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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.

HAS Monthly Meeting Video - Friday July 12th at 7:00 pm CT

“Bringing Astronomy and Science Education to Kosovo

 

By:  Pranvera Hyseni

Over 20 years ago, a young girl living in Kosovo discovered astronomy and despite the chaos and brutality of the country’s war for independence was so taken by it that she decided to make it the center point of her life. Following her passion, Pranvera Hyseni, currently a Ph.D. student in Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, has spent much of her energy to help others in her home country become inspired in the same way.

Pran’s dream of bringing a world class observatory and astronomy educational facility to Kosovo was recently realized with the grand opening of  the National Observatory and Planetarium in Shtime, Kosovo. Along the way she has inspired many, established key relationships, and made many friends who are sure to continue to work and support the observatory.

To see the video, click Bringing Astronomy and Science Education to Kosovo.

HAS Novice Video - Thursday July 11th at 7:00pm CT

“Gems of the Summer Sky”

 

A person standing in front of a snowy mountain

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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 Summer Triangle” and “The Teapot” to our repertoire of navigation signposts to help us find and observe some wonderful star clusters and nebulae.

In addition, a short supplement entitled “An Introduction to Variable Stars” will be presented.

To see the video, click Navigating the Summer Sky.

Get to Know Your HAS...

Here is some information about the different committees within HAS. Check back often for more articles.

7/17/2024

Astrophotography Special Interest Group - We host monthly Zoom meetings focused on deep sky astrophotography and scientific imaging, including spectroscopy and photometry. Utilizing equipment such as DSLRs, astro cameras on GoTo mounts, or star trackers, our meetings provide an open forum to exchange insights, share lessons learned, and celebrate successes. Each month, we introduce a new astrophotography challenge to inspire and engage participants. Our community welcomes everyone, from absolute beginners to highly advanced enthusiasts, regardless of skill level! Hosted by Matt Boerlage and Erica Coenen.

6/18/2024

Education and Outreach - The purpose of the Education and Outreach committee is to inspire minds of all ages with the wonders of the cosmos. We have a couple of monthly events where we show a model of the solar system, we bring laptops to demo free astronomy software and handouts from the Astronomical League, a list of relevant URLs, educational flyers, maps of the moon (courtesy of our friends at LPI) and science mags free for the taking. We bring our scopes and give talks to schools, libraries and even Space Center Houston on request. We help families select a telescope, set it up or even fix it when needed. We work one-on-one with educators and have plans for a teacher's workshop since astronomy is the gateway to STEM. We are “eager to teach if we are called upon, be taught if we are fortunate” ( Kurt Waldheim). There is so much to do. So come on, outreach and touch someone, join us! This committee is chaired by Dan Roy.

6/17/2024

Novice - Amateur astronomers do what they do because they want to do it, because they are interested in how the universe works. Most of us are not professional astronomers, and most of us have no formal training in astronomy. We all start somewhere, and we’re all novices at some level. To meet the needs of novice astronomer HAS has a novice presentation at 7 pm the first Thursday of each month. In addition a periodic “Novice Lab” is held at the HAS Dark Site in order to help newcomers learn how to navigate the night sky and practice finding objects.  The program is coordinated by Chris Morisette.

 

What members are saying...

What we've heard members say...

9/4/2024

  • Rich Wilbourn says: This is the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus, NGC6888. I shot about an hour of 2-minute exposures at the HAS Dark Site and the remaining 3 1/2 hours at Casa Vista AirBnB outside of Leakey, Texas.