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

August 2025 Training has begun on the new telescopes.
The Crescent Nebula was the first object imaged.
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
- November 13th 2025
Scilly and Practical
There will be a double presentation by Mark Holmes for the November meeting. The first half will be ‘Scilly Astronomy’ in which Mark will describe the success of an HLCO outreach project.
In the second half he will turn to practical matters at our own observatory here at HLCO. Mark will outline a list of 10 objects we will target over the Autumn/Winter period for imaging with our upgraded kit, with a view to presenting the results in Spring 2026.