Introduction

The Observatory

If the weather permits there are observing sessions open to the public on a Friday evening.

Opening times and location details 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


Images of the month

We were able to open for our first public session for a long while on Friday 30th August. Here are a couple of the images taken with the upgraded equipment.

North American Nebula
(NGC 7000)

Perseus double cluster
(NGC 869 and NGC 884)


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.

Upcoming HLCO Meetings

  • October 10th 2024

    Refurbishment and Upgrade of HLCO

    After standing for 10 years, the wooden elements of the observatory (the fence and warm room) have been showing signs of their age. Taking advantage of the summer break, significant refurbishments and technical upgrades have been achieved and we are now ready for the autumn season. Terry Griffiths and Chris Digata will describe the progress that has been made and show some impressive images taken with our upgraded equipment. We will also outline further upgrades that we hope to complete next year.