Did you miss the opportunity to participate in the Special Award in August?  Do you want to have a second round with the Parker Solar Probe?  This is your chance!  To honor the probe’s closest approach to the Sun in December we offer version 2.0.  For details and requirements for this Special Observing Award, go to the AL’s NASA Observing Challenges web page:  https://www.astroleague.org/nasa-observing-challenges-special-awards/ .  This is our 11th NASA Observing Challenge.

This AL Live has been cancelled.

Join the AL Live for a char with Barbara Harris on doing Science with Seestar.

10//25/2024 at 7 PM EDT.

To see Flyer – click here.

It is finally in the evening skies.  Best viewing (weather permitting) will be from 10/12 through 10/26.  After sunet, look west and above where the sun just set.  It should be awesome in binoculars.  NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN!!!  On 10/12 the comet will be 16 degrees altitude at sunset, and will climb steadily each night.  By 10/26 it will be at 49 degrees altitude at sunset, but it will also be about 2 magnitudes fainter.  Enjoy.

Join the Astronomical League and Bob King for a discussion entited “All Eyes on Tsuchinshan–ATLAS, the brightest comet of the year!”  on September 25, 2024 at 7:00 PM EDT.  To see the flyer, click here:  https://www.astroleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AL-LIVE-20240925-King.pdf

For those of you braving the Solar Maximum AL Observing Challenge or the new Space Weather Observing Program, you may have noticed that your homemade Soda-Bottle Magnetometer is not working the way we all expected it to.  We have uncovered (with the help of many of you…) that there are some challenges facing us.   This link will share what we have learned.  Good luck – and keep on observing.  https://www.astroleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Magnetometers-Challenges.pdf

The latest “What’s Up with the Astronomical League” is available here:  https://www.astroleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Whats-Up-with-Astro-League-September-2024.pdf

The next AL Live  live stream will be on September 20, 2024 at 7 PM EDT.  Scott Harrington will talk about Observing it All with Binoculars.

To see the flyer for this event, click here:  https://www.astroleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AL-LIVE-20240920-Harrington.pdf

Want more information about all manner of things related to space?  There is a weekly webcast from Space Oddities Live that covers current events (NASA and ESA missions, the Sun, The Moon, The planets, Comets, etc.) as well as intersting topics (recently: the Big Band and Moons of the Solar System).  They also share images sent in my their viewers.  Aaron Clevenson, of the Astornomical League,  has joined their panel (with one other American and a bunch of British folks).  It is broadcast at 3 PM Eastern Time.  If you can’t make a mid-day broadcast, then they are all recorded and available on YouTube.

To check out their channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@SpaceOdditiesLive

The Astronomical League working with the Star Library Network is bringing you a webinar about the Solar Maximum.  The one-hour webinar will be in the afternoon on Wednesday, September 11, 2024.  The focus of this webinar is the Astronomical League’s Solar Maximum Observing Challenge and how to build a homemade magnetometer.  For more information and to register for the webinar go to the Star Librabry Network’s website:  https://www.starnetlibraries.org/event/experience-solar-maximum-with-the-astronomical-leagues-observing-challenge/

A high school student, a member of the Astronomical League, working with the University of Washington has developed an astronomy chatbot that aims to make learning about our universe accessible for various age groups. Cosmo allows users to explore the wonders of our universe and learn about complex astronomical concepts through a conversational interface that is available in multiple languages!  In line with their shared mission of making our universe universally accessible, this tool is available free on-line.  After “kicking the tires” the chatbot did amazingly well at answering my questions.  It provided accurate information and at  an age-appropriate level.  But like all advanced computer applications it can make mistakes, but the ones I have seen were minor.

More information can be found at these links:

• Information about the project at the University of Washington:  Facebook page
• A Demo video of Cosmo:  Demo video
• And Cosmo itself:  Cosmo

Thank you Claire for sharing this amazing resource with the astronomical community and the world.