Want to see some stars?
I'd like to tell you about the Houston Museum Of
Natural Science's George Observatory. The Observatory is in
Brazos Bend State Park
, which is south of Houston out Highway 59 (The Southwest Freeway). The
observatory consists of 3 domes, the largest of which contains a telescope with an
aperture of 36 inches.
The observatory is open to the public on Saturday nights, and is
operated by volunteers who are typically members of the 3 Houston area astronomy clubs. There
is a small fee to get a car into Brazos Bend State Park, and an additional per person fee for access to the George's telescopes and a slide show presentation. You
will find that the best time of the month to visit the observatory is the Saturday after
a new moon.
There are several people, that bring their
personal telescopes to the park. The owners of these telescopes will be happy to let you
take a look, all you need to do is ask. If you have a telescope stuck in a closet, bring
it with you, you can usually find someone who can show you how to use it. Bring your
binoculars too, they are highly recommended for beginning astronomers.
Three pieces of advice and a 'heads up'.
First, as you walk up the lighted path from the parking lot to the
observatory, turn off your flashlights. You will have people yell at you (as nicely
as possible) if you use a white light in the observation area. Let your eyes adapt to the
darkness, there really is plenty of light from the red lighting around the observatory. Of
course if you have a red lens on your flashlight, that's cool: feel free to use it, but
it's not really necessary.
Second, leave your dog in the car. I've heard too many yelps because
of stepped on paws to recommend bringing your dog into the observation area. Remember that
this place is dark, and people's attention is skyward, not on what's potentially
underfoot.
Third, keep track of your children, there can be a lot of expensive
equipment in the observation area. I've seen, on several occasions, unsupervised
youngsters walk up to a telescope and start pointing it on their own. With most amateur
telescopes there won't be any harm done, but some telescopes have motor drives that
shouldn't be moved manually. Besides, that telescope might have been pointed at some
interesting but hard to find object.
I include this little 'heads up' so you won't be surprised. You know
all those really cool pictures you've seen in the magazines and books? Forget them.
The human eye can not feed your brain the same image as a 60 minute exposure photograph.
Colors, if they can be seen at all, are usually very faint. So faint as to be nonexistent.
Don't worry: I hear 'wow!' and 'cool!' all the time, and it's not just me saying it. Be
patient, look through the telescope for a while, the object of interest just may be a faint
fuzzy off to the left a little.
Getting There
The following link will help you find your way to the park.
Google Maps
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