The Observatory
If the weather permits there are observing sessions open to the public on a Friday evening.
Details of opening times and the site’s location can be found on the Observatory page.
The observatory also opens on the first Sunday morning of the month from 10am until 1pm in support of Abbey Leys Farmers’ Market – again, weather permitting.
Recent Images
4th January 2026
NGC 7635 (Bubble Nebula)
1hr internally stacked data, AI denoised.
Image taken by Mark Holmes using Seestar S50
2nd January 2026
NGC 896 (Heart Nebula)
45 live stacked subs of 120″ duration. Processed in PixInsight
Image taken by Eric McElroy using C8 RASA with ASI533 MC camera and Optilong L-Extreme dual band filter
Meetings
HLCO holds meetings on the second Thursday of each month in St John’s church room (location details here). Talks in astronomy and space research are given by invited experts or members of the HLCO team themselves. A small charge is made for these events. See below for details of future meetings.
We are always on the lookout for speakers. If you have an astronomy-related topic you’d like to share with a group of like-minded individuals, please get in touch by emailing hlco.steering@gmail.com
Upcoming HLCO Meetings
- February 12th 2026
AI in Astrophotography
… how Artificial Intelligence enhances space imagingHLCO Steering Group member Eric McElroy last spoke to us in July 2025 when he described his personal journey into astrophotography. He now returns to describe the various uses of AI in the field of astrophotography, drawing the distinction between AI-generated data and AI-enhanced data to show how AI can be used in an ethical way to improve data capture while maintaining data integrity.
If you have ever wondered about the difference between scientific and artistic images, and their relative merits, Eric may help you decide.