In this Issue…
• NCRL Eastern Iowa Cosmic Conference, May 15-17
• MSRAL Convention, June 26-28
• ALCon 2026, August 12-15

You can download the issue HERE

The AL has just added this Challenge to our flock of Observing Challenges:  https://www.astroleague.org/al-observing-challenge-special-observing-award/  This Challenge focuses of the controversy and confusion regarding the true identity of M102 (Messier #102).  Many mistakes were made in the initial observation as well as trying to identify its true identity by other astronomers.  We hope you will join us in June 2026 to relive the excitement.  This is your chance to see who you think is the real M102.

Please plan to join us for this month’s AL Live.  It will be featuring John Goss and is entitled:  “In Celebration of Global Astronomy Month Projects and Activities gtom your Astronomical League.”

For details and to view the flyer, click here (https://www.astroleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260306-Goss-scaled.jpeg).

Screenshot

In this Issue…

• NCRL Eastern Iowa Cosmic Conference, May 15-17

• ALCon 2026, August 12-15

• A.L. Live, March 6

• 2026 League Awards with submission dates

Download the issue Whats Up with Astro League February 10 2026

Wonderful news.  We have seven new Coordinators.   We appreciate all the work that the former Coordinators did, and welcome the new ones.

The new Coordinators are:

• Brad Young – Southern Sky Telescope OP 
• Dean Herring, Dark Nebula OP
• Hans de Moor, Constellation Hunter OPs – Northern and Southern Skies
• Krista Lemoine, Outreach Award
• Peter McLean, Urban OP
  
• Ron Kane, Asterism OP
• Russell Pinizzotto, Herschel II OP 

Sadly – This event has been postponed.

We are pleased to announce the release of a slide presentation (in PDF format) that addressses how to get started with the Astronomical League’s Observing Programs.  It is available on our main Observing Program Division web page, on the Monthly Sky Charts link on the AL Home Page, and also by using this link to go there directly:  https://www.astroleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/AL-Getting-Started-20260104.pdf

12/30/2025  The Astronomical League needs you!  The Observing Program Division is looking for a few people to join our team as Observing Program Coordinators.  If you have the time and the interest, we would love to talk with you.  There may be multiple positions open, but we know that we need a Herschel II Observing Program Coordinator and an Outreach Observing Award Coordinator.  Please send an email to Aaron Clevenson at aaron@clevenson.org as soon as you can.  We are starting the process in January.  Thanks.

The last month of the challenge is upon us.  For those who were quick to check, there was an error which has been corrected for the Northern Hemisphere list.  Please check it again.  Aaron

https://www.astroleague.org/nasa-observing-challenges-special-awards/

Coming up in December (December 19, 2025) is the closest approach for 3I/Atlas.  The Challenge is to observe it.  Check out the full instructions and rules for this challenge (#15) on web page:  https://www.astroleague.org/al-observing-challenge-special-observing-award/