. For more on his educational work and science fiction, please see: https://fraknoi.com
Zoom meeting link: http://tiny.cc/stocktonastro
For those near Stockton, California, the meeting location can be found at: www.stocktonastro.org/meetings - A Short Non-credit Course on "Atomic Science for Poets"Link visible for attendees$1.00
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State Presents:
A non-technical 6-week class with Professor Andrew Fraknoi
The Mysterious World Inside the Atom: Atomic Science for Poets
Tuesdays from 12:30 to 2:30 pm via Zoom (Oct. 7 – Nov. 11, 2025)
Space is Limited: Register Early
Join us for a 6-week, richly illustrated tour of the atomic world that lies beneath our everyday conception of reality. Using historical anecdotes, analogies from everyday life, thought experiments, and touches of humor, we’ll explore atomic theory from the Greeks to today, and look especially at the revolution in our understanding of the world of the very small that was begun by Einstein and others at the start of the 20th century.
We’ll focus particularly on quantum mechanics, and its bizarre, yet experimentally verified, ideas of how things work inside the atom. We’ll cover the work of Einstein, Rutherford, Schroedinger, Heisenberg, among others, all explained in everyday language. We will conclude with an introduction to quantum black holes, with which Stephen Hawking combined two wildly different arenas of science that were thought to be incompatible. No background in science or math will be assumed or necessary, but some of the ideas might just make your brain sizzle.
Three easy steps to register:- Sign in or create a free account at: https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/account/signin.aspx
- Join the Institute at: https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/course/course.aspx?catId=14 (a modest fee)
- Register for the class at:
https://www.campusce.net/sfsu/course/course.aspx?C=559&pc=138&mc=0&sc=0
Andrew Fraknoi retired as Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College in 2017. He was chosen the California Professor of the Year in 2007 by the Carnegie Endowment and has won several national prizes for his teaching. He is the lead author of OpenStax Astronomy, a free, electronic textbook, which is now the leading astronomy textbook in North America. Recently, he has been writing science fiction stories with good astronomy in them; 11 of his tales have been published so far. He appears regularly on local & national radio, explaining astronomical ideas in terms everyone can understand. The International Astronomical Union has named Asteroid 4859 Asteroid Fraknoi to recognize his contributions to the public appreciation of science. See: http://fraknoi.com for more information about his work.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State is a community of inquiring adults, age 50+, offering non-credit courses, lectures, and interest groups. Many are held remotely, so you don’t need to reside in San Francisco to participate. You must become a member of the Institute to take the class, but the cost is quite reasonable.
