Welcome to Houston Astronomical Society

Deborah is the 2017 recipient of the International Dark-Sky association’s Hoag-Robinson Award for education of government officials about outdoor lighting issues. In 2010, her Woodside neighborhood became the first one within Houston city limits allowed to install low glare fully shielded decorative streetlights. For the past several years she has presented concerns about the choice of high glare white LED street lights in Houston to city officials and hopes that the Houston area will someday join other communities in moving to warm or soft white to amber LEDs which are recommended by the American Medical Association for their reduced glare and reduced disruption of day/night circadian function.

She has combined her love of travel and astronomy by chasing total and annular solar eclipses around the world. In 2010, Deborah retired from the Houston Symphony violin section after 27 years.

There is no easy mathematical relationship between the lengths of the solar day, the orbit of the Moon around the Earth and the orbit of the Earth around the sun.  How different civilizations dealt with this conundrum when devising their calendars is an adventure.  Learn about the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar, the Jewish and Islamic calendars and the Chinese calendar.  

Speaker Bio: Deborah Moran developed a lifelong interest in astronomy living in Midland, TX as a child where all the scenery is in the sky. She has been a member of the Houston Astronomical Society since 1980, where she has served in a number of capacities in the past including Treasurer, Education chair and nine years as Novice chair in charge of talks for new members.  She continues to speak frequently in the community on astronomy topics and light pollution.  She is also a volunteer telescope operator at the George Observatory in Brazos Bend State Park.  She actively fights light pollution in Houston and was awarded the Dark Sky International’s Hoag-Robinson Award in 2017 for her efforts.  She has combined her love of travel and astronomy by chasing total and annular solar eclipses around the world. She retired from the Houston Symphony violin section after 27 years in 2010. 

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.

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.