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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 60 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, a telescope loaner program, and much more. Joining is simple; you can sign up online or by snail mail.

Food for thought

Food For thought is presented by Jim King and produced by the fertile and talented mind of Juliane McAdam, IDA Contributor. A   P o e m  :  H o n o r   t h e   N I g h t

Armchair Astronomy

with Jim King: HUH??? BOOKS???? “I want to see stars; I don’t have time for books!” Horse pucky!  A common, albeit erroneous, belief: “After all, I have this new gadget and I want to see stars and stuff.”  Ignoring the scholarly and abundant library of astronomy-related publications, is one of the quickest ways to kill your new-found interest in the cosmos and what makes it tick...

"HAS Astronomers Doing Science" 7:00pm CST Friday, March 3rd on Zoom

One of the very cool things about being an amateur astronomer is that even with amateur sized telescopes, our eyes, or our amateur cameras, we can do real science that is of benefit to the Pros! Several HAS members have been contributing to the body of astronomical observations and knowledge over the course of many years. Others are just getting started, and so can you! Walt Cooney will moderate a panel discussion where several HAS members will tell you a bit about the science they are doing. Panelists and their topics are...

"How to Set Up Your Telescope" 7:00pm CST Thursday, March 2, 2023 on Zoom

Every telescope must be set up and adjusted properly before it can be used productively. Join Joe Khalaf and Tim Pellerin over Zoom as they walk you through the process of setting up your telescope and getting it ready to serve you dutifully for an excellent night of observing. They will show you their approach to getting set up, answer your questions an even share with you the secrets you need to know to avoid those dreaded Operator Errors...
Perhaps one reason I was picked as historian, is that I tend to dwell a lot on the past. I still think of my early years as an amateur astronomer as the “good old days”. The chief difference between, say 1960 and now, is that I could observe a number of Messier objects from my yard, and yet I lived only a quarter mile from the University of St. Thomas. For observing or photographing the Milky Way, I would spend the night at my parents’ home, only a couple of miles west of Memorial Park. Nowadays, to go anywhere where one can observe deep sky objects, requires that two or three hours be spent travelling to and from the observing site...
Many, maybe most of you, have at least dabbled in the famous Messier Catalogue as a good deep-sky starting point for your observing efforts.  The problem with Charlie Messier is that his catalogue has as a primary purpose, the identification and location of objects that looked suspiciously like comets through his 3.5-inch telescope.  After all, he was a world-renowned comet chaser. He did not want to waste his time looking at/for things that looked like, but were not, comets...
Part 1 of Getting You Exposed, dealt with the concept of Total Exposure time and Exposure Value. It also provided some rules of thumb to help you estimate the Total Exposure time required for various types of targets using your own imaging rig. Having a good idea of the Total Exposure is certainly essential for acquiring high quality data on the low light level targets we image, but it is only one factor we need to consider...