Greetings to all of our club members, visitors, and guests!
We welcome you to the regular meetings of the North Houston Astronomy Club on the 4th Friday of every month.
Currently, our club has its monthly meetings at the Montgomery campus of the Lone Star College system for 2018.
Lone Star – Montgomery Campus is north of the Woodlands, TX on the West Side of I45 and East of the WG Jones State Forest near SH 242.
Click below here for a Map of the Campus and Driving Directions!
(Parking permits are not required after 6 PM!)
Lone Star – Montgomery Campus
Physical Address
3200 College Park Dr.
Conroe, TX 77384
Our gathering begins with the Novice Meeting:
Place: Lone Star College – Montgomery Campus
Location: Classroom Bldg. B (2nd Floor – Room B203)
Time: (6:30 – 7:15) PM
Speaker: Rusty Hill
(NHAC Newsletter Editor, Amateur Astronomer)
Presentation
What I wish I had known when I started Observing!
Four young kids learning about the night sky which will lead them to become elder adults who are veterans of observational Astronomy!
Rusty Hill is a long time member of the North Houston Astronomy Club as served and continues to serve as our Club Newsletter editor. He has been a long time amateur Astronomer who has gained much experience in learning about observing the Night Sky. His talk will cover how he started out in the hobby of Astronomy, what he has learned, and how he has improved and advanced his observational experience and techniques over many, many years.
Learn more from the following References
Methods of Observational Astronomy
Place: Lone Star College – Montgomery Campus
Location: Classroom Bldg. B (1st Floor Auditorium – Room B102)
Time: (7:30 – 10:00) PM
Speaker: Will Barnes
(Ph.D. Student in Physics & Astronomy, Rice University)
Presentation
Why is the Sun So Hot? A Current Perspective on Coronal Heating
A Bright Sun observed by a solar orbiting NASA probe in UV radiation.
Biography
Will Barnes is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University, Houston, TX, where he is a member of the solar physics research group. The focus of his research is the heating of the solar corona, the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere. Will received his BS in Astrophysics from Baylor University in 2013 and an MS in Physics from Rice University in 2016.
Abstract
While our Sun may appear boring at first glance, the solar corona, the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, is dynamic and highly structured. Changes in the complex magnetic field can lead to huge amounts of energy being dumped into the coronal plasma. This energy heats the plasma, but can also lead to dramatic space weather events, like flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In this talk, I’ll give an overview of observations of the solar corona, both past, and present, and provide a current perspective on research in the field of solar physics. In particular, I’ll focus on the current understanding of how the corona is heated to nearly a thousand times the temperature of the solar surface and how solar physicists are working to solve this so-called “coronal heating problem.”
Learn more from the following References
Physics & Astronomy of the Sun!
Space Weather Prediction Center