Welcome to Houston Astronomical Society

Modern astronomy research has become data driven. Using data science techniques alongside computation allows us to interrogate data to understand astrophysical phenomena. The explosion of data sets has opened up new ways for enterprising amateur astronomers to contribute to modern astronomical research. Data can come from large-scale surveys, space-based observatories, individual scientists, or students. You can learn to select, reduce, visualize, and interpret authentic astronomical data while applying data science techniques to construct astronomy knowledge. Many free web-based tools are available that leverage data science techniques. This talk explores how these activities bridge the gap between data science and astronomy concepts, enabling amateurs to learn about both astronomy and data science simultaneously.

Speaker: Jimmy joined HAS around 2006. In 2008, Jimmy founded an astronomy course at Bellaire High School, which he taught up through 2024. Several of his students presented their astronomy projects at HAS meetings.

 Jimmy left the classroom after completing his Ph.D. in physics education at the University of Houston. He is developing resources for integrating computing and data science into K-12 courses like astronomy for the Texas Advanced Computing Center through UT Austin

Speaker Bio: Will Sager is a professor of geophysics at the University of Houston. Unfortunately, he lives close to the university at the center of the Houston light dome. He received his first telescope (a 6-inch Criterion reflector) for Christmas at the age of 10, many, many years ago. Over the ensuing 6 decades, Will has owned many telescopes.

To see the video, click Introduction to Telescopes and Getting the Right One from Santa.

Topic: I will briefly cover my lecture at the Stellafane Star Party which is where amateur astronomy began in 1923.

New astronomical discoveries are made daily, and I will cover some of these. We also will explore what relativistic redshift time/distance numbers really represent – How big is the Universe and what is its future.

Speaker: Larry Mitchell is a well-known visual observer who has pursued a lifelong interest in astronomy since the age of 10. Larry’s astronomical accomplishments are many.

He is the author of “Visual Mysteries of the Universe” which is based upon the Texas Star Party Advanced Observing Programs that Larry authored. The series (currently at 3 volumes with a 4th book available in 2026) helps observers locate obscure objects without using a computer.

Since 2000, Larry has been Chairperson the Texas Star Party “Advanced Observing Program” and has also been -Co-Chairperson of the Stellafane Observing Olympics since 2015. He is also the recipient of the Texas Star Party “Lone Stargazer” and “Omega Centauri” awards.

Larry’s other astronomy accomplishments also include – discovery of Supernova SN1994S, a type 1a Supernova, discovery of 117,300+ galaxies as documented in the  “Mitchell’s Anonymous Catalog”, the “MAC” found in MegaStar. In addition, Larry has observed and loged all 2500+ of Wiliam Herschel’s nebulae and star cluster discoveries.

Larry is well known for traveling the world giving lectures and observing the night sky, and he is always ready to view the night sky and share the adventure with my many astronomy friends.

For his many astronomical accomplishments, asteroid “126183 Larrymitchell” was named in Larry’s honor.