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.
The Kingwood campus is located on the west side of I 69 (US Highway 59), north side of Kingwood Drive, and NW of the Kingwood Medical Center.
Click below here to see the Map and Driving Directions!
(Parking permits are not required after 6 PM!)
Lone Star-Kingwood Campus
See the following Campus Map
All Members, Guests, and Visitors park at the Parking Lot C across the Sortes-McClellan Road. The CLA building we both the novice and general meetings gather is building 4 as shown on this map. Click on the image above to get a pdf file with more information about the campus layout.
Physical Address
20000 Kingwood Dr.
Kingwood, TX 77339
27 September 2019
Our gathering begins with the Novice Meeting:
Place: Lone Star College-Kingwood Campus
Location: Classroom Building A (CLA) – (2nd Floor – Room CLA221)
The Astronomy Classroom
Time: (6:30 – 7:15) PM
Speaker: Bruce Pollard
(NHAC Vice President)
Presentation
Andromeda and Friends!
The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way. Unlike the Milky Way Galaxy Andromeda is a classical spiral galaxy averaging 2.54 million light-years from Earth. There are two dwarf companion galaxies in this image (M110 below and just to the left of center and M32 above and just to the left of center).
Dr. Pollard will give us another one of his fabulous presentations for the novice meeting. This time he will discuss the Andromeda Galaxy and all that surrounds it from neighboring dwarf galaxies that are within the gravitational well of this enormous spiral giant to the stellar associations, clusters, nebulosities, dust lines, and globular clusters (~460 known). The Andromeda galaxy lies in the Andromeda constellation for which is given its common name. Official celestial catalogs designate it as Messier 31 and it is visible to naked eyes under decently dark skies as a hazy, grey disk not far from the Pegasus constellation. It lies in the same region of space within our local group of galaxies called ‘The Local Group’ as the other major galaxy in our group known as ‘The Triangulum Galaxy’ or Messier 33. This will be a delight to know more about the nature of our greatest, nearest neighbor within the voids of intergalactic space.
Learn more from the following References:
EarthSky Approach to Andromeda
A Black Hole Bonanza at Andromeda!
Go and Find G1! The Great Andromeda Globular!
The gathering concludes with the General Meeting:
Place: Lone Star College-Kingwood Campus
Location: Classroom Building A (CLA) – (1st Floor – Room CLA112)
The Teaching Teacher Auditorium
Time: (7:30 – 10:00) PM
Speaker:
Speaker: Robert Brayton
(NHAC Northwest Chapter, CPP – Certified Professional Photographer)
Presentation
Astrophotography 2020
This array of seven images shows advancements in Astrophotography from imaging stretching, light alterations, shade enhancement/manipulation, time delay exposures, etc..
Robert Brayton will present us the latest developments in the technology and techniques that have enhanced Astrophotography in the last few years. As a CPP Robert knows most of the tricks and trades of his profession for producing high-quality images and first class astroimages using the CMOS – based CCD imaging. This will presentation will be a technical guide for those who have a dream and desire to pursue Astrophotography and all the benefits in developing the artistic types of photos displayed above on this site. All club members are welcomed to attend this meeting even those who devote their resources and time for visual observations, but are curious as to the artistic and advanced photogenic releases that bring spectacular details to reviving the beauties of the Cosmos both local and far beyond the galaxy!
To learn more about (Mr. Brayton & Astrophotography):
PhotoVideoSound
Professional Photographers Guild of Houston
Sky & Tel Astrophotography Webpage
Astrophotography 101
Jerry Lodriguss’s ‘Catching the Light’
Russell Croman’s Site (Fabulous)!
Beginner DSLR Astrophotography (Youtube)
To learn more about (Photo Processing and Image Manipulation):