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
- April 9th 2026
Gary Gilbert, a member of the Wincham, Pickmere & District Astronomy Group, will present a talk on Neutron Stars – giving us some history, some facts and some uses for these amazing objects.
- May 14th 2026
Something different this month…
We’ve all heard rumours that the Moon Landing was faked because of “anomalies” like flags waving in the breeze, no stars being visible in the photos, and so on. Can any of these claims withstand hard scientific scrutiny… or even just a common sense evaluation?
Whether you’re a believer or a doubter, join sceptic, cartoonist and graphic novelist ‘Polyp‘ for a fun, audience-led discussion covering ANY of these claims you want carefully examined… while learning some of the fascinating basic science involved, e.g. why WOULD anyone want to cover a lunar lander in ‘tin foil’?!
You can find out more about Paul (aka Polyp) at his website at polyp.org.uk, though one thing he doesn’t mention there is that his degree is in the History and Philosophy of Science. It promises to be a fun session!