What’s Up?

Updated September 25, 2026

Starting January 2026, this section will feature a monthly summary of what is happening in the skies above us. It will be updated during the first days of each month to include celestial events for that particular month.

Late- September

Images of the recent lunar eclipse are posted here. Also, images of the recent partial solar eclipse are posted here.

Venus is the first object visible as it gets dark; look for it very low in the southwestern sky. It sets a few minutes earlier each evening and will soon exit as “evening star”. It is about to pass between the Sun and Earth, a configuration known as inferior conjunction, on October 24, after which it appears in the predawn sky in November. As it gets darker, Arcturus becomes visible relatively low in the western sky, about 30° above Venus.

Bright Arcturus, with the bent-kite shaped Bootes constellation, are getting lower and lower each day. The kite is 23° tall and bent slightly to the right. At the same altitude, to the right of Arcturus, is the Big Dipper, attached to bigger Ursa Major. Arcturus is getting lower in the western sky with each passing evening, while the Big Dipper is visible low in the northwest, at a fairly modest tilt. The Dipper swings under the North Celestial Pole between 12 am and 1 am local time.

The constellations of summer are sliding toward the western horizon. Scorpius, which had been due south at the time the stars “come out” is now starting to tilt toward the southwest as this part of the sky follows Virgo into the evening twilight. Altair is the bright star fairly high in the south at dusk. It is the lower point of the Summer Triangle, with the other stars Vega and Deneb high overhead and high in the east, respectively. Vega passes close to the zenith during evening twilight end: in fact, as seen from latitude 39° North, it passes right through the zenith. Deneb follows roughly two hours later, but in order to see it pass directly through the zenith point overhead, one needs to be located at 45° North latitude.

At some point later in the evening, Arcturus gets lower in the western sky while Capella gets higher in the northeastern sky. At some point both 0th magnitude stars reach the same altitude. When this happens depends on the observer’s latitude and longitude. Toward the southeast will be Fomalhaut, the “fall star” rising higher as Antares sinks lower in the southwest. This precession signals the imminent change of the astronomical seasons as autumn in the northern hemisphere begins on September 22. Autumn begins at exactly 7:05 pm CDT on the evening of the 22nd of September. This marks the start of astronomical autumn (fall) in the northern hemisphere, and spring in the southern hemisphere.

Saturn rises during evening twilight and stays up the rest of the night. It glows at magnitude +0.3 and is situated about 15° below and left of the Great Square of Pegasus, which itself is tilted on one corner low in the eastern sky. Saturn is highest in the sky for the night around 1 to 2 am local time. It is nearing its October 4th opposition. The Full Harvest Moon joins Saturn on September 26. Just after it gets dark, look east to find the Full Moon with Saturn following it at a distance of 6°. This gap shrinks to a bit less than 5° in the predawn hours.

The predawn sky, just before the start of local twilight/dawn, the sky presents a preview of the early winter evening sky, around early January, about 6pm local time. Orion is getting higher in the southeast, with Aldebaran and the Pleiades high above it, leading it across the sky. Bright Sirius shines below Orion, with Procyon to the left, more directly due east. The Gemini twins lie on their sides fairly high in the eastern sky. Mars glows reddish-orange, at magnitude +1.2, from the middle of Gemini and it rises around 1 am or 2 am local time. By the dawn it will be high in the east, to the right of Pollux and Castor. Jupiter rises about one hour before dawn and plays the role of a “morning star” low in the East Northeast as twilight starts.

Observations of Solar and Lunar Eclipses and Other Observations

The March 3, 2026 total lunar eclipse was clouded out for the Houston area.

Images of the March 14, 2025 total lunar eclipse can be viewed here.

We observed two solar eclipses less than six months apart. Check out images from these celestial events at this site.

We observed and imaged the total lunar eclipsed that occurred during the predawn hours of 8 November 2022. The images and report can be viewed at https://www.pvamu.edu/pvso/cosmic-corner/total-lunar-eclipse-2022-1-2/. Partial lunar eclipse began at 3:09 am CST, total eclipse started at 4:16 am CST, maximum eclipse (when the Moon should appear darkest) at 4:59 am CST, total eclipse ended at 5:42 am CST, and partial eclipse finished at 6:49 am. The subtle penumbral shading was detectable some 30 to 40 minutes before and after the partial stages.

On 15 May 2022, a Total Lunar Eclipse, with totality lasting nearly 85 minutes, was visible across North and South America (except the far northwest part of North America). Partial eclipse began at 9:28 pm CDT (May 15), totality began at 10:29 pm, mid eclipse was 11:12 pm, total eclipse ended at 11:54 pm and partial eclipse ended at 12:56 pm, CDT (May 16). We did observe the event and got pictures, check out this website for these.

Observations of the partial phase of the May 2021 lunar eclipse (taken with smartphone and a University telescope), along with unfiltered, stacked galaxy and cluster images, can be viewed from the project update website https://www.pvamu.edu/pvso/cosmic-corner/project-summary-2/.

Jupiter was hit by a meteor in 2021, see https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/jupiter-whacked-again-japanese-astronomers-record-possible-impact/, for more information on what is the 11th confirmed observation of a fireball to burn up in its atmosphere. There was another event documented on 28 August 2023. You can read all about it at this website. There was a recent observation of a dark stain in Jupiter’s clouds that may point to an impact earlier this year. Check it out (with image) at this website.

Solar observations have resumed but the Sun has become very quiet. One may view images during our Solar Cycle Observation Program (2020-2026) by visiting pvamu.edu/pvso.

The PVSO complex has 3 domes, including the existing “Classic” Solar Observatory, and two new domes. For updates on this progress check out https://www.pvamu.edu/pvso/cosmic-corner/project-summary-2/. Also, more information and images can be viewed at https://sites.google.com/view/saganti-astro/home. The two newer domes contain our Meade 16-inch advanced telescope (east dome, an Astrohaven clamshell-type dome) and a 0.6 meter (24-inch) PlaneWave Corrected Dall-Kirkham telescope (west dome, an Ash dome). The design features these two domes situated east and west of a visitor’s center, which is immediately north of the existing Solar Observatory.