William & Deborah Hillyard
William & Deborah Hillyard
William & Deborah Hillyard
William & Deborah Hillyard
William & Deborah Hillyard
Brief, VERY brief for Deborah, biographies so you have some idea of who we are. She is New York born and bred, while I started in the U.K., initially in Birmingham and then London mainly from 1968. I moved to New York City in the U.S. in 1996. As well as William, which I use now, I have been known as both Billy Hillyard and Bill Hillyard.
The Flame Nebula is an emission nebula in the Constellation Orion, about 900 to 1,500 light-years away. Atlas Image courtesy of 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF
For various reasons, we purchased a dilapidated c. 1860 house that we are trying to renovate on a limited budget. As well as an overview of what we bought, its setting, and our strategy for improving it, there is a room-by-room review of where we started, where we are, what we plan to do, and what we plan NOT to do! There are also pictures of the garden, of some of the critters that find their way into it, and of our pet cat, Mrs Moggie Miggins.
The image is of a young dwarf galaxy taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA and ESA.
I have a modest home recording studio where I write electronic music of various genres. I also continue to play guitar, which I started with my first instrument in 1961. Here you will find brief excerpts from some of the tracks I have produced. There is also a description of the studio with several pictures, though this is probably only of interest to other musicians.
The image is of the five galaxies comprising "Stephan's Quintet" taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009. Credit: NASA and ESA.
Information about copyright, particularly for content that is external copyright. Please take note of copyright and license information that is dotted around the site.
The very large and very beautiful Pinwheel Galaxy captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2006. Credit NASA & ESA.
This section comprises pictures of our families from the 1930s and 1940s up to today, and is unlikely to be of interest to anyone who does not know us.
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the star Eta Carinae and the Homunculus Nebula surrounding it. Credit NASA and ESA.
Do you really want to see our vacation pictures? Most are from trips that Deborah and I have taken together in the U.S., plus the cruise we took, with her parents, to the Mediterranean. There is also a set of photos from a 1960s trip to Tresaith in Wales that I took when I was a teenager living in the UK, and a section on the lighthouses we have visited on our travels.
The Antennæ Galaxies are a pair of colliding spiral galaxies. They have been interacting for about a billion years, and over the next billion will probably merge into one elliptical galaxy. Credit NASA & ESA.
A text based, "one click gets you anywhere", index of the entire web-site; by topic, by page. I also highlight major changes and new additions to the site here.
Hubble Space Telescope image of the Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula. Credit NASA & ESA.
News & Views, as well as information about the website with details of the latest changes made.
The image above is of the "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle Nebula. Credit: NASA and ESA.
Sign the Guest Book and leave us a message.
This section of the site reflects my interest in everything "physics", from Quantum Physics to Astronomy and Cosmology. The section is split into a number of evolving topics starting with Classical Mechanics and the 17th Century through Relativity and Quantum Mechanics right up to the latest insights into Superstrings, "M" Theory, Branes, Parallel Universes and Topological Defects. Not intended for experts; I just want to express my sense of wonder at the Universe around us and hope that some of it rubs off on others. BUT; no pseudo-science, creationism, intelligent design or mystical junk! If this offends you, you should skip this section, or go to a different website!
The image is the Tadpole Galaxy taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA and ESA.



We are William Hillyard & Deborah Hillyard, and this is our Home Page. Move your mouse over any of the topics to see a brief overview of the content. Click to go to that topic, or use the Header Menu to access any item on the site using the drop-down sub-menus. If you have not enabled JavaScript, you will see only the basic menus, and will miss out on some of the content of the site! It should still work, though.
There are also a few other items hidden on this page that you access through some of the small images dotted around. Just try moving your mouse around.
The background image on each page is the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. I have reduced the brightness to make reading content easier. Credit: NASA, ESA & Hubble Space Telescope. You can find information about it, and the other images on this page, throughout the Science section of this website. The "Planet" images in the Header are © Pixel Perfect Digital. They are decorative, and not pictures of any real planet.




March 5th. Back from a short trip to see Deborah's mother. |
March 3rd. Working on new tracks. Inspiration is at a low, however, so its tough going. |
February 25th. Found out we are due a few more inches of snow, so have to get the drive clear so we can take the SUV for its service on Saturday. |
February 24th. Snow, snow and more snow. About 14 inches so far with more to come over the next few days, although we may get some rain or sleet. The joys of living in upstate NY. We had to cancel the service for the car today as we could not get out of the drive. The pick-up truck, with 4WD, and using low ratio was well and truly stuck, so I was not going to risk the SUV. No; I am not going to clear the drive. It is about 300 feet from the garage to the road. Well; we have plenty of food in, so we will not starve. A little short of wine, though. |
February 22nd. Appointment with the dermatologist to get results of a couple of moles I had biopsied. All good news, so clear for another year. |

We are William Hillyard and Deborah Hillyard, and we started to build this web site in late October 2008. I update it regularly, so do come back to see new content. You can contact us either by signing the guest book, or by sending an e-mail to contact@whillyard.com.
Wherever you see this symbol, you can get additional information by hovering your mouse cursor on it; there is no need to click. There are also a few Easter Eggs around the place! All external links and photographs open in a new window; while most internal links open in the same window.
We built the site using WYSIWYG Web Builder, and StartLogic hosts it. Feel free to link to this site, preferably to this page, but please refer to the Terms of Use for important copyright information. No hot-linking to images! Please report any problems to webmaster@whillyard.com. The site is best viewed with a screen resolution at least 1280x900. It is tested with Firefox (my browser of choice), IE, & Opera. There are issues with Opera only if you use the Opera Turbo feature.


News & Views
Latest Website Changes
I have a whole new section on the Solar System. It is not complete, yet, but but most of it is in place here. The navigation is mostly in place, except for the site map. I am not trying to produce an in depth description, just some interesting facts and figures, and a few nice photographs to whet your appetite! |
I have restructured and re-written the sections in Science on Relativity, on Non-Baryonic Matter and on Galaxies. There is also new material in the Classical Mechanics, Quantum Physics and Beyond the Universe sections. |
We have added a second page of Hubble Space Telescope images on the Hubble page. |
As you can see, we have a new home page. Just a little more punchy than the old one. Page backgrounds are now uniform across the site, and I have simplified all the drop-down menus in the headers. The fake planets in the headers now reduce in size to try and give a 3-dimensional effect of the outer images being further away. |
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contact@whillyard.com