HOWARD ASTRONOMICAL LEAGUE
Howard County, Maryland

	Alpha Ridge CSC
	Time until the next HAL Star Party
			Construction of HALs Watson Scope observatory looms. The application for building permit has been submitted!.

This Just In....

HAL's May Public Star Party will be held on May 18th at Alpha Ridge Park. We'll be there from before dusk until at least 11PM, weather permitting. We have a couple of groups that plan to attend so there should be an excellent crowd in attendence. Wayne Baggett hosts. Click here for driving directions. Also, check out this webpage for additional HAL publilc viewing opportunities.

The last Celestial Searchers meeting of the school year will be held on Monday, May 20th at 7PM at Bushy Park Elementary in Glenwood, MD in the Art Room. For more information see the HAL Calendar entry for this date.

Want to view reports on HAL's recent star parties and Outreach events? Check our NEWS page for the most recent events. Older event reports are linked from the Starparties page.

Welcome
to the website of the Howard Astronomical League, Central Maryland's premier astronomy club! HAL is an amateur astronomy club located in Howard County, Maryland. We hold monthly meetings on the lower level of the Robinson Nature Center in Columbia, MD, conduct public star parties at Alpha Ridge Park and provide community outreach events at various locations - often in Howard Country Library parking lots. We invite everyone to be a part of astronomy in Central Maryland. You will find information about our meeting dates on our Meetings page. Information on membership is located on the Join HAL page.

Join Us
also for our Star Parties and Outreach events. In addition, we provide an e-mail group for communication of timely club News, to alert subscribers of impromptu gatherings at one of our observing sites, and for astronomical discussions.

Information
to help you plan your observing sessions is available either on the Calendar page, or the Astrolinks page -- where you can check for moonrise times, Iridium flares, International Space Station sightings, Jupiter's Great Red Spot transit and a lot more. And don't forget to check the Weather before you venture out -- but if its cloudy, come play in our Kid's Korner section instead!

HAL's Observatory
construction is almost ready to commence. We are just waiting for the building permit approval. The site selected is Alpha Ridge Park in Marriottsville, MD. (This is where we currently hold our star parties.). It will house HAL's Watson Telescope. Full details about the Observatory and the Watson Telescope are documented on this website. These pages are great resources to help keep abreast of this exciting project.

Cluster Map - See Where Our Site Visitors are Located

HAL is proud to have official affiliations with:

	Robinson Nature Center		Celestial Searchers
	International Dark Sky Association		Astronomical League