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Welcome to Houston Astronomical Society

Fostering the science and art of astronomy through programs that serve our membership and the community. Founded in 1955, Houston Astronomical Society is an active community of enthusiastic amateur and professional astronomers with over 70 years of history in the Houston area. Through education and outreach, our programs promote science literacy and astronomy awareness. We meet via Zoom the first Friday of each month for the General Membership Meeting and the first Thursday of the month for the Novice Meeting. Membership has a variety of benefits, including access to a secure dark site west of Houston, special interest groups that focus on particular areas of astronomy, an active community outreach program, and much more. Joining is simple.

What members are saying...2025 02 14

What Members are saying...2025 02 14

2025 02 06

  • Bob Frenzel - Took this of the Moon

2025 02 04

  • Mike Hooper - NGC7822 part of the Cosmic Question Mark and NGC2359 Thor’s Helmet. Data by Andrew Alvery. Processing by me using Pixinsight. HOO palette in Narrow Band Normalization for both images.

2025 02 04

  • John Benner - My attempt at The Eta Carina Nebula with data collected by @Kenric Kattner. Looks like I’ll need some help with this one Kenric. My version didn’t come out very good. Was hoping for better. Processed in Pixinsight. HOO pallet. (edited).

2025 02 03

  • Matt Boerlage - Thors Helmet - with a big Wolf-Rayet star in the middle! This one was long on my bucket list, its above the Houston light dome for me. f/3.9 200mm Newtonian, AM%, ASI533MM, SHO (but used "realistic" from the palette picker tool in PI). It was one night out, but the seeing was very good!

Recording - HAS Main Meeting - February 7th, 2025- "What Astronomers Need to Know About Nothing"

What Astronomers Need to Know About Nothing

 

A person with glasses and a telescope

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By: Don Selle

Amateur astronomers are curious by nature. We spend our money on equipment and lots of our time when skies are clear, enjoying the wonders of the stary night sky. There are an almost endless number of cool things in the sky for us to experience, some close to us in our Solar System, some further away in our own Milky Way Galaxy, and some even billions of light years beyond it.

We observe lumps of luminous matter in our universe, rarely thinking about the “empty” space between them. There’s nothing there anyway, at least nothing of interest, right?

Fortunately, there are and have been astronomers who have spent the time trying to understand what seems like nothing, just empty space. It turns out that there is a great deal out there in that “nothing” between the stars.

This presentation will acquaint you with the Interstellar Medium. It has an interesting composition and structure. It also plays a crucial role in the evolution of stars, galaxies, and ultimately in the very astronomers who peer out through it.

You won’t look at the night sky the same way again!

Speaker: Don Selle is a happily retired engineer and project manager whose career in the offshore oil and gas industry took him to many places around the world. Some of them were even nice places to work.

Since 2003, Don has been an avid amateur astronomer, astro-imager and HAS member. Studying the history and science of astronomy kept him well occupied and mostly out of trouble during his long stays away from home.

But his real passion has been for astro-imaging. Starting out with only a basic knowledge of photography, he has learned the ropes and has become a competent astrophotographer and nightscape imager. After 20 years of learning the craft, he is still striving to complete that perfect astro-image that knocks the sox off those who view it and wins multiple awards.

It’s good to have a dream!

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To see the video, click What Astronomers Need to Know About Nothing.

Recording - Novice Meeting - February 6th, 2025 - “The Milky Way - According to Bill”

The Milky Way - According to Bill

 

A person wearing glasses and smiling

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By: Bill Spizzirri

 

Bill Spizzirri shares his knowledge of the Milky Way (galaxy not the candy bar) in this lively talk. It will include not only the facts about our home galaxy, but Bill's own unique perspective of it.

After giving us all the critical facts, Bill will help us understand what makes our galaxy unique by contrasting it with the many different types of galaxies we can observe. To help us understand the vastness of the Universe, he will also let us know how these galaxies are distributed through the space that surrounds us.

Along the way, Bill will let us know how he views the Milky Way, both as an astronomer, and as a component of our vast universe who can reflect on and try to understand it.

Speaker Bio: Bill is a retired mainframe software engineer from Chicago. He has been studying astronomy for 69 years. He has belonged to several astronomy clubs for 46 years and served in various offices including president of an astronomy club in Chicago. His favorite astronomy activity is teaching astronomy to children and the general public. He currently lives in Katy to be near his three grandchildren.

To see the video, click The Milky Way - According to Bill.

Outreach - Astronomy In The Park - Memorial Park

Outreach Event - Feb 15, 2025

The HAS is hosting an outreach event at Memorial Park. We are looking for volunteers from the HAS to help show the public the night sky. Here is the flyer for the event.

 

This location is near the Eastern Glades, address is 523 E Memorial Loop Dr.