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.

Please Note – Summer Schedule 6:00 to 8:00pm

"Loving Smart Telescopes”

A Panel Discussion

In 2018 the French company Vaonis released the world’s first fully automated imaging telescope the Stellina. Since then, many new Smart Telescope brands and models have entered the market, each with different optics, cameras and operating systems.

As diverse as Smart Telescopes have become, they have a very basic commonality. They are extremely easy to use.

Set them up, turn them on, connect them to your phone or tablet. Pick a celestial object from those the Smart Telescope suggests. On its own it will find your target, take an astrophoto of it, and display the results on your device. On the way it may even tell you all about your target!

Because they are so easy to use, Smart Telescopes have become wildly popular. So popular that some astronomy pundits have predicted that they will soon become the way most people do astronomy!

This panel discussion features five HAS Members who are smart telescope owners, users and members of the HAS Smart Telescope SIG. In addition, our presenters also own several different brands and models of Smart Telescopes currently on the market.

Each of our presenters will share their insights and experiences in using smart telescopes and answer your questions. If you are curious about smart scopes, or maybe considering taking the plunge yourself, this program is for you!

Our Presenters:

Stephen Jones Craig Lamison

Jullian Hallai Mike Nelson

Ward Booth

In Person and Online Meeting

Our next meeting will be on Friday, July 10th, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm and you can participate in one of two ways, either face to face at HAS’s new meeting location:

HCC Alief Hayes Campus

2811 Hayes Rd

Houston, TX

or virtually via Zoom. To attend via Zoom, you must register for the meeting. You can use the link below. You will receive an email with the details of the meeting and a link that will allow you to join in.

You only need to register once!

Join us on Friday, July 10th, 2026, at 6:00 pm CT. See you then!

“Gems of the Summer Sky”

By Chris Morisette

Summer offers a wide array of fascinating objects for viewing. In “Gems of the Summer Sky” Chris Morisette shows how we can continue to use The Big Dipper, as well as adding “The Keystone”, “The Summer Triangle”, and “The Teapot” to our repertoire of navigation signposts to help us find and observe some wonderful star clusters and nebulae.

Speaker Bio: Chris Morisette is HAS Novice Chairperson and an active member of the Houston Astronomical Society, North Houston Astronomy Club, and the Fort Bend Astronomy Club. He is also a member of The University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory and Department of Astronomy Board of Visitors.

To see the video, click Gems of the Summer Sky.

Please Note – Summer Schedule 6:00 to 8:00pm

"Collecting the Cosmos: Astronomical Highlights from the Harry Ransom Center”

By: Benjamin Gross, PhD

The Harry Ransom Center is an internationally renowned humanities research center at The University of Texas at Austin. It is home to the world’s oldest photograph, a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and the personal papers of Gabriel García Márquez, Gloria Swanson, and Lorne Michaels. While best known for its literary and artistic collections, the Center has also been acquiring rare scientific books and manuscripts since the 1960s. This presentation will provide an overview of the Center’s collections and showcases some of its remarkable astronomical holdings, including early lunar maps, handwritten notes and drawings created by the Herschel family, and memorabilia from the launch of Apollo 11.

Speaker Bio: Benjamin Gross is Head of Fellowships and Scholarly Programs at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. Before moving to Austin, he served as Vice President for Research and Scholarship at the Linda Hall Library, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Science History Institute, and consulting curator of the Sarnoff Collection at the College of New Jersey. He earned a PhD in the history of science at Princeton University, and his book, The TVs of Tomorrow: How RCA’s Flat-Screen Dreams Led to the First LCDs, was published in 2018 by the University of Chicago Press.

To see the video, click Collecting the Cosmos: Astronomical Highlights from the Harry Ransom Center