Los Angeles Astronomical Society

Los Angeles Astronomical Society In 1926, local amateur telescope makers organized the L.A.

Telescope Makers Society; and in 1939 adopted the name the Los Angeles Astronomical Society in recognition of the growing public interest in astronomy. Our Outreach Program is a group of volunteers dedicated to helping your children learn more about the universe and the Solar System. LAAS has one of the busiest Outreach programs in southern California, and we provide Outreach to all schools in the

Los Angeles area and are available to Boy/Girl Scouts, Indian Scouts and various other organizations. How to contact our Outreach Program:

Please follow this link to Night Sky Network where you will find the form to request an Outreach event from LAAS. (http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/club-eventrequest.cfm?Club_ID=1344)

Take a moment to look at our calendar to make sure that the date you are requesting is available. You may view our calendar of events by following this link: (http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/event-calendar.cfm?Club_ID=1344)

If you are an Educator, you might like to look at the "Astronomy Activities" section highlighted near the top portion of the Night Sky Network (NSN) site. NASA and JPL have listed many activities that will make your Astronomy event a fun and educational experience!

08/18/2026
08/18/2026

Did you know that Venus is the brightest planet visible from Earth? Look up tonight after sunset to see why! ✨

You can find Venus in the southwest just to the right of the crescent moon. It appears as a bright, dazzling star and can be seen even in the waning light of dusk.

Who's going to find Venus tonight? ✋

📸: Brad Mann

08/18/2026

Perseids from Perseus (APOD: 2026 Aug 18)
Image Credit & Copyright: Jakub Kuřák
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260818.html

Explanation: This was a good year for the Perseids meteor shower. A key reason was the Moon was absent from lighting up Earth's night sky so that more meteors were visible than usual. Where was the Moon? It was busy visiting the Sun. Near the Perseids peak, the Moon moved directly in front of the Sun and created a total solar eclipse visible from Greenland and Spain. The Perseids occur when the Earth collides with a stream of Sun-orbiting debris cast off by Comet Swift-Tuttle. Perseid meteors, although typically only the size of a sand grain, tend to be fast and bright because Swift-Tuttle's debris orbits the Sun in a direction partly opposite Earth's orbital motion. In the featured image compilation, accumulated over several nights from Jizerka in the Czech Republic, the Perseids meteor streaks can be traced back to a single location on the sky -- its radiant in Perseus.

https://www.instagram.com/jakubkurak/

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=260818

08/18/2026

Join the Griffith Observatory programming staff this Thursday for this month’s installment of All Space Considered and discover the latest insights and fresh perspectives from the world of space and astronomy.

Special guest segment with Gail Shaefer is the Director of the CHARA Array of Georgia State University. Shaefer will discuss recent science results from the CHARA Array, which measured the size of stars, images stellar surfaces, resolves the inner regions of planet-forming disks, and detects close stellar binary companions.

Griffith Observatory broadcasts this public program live from the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater on the third Thursday of every month. It is free to attend in-person or stream on YouTube. Foundation members receive priority seating to All Space Considered, among other benefits. By joining the Foundation, you take part in supporting Observatory programs like this one.

For more information, link in bio.

 

08/18/2026

Sky Today: August 18
Late tonight, moonless skies offer great deep-sky observer. Try for open cluster NGC 6939, neighbor to the famous Fireworks Galaxy.

Image credit: Ram Viswanathan (Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)

Read more:
https://vist.ly/5f7n9

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