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.

" Introduction to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope"

By: Dr. Dominic Benford

Nancy Grace Roman Telescope Project Scientist

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (the Roman Space Telescope, Roman, or RST) is a NASA infrared space telescope, scheduled to launch as early as the fall of 2026 to May 2027. It is named after former NASA Chief of Astronomy Nancy Grace Roman.

Roman is a wide field of view space telescope that will carry two scientific instruments. The Wide-Field Instrument (WFI) camera will provide the sharpness of images comparable to that achieved by the Hubble Space Telescope with an FOV over 100 times larger than Hubble. The Coronagraph Instrument (CGI) is a high-contrast, small field of view camera and spectrometer covering visible and near-infrared wavelengths using novel starlight-suppression technology.

Dr. Benford will provide an overview of the Roman Space Telescope, its mission and its observational and science objectives.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Dominic Benford is the Program Scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (formerly known as WFIRST), the Decadal Survey-recommended mission to conduct major surveys in the near-infrared to answer fundamental questions of the nature of dark energy, the distribution of dark matter, the occurrence of planets around other stars, and even to enable the direct imaging of planetary systems. He is the Deputy Chief Technologist for Astrophysics with responsibility for the Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) Program, the Roman Technology Fellowship (RTF), and other technology-focused programs. He was also the acting lead for Laboratory Astrophysics. Previously, his other roles at NASA’s HQ included being the program lead for the APRA portfolio, funding early-stage technologies and suborbital-class projects, and roles on Euclid and the Origins Space Telescope.

To see the video, click Introduction to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

“An Astro-Potpourri”

By Daniel M. Roy

This talk is about sharing interesting and fun tricks you can use in the field as well as to intrigue or amuse your guests at a party. It will cover:

Basic optics you can try with a magnifying glass
How a refractor magnifies the image (basic ray tracing with a fun applet)
Showing an earth-moon model and the moon phases wearing a head lamp
Displaying the mind-boggling scale of the solar system with one small poster
Using Stellarium to guide sungazing (including naked eyes and binoculars)
Why we all should outreach (with recognition to some HAS out-reachers)
Daytime astronomy and what to show despite cloudy skies
Coming HAS outreach events you can be part of

A list of URLs will be shared so that you can pursue what you find of interest and I will always be there to share stuff and interact on the HAS forum and through email.

Speaker Bio: After an international engineering career in biomed, aerospace and software businesses, Dan is now happily retired in League City TX where he leads monthly free public STEM parties for the city services (“Astronomy in the Park - YouTube” as well as “microscopy In The Park” League City Astronomy in the Park + Microscopy). Dan sits on the board of the non-profit Foundation for International Space Education (FISE) founded by ex. JSC director George Abbey. He teaches for United Space School (USS) which brings 50 brilliant kids from 25 countries to Houston for an intensive 2 week workshop about the space program. Please watch this 1mn clip This is United Space School! - YouTube

Dan is also the education and outreach coordinator for the Houston Astronomical Society (HAS) as well as an active member of the National Space Society (NSS) and of The Planetary Society (TPS).

Dan enjoys indulging his ignorance in a wide range of scientific subjects. He is an avid reader of several scientific periodicals and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He also enjoys cooking, biking, nature walking, microscopy, astronomy, paddling his kayaks and doing whatever is on wife Rebeca's "honey do" list.

To see the video, click An Astro-Potpourri

After a short holiday pause, we’re excited to resume our in-person General Meetings with a featured talk, held on the first Friday of every month.

Our next meeting will be on Friday, February 6th, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, and it will be at a new location.

Alief Hayes Campus
2811 Hayes Rd
Houston, TX

Please note that this venue is different from our November meeting. Parking is free. From the main entrance, walk down the atrium until you reach the “red velvet auditorium” (room C100).

You’re always welcome to join us via Zoom, but meeting fellow astronomers in person is where curiosity really comes alive.

We’d love to see you there. Come join us!

Clear skies,
Matt Boerlage
President
Houston Astronomical Society

The “original” nebula, Sh2-284, lies in the constellation Monoceros and climbs to nearly 60 degrees in the late evening. Rich in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur emissions, it’s an excellent narrowband target for both deep and wide-field compositions. But there’s more. Join us at the dark site to capture broadband data as well—something rarely attempted on this elusive object. Sh2-284 has no officially recognized name yet, so when you submit your image, include your proposed name and take part in our nebula-naming contest.