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Welcome to Houston Astronomical Society

Founded in 1955, Houston Astronomical Society is an active community of enthusiastic amateur and professional astronomers with over 60 years of history in the Houston area. Through education and outreach, our programs promote science literacy and astronomy awareness. We meet on the first Friday of each month at the Trini Mendenhall Community Center. Membership has a variety of benefits, including access to a secure dark site west of Houston, a telescope loaner program, and much more. Joining is simple; you can sign up online, by mail or in person at a monthly meeting.

December 06, 2019, 6:30PM: HAS Holiday Pot-Luck and Meeting

It’s the fourth annual Holiday Pot-luck and Meeting! You won’t want to miss it. Here’s the program:

Pot-luck DinnRob Pettingill.pnger

HAS will provide smoked turkey breasts and spiral ham, tea, water, plates and utensils. You provide the the sides and desserts. Don’t cook? Sign up to help out or just show up.

RSVP at: https://tinyurl.com/vlt7czw

Astronomy Trivia

Astrophoto Peoples Choice contest

Speaker    Rob Pettingill

 Bulletins from Chile: the 2019 Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador Program

Door prizes!

Asterisms - Engagement Ring

(Posted 11/14/2019)

By: Steve Goldberg

Asterism: a grouping of stars that form a recognizable pattern.

Constellation: Ursa Minor
Right Ascension:  02h 49m 00.0s
Declination: +88o 54’ 00”
Magnitude: 2 to 9
Size:  40’
 

This month’s asterism is called the “Engagement Ring”. If you noticed the Declination, +88o, you should have thought that it is pretty far north. Well, Polaris is the “diamond” on the ring.

This is a binocular object instead of a telescope object. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can see the stars that make up the ring. They are “above” Polaris in this picture.

If you use a telescope, can you see the companion to Polaris? It is a double star system. When aligning my optics on my telescope, I look for the companion to verify I am on Polaris.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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