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Welcome to Houston Astronomical Society

Founded in 1955, Houston Astronomical Society is an active community of enthusiastic amateur and professional astronomers with over 60 years of history in the Houston area. Through education and outreach, our programs promote science literacy and astronomy awareness. We meet on the first Friday of each month at the University of Houston. Membership has a variety of benefits, including access to a secure dark site west of Houston, a telescope loaner program, and much more. Joining is simple; you can sign up online, by mail or in person at a monthly meeting.

March 01, 2019, 6:30PM: March HAS Meeting

Trini Mendenhall Community Center

Meeting room open at 6:00pm. Come join us for some social time before the Novice Meeting at 6:30pm. Light refreshments will be served.

General Meeting: 7:15 PM

Night Photography: The Landscape and The Milky Way

General Meeting Speaker: Thomas (TJ) Avery

TJ is a structural engineer in the offshore oil and gas industry and an avid landscape and Night Sky Photographer. As a photographer, aside from his personal projects, TJ teaches night and landscape photography workshops in the Big Bend.

TJ loves to teach photography and to show and guide people through amazing places. He has a serious passion for the dark, night sky and photographing it.

Asterisms – David’s D, Collinder 21

By: Steve Goldberg

Asterism: a grouping of stars that form a recognizable pattern.
 
Constellation: Triangulum
Right Ascension:  01h 50m 09.6s
Declination: +27° 06' 54"
Magnitude: 8 to 10
’
This month’s asterism is called David’s D. But technically it is number 21 in the Collinder catalog of star cluster. It is located at the apex of the Triangulum constellation near Aires.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
To locate this object, find stars Alpha α and Beta β Aries on the right in this picture. David’s D forms the top of a triangle, very similar to the constellation Triangulum.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The shape of the “D” can be seen here, with the “straight line” going from top to bottom in this picture with the “curved line” going around the circle to the right.

 

Asterisms – Collinder 69, Lambda Orion

Time To Renew Your Membership

Original article appears in GuideStar December, 2018.

by Mike Edstrom, TreasurerTime2Renew.PNG

Time to RENEW YOUR HAS MEMBERSHIP so you can take your 2019 Dark Site Training January 1st and get the new gate code before it changes on March 3rd! HAS memberships run from 1 January to December 31. Fortunately, renewing your membership is fast and easy!

As a renewing member you will continue to be part of one of the most active and fun astronomy clubs in Texas and continue to have access to our member benefits including:

  • Supporting our active outreach programs which show the night sky to school children and the public, and encourages interest in STEM activities
  • Access to our controlled access dark sky observing site in Columbus
  • Active Novice Astronomer programs including Nite Sky Labs at our dark sky site which teach you how to use your telescope and navigate the night sky
  • Access to our growing library of online videos of presentations of interest to both Novice and Seasoned Astronomers alike

Membership dues are a bargain. Dues amounts:

  • Regular - $36/year
  • Associate - $6 (lives at same address as regular member)
  • Student - $12 (full-time student)
  • Sustaining - $50 or more (if you want to give a little extra to keep the club strong)

As always there are three ways to renew:

  1. Renew online with PayPal - Login to your account at https://www.astronomyhouston.org/members/renew
    We greatly appreciate if you pay by PayPal because it automates the process.  With over 600 members, it saves us a lot of work.
  2. Renew at a monthly meeting and pay by check or cash.
  3. Mail a check the old-fashioned way to Treasurer, Houston Astronomical Society, PO Box 6657, Katy, TX 77491.

We hope that you will continue to support HAS and look forward to seeing you at our next meeting or event at the Columbus dark sky site!

HAS Online Store

HAS Store is now online! Visit our store to order HAS shirts and other goodies!

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