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.
Next Meeting : There is no meeting in August. Our next scheduled meeting will be on Thursday 12th September. The topic will be “The Hale Telescope at 75”, with Steve Barrett from Liverpool University.
Upcoming HLCO Meetings
- 12th September 2024
This presentation sees the return of Steve Barrett from Liverpool University, who, in his own inimitable style, will tell the story of the development, construction and history of the truly iconic ‘Hale 200″ Telescope’, which has operated on Mount Palomar since ‘first light’ in 1949.
Despite it no longer being the largest telescope in the world, the development of active optics has kept this instrument at the cutting edge of astronomical research.