What’s Up?

Updated November 2, 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. More frequent updates are now being produced as time and circumstances allow. Images of the August 27th lunar eclipse are posted here. Also, images of the August 12th partial solar eclipse are posted here. COMING SOON: Images of Aurora Borealis observed in Iceland in October 2026 will be posted.

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Daylight Saving Time ended, for North America, at 2:00 am local time on Sunday morning, November 1st. Clocks have been turned back one hour in the affected areas. This does not occur for Hawaii, Saskatchewan, Puerto Rico, or in most of Arizona, as they observe standard time all year round.

The Moon was exactly at Last Quarter on November 1 at 1:25 pm CST. During the predawn hours of Monday, November 2, the Moon will be situated 1° or 2° from Mars. Jupiter and Regulus shine below them. On the next morning, November 3, the Moon will have passed the trio, sitting a little over 2° below Regulus. The Moon continues eastward with each passing day, moving from Leo into Virgo by November 5 as a thinning waning crescent. Venus reappears in the morning sky around the first of November and is slowly getting higher in the east southeast. It passes close to Spica, about 1.5°, but with the 3% lit crescent Moon just below them. Binoculars will help to see them more clearly.

As the sky gets dark in November, the first object to become visible is bright Vega relatively high in the west northwest. Soon after, Saturn is visible high in the east southeastern sky, now one month past opposition. When the stars become visible, the backdrop stars of Pisces and the Great Square of Pegasus become visible, with the latter balancing on one corner in the eastern sky.  The Fall constellations dominate the evening skies, with the summer ones descending toward the western horizon with each passing week. The Summer Triangle, in spite of its name, remains visible well into the fall season, and is still quite high in the sky at dusk. But the stars of late autumn and winter are starting to make their appearances in the evening sky. Cassiopeia is high in the northeast, standing on end at dusk. Capella is visible low in the northeastern sky in the evening hours, about 30° to the right of it is the Pleiades star cluster. They rise higher as the evening passes. Aldebaran and the Hyades follow behind the Pleiades.

Sometime around 9pm (and this time gets earlier by 30 minutes with each passing week), the summer star Vega and the winter star Capella are at the same height above the local horizon. Knowing this timing was how mariners determined their latitude and longitude, before the days of GPS. Vega is sinking toward the west northwest, while Capella ascends in the east northeast. Looking overhead, Deneb is still near the zenith (depending on one’s latitude) as the stars come out. The daily westward motions of the stars and constellations seem to stall out this time of year due to sunset and darkness arriving earlier and earlier each evening, almost coinciding with the earlier and earlier march westward across the sky of stars and constellations. The result is that it seems the sky is not changing much at the start of evening as the days and weeks move forward.

On the northern horizon one finds the Big Dipper during evenings this time of year. The further north one goes, the higher in the sky it appears. At 40° north latitude, the dipper is 10° above the northern horizon; at  30° north, part of it is located behind the horizon.

Mid November

Mars and Jupiter meet in conjunction on the morning of November 16. On this morning, they are 1.2° apart. They occur to the right/west of Regulus. Mars passes less than 2° north of Regulus on the morning of the 26th of November. On the 20th of November, Mercury is visible in the predawn skies, starting its best morning apparition of the summer. The planet rises about an hour and a half before sunrise and is easily seen at magnitude -0.6. Venus sits 15° to the upper right of Mercury, and about 2° left of Spica. So four planets are visible in the predawn sky: Mercury and Venus in Virgo, and Mars and Jupiter in Leo.

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.