Shreveport-Bossier Astronomical Society

06/16/2026

RARE DAYTIME OCCULTATION OF VENUS: This Wednesday, June 17th, you're going to want to do something unusual. Go outside under the blue sky and stand in the shadow of a building. That's the best place to see the daylight occultation of Venus.

For the first time in 11 years, the crescent Moon will pass in front of Venus in broad daylight over the USA. The bright planet will disappear behind the Moon's dark edge and reappear about an hour later.

Can you really see this during the day? You can! Scan the blue sky with binoculars until you find the Moon's pale crescent. Once located, you'll discover both the Moon and Venus are surprisingly easy to see with the naked eye. A smartphone camera zoomed and pointed in the right direction will have no trouble recording the scene.

The occultation (an event where one object passes in front of another, completely hiding it from the observer’s view) should occur in the Shreveport/NW La area shortly after 2:15 pm.

Warning: DO NOT point your optics at the sun. Standing in the shadows is a good way to avoid this blinding mistake.

This amazing event ends with a twilight exclamation mark. After sunset, Venus, the Moon, Jupiter and Mercury will line up in the western sky for a gorgeous alignment. Submit your pictures in the comments below.
…from spaceweather.com

06/15/2026

ASTRONOMICAL LEAGUE OBSERVING CHALLENGE – T Coronae Borealis -
The Blaze Star Observing Challenge and Special Observing Award

Level 1 – AL Observing Challenge. (certificate awarded)
* This level may be done by anyone, even non-members of the Astronomical League.
* This may be done visually through a telescope or through imaging.
* Two observations are required:
* Observe T Coronae Borealis any time before the eruption (now, before it goes Nova).
* Observe T Coronae Borealis during the Nova stage.

Level 2 – AL Special Observing Award. (certificate and pin)
* This level requires membership in the Astronomical League.

For full requirements and more information please visit:

https://www.astroleague.org/al-observing-challenge-special-observing-award/

T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) is located in the constellation Corona Borealis, also known as the Northern Crown. Although astronomers refer to the event as an explosion, the phenomenon does not destroy the star — that’s a supernova. A nova is a sudden brightening caused by a thermonuclear eruption on the surface of a white dwarf star. T CrB is actually two stars — a red giant and a small white dwarf. As the red giant expands, it ejects material onto the cooler, denser white dwarf. Over time, enough matter accumulates to trigger a thermonuclear reaction, causing the system to shine dramatically brighter before eventually fading back to its normal state.

A paper was published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society in October 2024 that stated that June 25, 2026, is the statistically most likely date for T CrB’s next eruption. If that date passes without an outburst, the next most likely eruption window will be Feb. 8, 2027.

06/13/2026

A SPACEX ROCKET IS GOING TO HIT THE MOON:
A SpaceX rocket will hit the Moon this summer, and NASA wants your help observing the impact.

On August 5th at 6:35 UTC, a Falcon 9 upper stage left over from the launch of Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander will slam into the Moon near Einstein crater, according to Bill Gray of Project Pluto. The 4-ton rocket body is expected to strike at 2.43 km/s, excavating a fresh crater 10 to 20 meters wide and throwing lunar debris high above the impact site.

Citizen scientists may be able to help us observe this event," said Brian Day of NASA Ames Research Center and SSERVI in a June 12th briefing. "Observers in the Americas will have the best view."

When the rocket hits, it will produce a flash of light, much like natural meteoroids do when they strike the Moon. However, the rocket will be crashing slowly into daylit terrain, and "the flash may be too faint to see," noted Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the same briefing. Indeed, he says, it could be as dim as 17th magnitude.

Of greater interest is the impact plume. Cooke estimates the collision will hurl as much as 800,000 pounds of debris above the lunar surface. If sunlight catches the expanding cloud, it could become bright enough to see above the Moon's limb.

This isn't the first time a rocket has hit the Moon. During the Apollo era, NASA routinely crashed Saturn V rocket stages into the lunar surface to generate moonquakes for seismometers left behind by astronauts. In 2009, NASA's LCROSS mission crashed a 2.3-ton Centaur rocket stage into the lunar south pole in a successful search for water ice.

None of these previous rocket impacts has been convincingly observed by amateur astronomers--so this would be a first if anyone sees it.

Want to try? We will provide updated crash-site coordinates and observing tips as August 5th approaches. Stay tuned!
…from spaceweather.com

06/08/2026

06/06/2026

One of the strangest things in the Solar System is closer than you might think.
At 27% the diameter of Earth, the Moon is the biggest satellite relative to its primary planet in the Solar System
At last count Saturn has 224 moons and Jupiter a mere 115. Uranus has 28, Neptune 16 and Mars two. Even the dwarf planet Pluto has five. Earth only has one and it doesn’t even have a name like the other moons. We simply call it the Moon.
Actually, however, our moon is very special because of its size compared to Earth.
The vast majority of other natural satellites in our Solar System are much smaller than their parent planets, but our Moon is around a quarter of the size of Earth.
That almost makes the pair a ‘double planet’.
It’s because our Moon is so big and so close that we have such pronounced tides and total solar eclipses too.
The Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, but 400 times closer to us, so their discs appear the same size in our sky.
Why don’t we have another name for the Moon? The reason traces back thousands of years to a time when humans had never seen or imagined any moon except the one orbiting Earth. The English word "moon" comes from ancient roots tied to measuring time — the lunar cycle gave us the concept of a "month." For most of human history, there was no need to give it a more distinctive label because it was the only one visible in the night sky from anywhere on the planet.
That changed in 1610 when Italian astronomer Galileo spotted four small objects circling Jupiter through his telescope. Astronomers realized these were natural satellites like Earth's Moon, so they borrowed the term "moons" to describe them and assigned each a specific name from mythology — Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto — to tell them apart. This continued, of course, as other moons were discovered.

05/29/2026

Happening Now!
Come join us for Pints and Planets at Great Raft for trivia, beer, and prizes!

05/28/2026

Join us tonight at Great Taft for Pints and Planets!

05/24/2026

The winner of the Seestar S30 Smart Telescope is Angela Savat, second place winner of the book Left Turn at Orion is Brian Flanagan and third place winner of the Planesphere Night Sky Guide is Craig McMillian. Congratulations and look for an email from us. Thanks to everyone for helping us in our renovation efforts!

05/23/2026

The Raffle is now closed. Thanks for your support!

Seestar S30 All-in-One Smart Telescope/Camera - Tiny and Mighty
Last chance to win this unbelievable telescope ends at 4 pm Saturday, May 23. Raffle drawing live on this page at 6:15 pm.

See comments under the attached images on this post.