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A non-profit Organization to Promote the Science of Astronomy

11/02/2026

https://youtu.be/5Hbnyg-crXU

The Astronomical League's own outreach presenter Laurie Ansorge shows how to navigate the November 2026 night sky.
• Investigate “Night Sky Tools” from the Astronomical League
• Observing Program: Constellation Hunter
• Check out the monthly sky map and morning viewing activity.
• Selected sky objects.

https://youtu.be/5Hbnyg-crXU

11/01/2026

November's skies bring us Saturn in the evening with Jupiter and Mars in the morning. Don't miss viewing the thin crescent of Venus 40 minutes before sunrise!

10/31/2026

M74, a face-on spiral galaxy

of low surface brightness

M74 is large and bright, as galaxies go. So, one would think it would be easy to spot in a small telescope. It is not. Its low surface brightness is the culprit. Even Messier had difficulty!

How to find M74:
1. Locate Alpha and Beta Arietis.
2. Draw a line from Alpha through Beta and continue twice that length to Eta Piscium.
3. Place Eta on the west side of the finderscope's field.
4. M74 lies near the center of a low power eyepiece field.

M74 through a 4 inch telescope:
Pierre Méchain, September 1780, "This nebula contains no star; it is fairly large, very obscure and extremely difficult to observe. One can make it out with more certainty in fine frosty conditions."

Messier's Notebook from October 1780: "A nebula without stars, near the star Eta Piscium; observed by M. Méchain in late September 1780. This nebula contains no stars; it is quite large, very faint, and extremely difficult to observe; its position could be determined more precisely during periods of clear, frosty weather. M. Messier searched for and found it, just as M. Méchain described; it was compared directly with the star Eta Piscium."

10/30/2026

Dr. Shane Larson — Zombie and Vampire Stars - AL Live
Good evening… and welcome to the darker side of the universe.

Those distant stars may seem peaceful. But appearances can be deceiving.

Out there, stellar corpses linger in the darkness. Some steal material from their companions, feeding on another star. Others survive explosions that should have destroyed them… leaving something behind that refuses to stay dead.

Tonight, we venture into a cosmic graveyard, where the science is real… and the universe writes its own horror stories.

Our guide through this celestial darkness is Dr. Shane Larson, presenting “Zombie and Vampire Stars.”

So dim the lights. Settle into your seat. And if you notice a little twinkle outside your window…

Let’s hope it hasn’t noticed you.

Please welcome Dr. Shane Larson!

Learn more at: astroleague.org

10/29/2026

A changing constellation that is no longer.

Musca Borealis

• Musca Borealis dates back to 1612 when Petrus Plancius grabbed the 4th and 5th magnitude stars later known as 33, 35, 39, and 41 Arietis, and created a bee. He called it Apis.
• Jakob Bartsch reworked these stars in 1624 as a more sinister sounding wasp, Vespa.
• In 1687 Johannes Hevelius depicted it as a fly, Musca. It appeared in his 1690 star catalogue. The fly is found resting on the haunches of Aries.
• By 1822, "Borealis" was tacked on to avoid confusion with the southern sky's Musca, a small constellation bordering Crux.
• Modern renditions have eliminated Musca Borealis entirely, leaving 41 Arietis placed at the haunches of Aries, the ram. Its foreleg stretches into eastern Pisces, drooping comfortably over the ecliptic.

41 Arietis is the eastern member of Aries' four primary stars. Ever wonder why it does not have a Bayer Greek letter designation, when most constellation stars of 3.6 magnitude do? When Johannes Bayer was assigning Greek letters to stars, this star was Alpha Musca Borealis. So, when Musca Borealis was disbanded and became part of Aries, it held on to its Flamsteed designation of 41, but lost its Bayer Alpha.

Musca Borealis is listed in the Astronomical League's Asterism Observing Program as number 87.

10/28/2026

Ta**us has well over one hundred stars with Flamsteed numbered designations. Where is 34 Tauri?
34 Tauri returns!

Look carefully at the constellation Ta**us on a star chart showing stars as faint as 6th magnitude. As Right Ascension moves from west to east, star designations listed by their Flamsteed numbers increase. Check off one by one: 1 Tauri (Omicron) and 2 Tauri (Xi), both in the southwestern corner of Ta**us, ... , 32 Tauri, 33 Tauri, 35 Tauri (Lambda), 36 Tauri, 37 Tauri, then continue eastward all the way to 139 Tauri in far eastern Ta**us near the Gemini border.

Wait! What happened to 34 Tauri?

In the late 1680s, John Flamsteed, Britain's first Astronomer Royale, was finishing his catalog of stars visible to the unaided eye as seen from southern England. Many of the over 2500 stars were near the edge of visibility, and one in Ta**us lying southeast of the Pleaides was just such a star. He first spied it on December 23, 1690. In 1783, Joseph Lalande remade Flamsteed's original number designations and assigned "34 Tauri" to this 5.6 magnitude luminary. What Flamsteed (and a number of subsequent observers) didn't realize was that this object wasn't a stationary star at all, but a moving planet.

A missed opportunity for first discovery? Indeed!
(Instead, it was William Herschel who discovered Uranus in March 1781.)

Uranus returns on Dec. 19, 2026 to the sky location
where Flamsteed plotted it on Dec. 23, 1690.

Its Right Ascension in 1690 would have been 3 hr 43.3 m. Due to the effect of 336 years of precession, in 2026 it is some 20 minutes further east at just over 4 hrs RA.

Reference:
https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1998Obs...118..219B
https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/space-astronomy/planet-uranus

10/27/2026

Magnitude Scale

Magnitude, or more specifically "integrated visual magnitude," is a measure of brightness.

Magnitude value designates the object's brightness if it were regarded as a point source, such as a star.
Brightness of each full magnitude differs by the next by 2.51 times.
A difference in 5 magnitudes corresponds to a brightness difference of 100 (= 2.51 x 2.51 x 2.51 x 2.51 x 2.51).
Magnitudes can have negative values. (Sirius = -1.46)
It is an inverse scale: The dimmer the object, the larger its magnitude value.
The dimmest stars visible to the unaided eye are assigned 6th magnitude.
The Sun is brighter than the full moon by 432,000 times
(= 14.1 magnitudes)!
The Full Moon is brighter than Venus by 1575 times
(= 8 magnitudes).
Success in discerning a dim object greatly depends upon the keenness of your eyesight, on the darkness of your observing location, and on the clarity of the sky.

Absolute magnitude is an object's brightness at a distance of 32.6 light-years. The Sun's absolute magnitude is +4.8.

Magnitude normally refers to the brightness of an object if it were a point source. A celestial object, such as a star cluster, nebula, or galaxy, however, spreads its light over an appreciable area, making it appear dimmer than its published magnitude would suggest.

10/25/2026

This November, Saturn, and the Magellanic Clouds await in the early evenings for those folks in the southern hemisphere. And Orion rises!

10/23/2026

November is a great time to view Saturn. Its ring system is noticeably more open than last year. The Milky Way is simply wonderful through binoculars with all its misty bays and dark clouds. How many open clusters can you spot?

And the morning sky features Jupiter, Mars, and Venus. Any maybe Mercury!

10/22/2026

AL LIVE!
Friday October 30, 2026
7:00 pm EDT

host Terry Mann
featured speaker: Dr. Shane Larson, "Zombie and Vampire Stars: Tales from the Stellar Graveyard"

also with
Chuck Allen
John Goss
Laurie Ansorge and
Scott Roberts

Address

9201 Ward Pkwy, Ste 100
Kansas City, MO
64114

Telephone

+18163337759

Website

http://www.astroleague.org/

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