HOWARD

ASTRONOMICAL

LEAGUE


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		Public Star Party:

A virtual HAL planning meeting will be held on Monday, April 6th at 7PM. All HAL members are invited. A Zoom link will be published here and on the howardastro.org Yahoogroup in advance.

HAL's first virtual public meeting will be held on Thursday, April 9th from 7-9PM. A Zoom link will be published here and on the howardastro Yahoogroup in the near future.

Due to the coronavirus, all HAL events public and private are cancelled for March and April. This includes HAL's participation in April's Greenfest event. Members only impromptu star parties are also on hold since HCR&P has closed & locked all county parks.

The Celestial Searchers meetings (kids K-6) for March and April are also cancelled. Current and potential Celestial Searchers members, check this page for more extremely important information.

Check back later in April for NEWS about May events and beyond.

It has also been noted that the Chaos Spring Star Party in southern Virginia scheduled for the last weekend in March is cancelled. NEAF, scheduled for April 4-5, 2020 is converting to a one day virtual event on April 4th. There is also some information that a full event may be scheduled for later in the year.

Welcome
to the Howard Astronomical League. HAL is an astronomy club located in Howard County, Maryland. We hold monthly meetings on the lower (mezzanine) level of the Robinson Nature Center in Columbia, MD, conduct public star parties at Alpha Ridge Park utilizing the "HALO" observatory, and provide community outreach events at various Howard County locations - often in public library parking lots. We invite everyone to be a part of amateur astronomy with us. You will find information about our meeting dates on the Our Meetings page. Information on membership is located on the HAL Membership page.

Join Us
for our Star Parties and Outreach events. We also provide an e-mail group for communication of timely club News and for astronomical discussions.

Information
to help plan your observing sessions is available 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.

HAL's Observatory at Alpha Ridge Park (HALO)
is open monthly (excepting Jan & Feb and March & April 2020). It houses HAL's 6 inch "Illig" Refracting telescope. Check these web pages for full details about the observatory. For a schedule of events at the observatory, check the HAL star parties page or the HAL calendar.

HAL is proud to have official affiliations with:

	Robinson Nature Center		Astronomical League
	Howard County Recreation & Parks Alpha Ridge Park		International Dark Sky Association
	Howard County Conservancy		Clear Sky Chart