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 10 27

10/24/2025
- John Benner: 2nd image of IC 443 Taken over 3 nights from the backyard. Imaged with my Celestron EdgeHD 1100 @ f/7 with the ASI2600mm on an iOptron cem70. Filters Astronomic 6nm MaxFR narrowband in Ha, OIII and SII. 50 exposures 300 sec on each filter. Stacked and processed in PixInsight. SHO pallet.
10/24/2025
- Stephen Jones:Tried processing again... this time with my NGC 1365 data from Sunday at the Dark Site.
10/25/2025
- Mike Hooper: Repost of NGC891 shot on 10/23/25. I ran HDR composition to get more contrast and color saturation. I also cropped in a bit more but didn't want to loose the small galaxy near the top left.
10/25/2025
- Mike Hooper: vdB 16 shot last night from Animas, NM using Askar 103APO at 700mm FL and ASI 2600MC Pro. 180-120 sec subs with UV/IR filter. Preprocess= BlurX (correct and stellar/nonstellar) SPCC, NoiseX and StarX. Postprocess= GHS stars and starless. Starless= ColorMaskMod with curves for saturation, dark structure enhance. Screen Stars Script to combine stars and starless. Final NoiseX. No crop.

We have a new target of the month for November, 2025: the Soul Nebula. A great object to catch, even with some light pollution, since it is a narrow band. The moon should not be too much in the way.

“Our Amazing Star”

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By: Dr. Kevin Reardon

The Sun is a normal, yet amazing star, which displays a dazzling variety of features and activity. Some of these structures are now routinely observed by amateur astronomers, while others instead require telescopes with larger apertures and even more specialized instrumentation. All these reveal important insights into the behavior of stellar atmospheres.

Dr. Reardon will describe the different regions of the Sun's visible layers, and how those differ in temperature, density, and the role of magnetic fields. He will explain what we have learned about the solar atmosphere and review the significant questions that still remain.

To find those answers, the National Science Foundation has built the world's largest solar telescope, the four-meter-diameter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), on Haleakalā, Maui in Hawaiʻi. Dr. Reardon will show how this telescope works and what unique data it can provide. Finally, we will explore how we can leverage the high-resolution observations from large telescopes to better interpret some of the striking images of the Sun now being made by private astronomers.

Speaker: Dr. Kevin Reardon has been studying the solar atmosphere for over 35 years. He has used many specialized facilities, on the ground and in space, to obtain observations of the dynamic structures in the solar photosphere, chromosphere, and corona. He has also observed nine total solar eclipses, two transits each of Venus and Mercury, several sun-grazing comets, and looked for the green-flash hundreds of times. Over his career, he has worked in Hawaiʻi, Italy, New Mexico, and is currently a researcher at the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, Colorado.

To see the video, click Our Amazing Star.

" Tour the Autumn Night Sky "

By: Chris Morisette

With cooler nights ahead (hopefully) autumn is great time to get out under the stars as a cornucopia of beautiful and exotic deep sky objects present themselves. Novice Chairperson Chris Morisette will provide a brief review on how to navigate the night sky using celestial signposts, then take us on a tour of the autumn night sky.

In addition, Chris will discuss some details around a series of planned Novice Labs at the Dark Site.

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 Astronomy Department Board of Visitors. On clear Saturday nights you may find him volunteering at the George Observatory engaging visitors and sharing his love of the night sky, or you may find him at the HAS dark site trying his hand at astrophotography.

To see the video, click Tour the Autumn Night Sky.