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Stargazing image
The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas. They aren’t too shabby around the Houston area, either. A short drive away from the bright lights of the big city is all you need to find some star-studded stargazing locations.
Brazosport Planetarium
NASA astronauts come to the Brazosport Planetarium located at the Center for the Arts & Sciences to learn navigation by the stars should it ever be necessary. Visitors come just to see the full dome, participate in traditional programs and to check out ViewSpace, an Internet-fed, self-updating feed from the Hubble Space Telescope, complete with interactive computer displays and an ever-widening pictorial view of space.
400 College Blvd, Clute
979-265-7661
Sargent Beach
Waves rolling onto a quiet beach provide excellent background music and a little romance for star-gazing, especially during cooler months when the humidity is lower and the skies clearer. Chamber Park at Sargent Beach, located on the water at the end of FM 457, provides picnic facilities, drinking water and camping for all-night star study.
matagordatourism.com/parks/chamberpark.htm
George Observatory
A satellite facility of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the George Observatory houses three domed telescopes, including the 36-inch Gueymard Research Telescope, one of the largest telescopes in the U.S. Regularly available for public viewing, solar telescopes provide an opportunity to view the brightest star of all: the sun!
Brazos Bend State Park on FM
762 281-242-3055
Hallettsville
A picturesque, small Texas town, Hallettsville is located along a sleepy part of State Highway 77 about 100 miles southwest of Houston. Far away from most interference of street light or car headlights, a stop along these quiet country roads is an opportunity to see the Milky Way from horizon to horizon.
Smart Phone Apps
Of course, there’s an app for that. StarMap 3D for the iPhone and Google Sky Map for Android users act like a portable star atlas that use a 3-D map to find constellations, planets, galaxies, nebulae and star clusters visible wherever you currently are. Astronomy books and printed star maps just became a thing of the past.