What’s Up?
Updated October 23, 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. Images of the August 27th lunar eclipse are posted here. Also, images of the August 12th partial solar eclipse are posted here.
Late October
As dusk happens these late October evenings, the waxing gibbous Moon is visible in the eastern sky. As it gets dark enough for stars to become visible, Saturn appears below and left of the Moon this evening, October 23. Pisces and Cetus form the background to this scene. In the western sky, the evening star that have been present much of the year has long since faded from view. In fact, at exactly 10:45 pm this evening, Venus passes inferior conjunction, six degrees below the Sun. The event was unobservable except for those skilled enough to observe or image it safely. Images of today’s inferior conjunction can be found at this website. Along with images of a semi-circular Venus are images of the Sun, Moon, aurorae and other attractions.
One evening later, on October 24, the Moon has moved on by about a dozen degrees and it is almost full. It now lies to the left of Saturn. This is the time of year when, as Sky & Telescope describes it, when the “Ghost of Summer Suns” is visible in the evening sky. For several evenings around October 25th, the bright star Arcturus appears low in the west-northwest–closely marking the spot where the Sun was at the same clock time during the month of July.
This is also the time of year when the Big Dipper lies flat along the north northwestern horizon. From the mid-northern latitudes (around 40° north), the dipper hangs about 10° above the northern horizon. But at 30° north, part of it dips below the northern horizon (and is usually completely obscured by trees and buildings anyway). By the predawn hours the Dipper is standing straight up in the northeastern sky, easily visible.
Also visible in the pre-dawn sky is trio of bright objects that forms a straight line. The objects are Mars (the highest), Jupiter (the middle and the brightest) and Regulus. The line is getting shorter gradually as Jupiter and Regulus steadily climb the morning sky with each passing day while Mars lags a bit. Currently this line is 17½°, shortened from 19¼° long just a week ago.
Full Moon occurs at exactly 11:12 pm on Sunday night, October 25. A few degrees to the upper left of the Moon is the three stars of Aries, more easily seen if you cover the Moon. The Full Moon rises around sunset, is highest in the sky around local midnight (or 1 am daylight saving time) and sets near sunrise. Following the Full Moon, each evening will see it rise later and later as it transitions into the waning gibbous phase. By Tuesday, October 27, the waning gibbous Moon will be very near or even within the Pleiades star cluster. To learn whether the Moon will cover up any of the stars, use Stellarium or any other accurate planetarium program and zoom in on the Moon until it displays its true apparent size against the stars (you can tell this by when the Moon starts to expand in step with the expanding separation between stars). Run the program back and forth for the entire night to see if and when the Moon will cover various Pleiades members.
The constellations of summer continue the long process of exiting the celestial stage. Libra is faded into the twilight, with Scorpius now low in the southwest as it is getting dark, and Sagittarius not far behind. Altair is the bright star high in the south at disk. It is the lower point of the Summer Triangle, with the other stars Vega and Deneb high in the west and very nearly overhead, respectively. Also visible high overhead for those who observe from locations well away from city lights is the bright segment of the Milky Way in Cygnus. This is known as the Cygnus Star Cloud, which is part of the Milky Way band that runs from Sagittarius in the South Southwest overhead, then into Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Perseus, and Auriga low in the northeast. Currently the Full- or nearly Full Moon is washing it out with its light, but give it another week and it will be dark again in the earl evening.
Five days after Full Moon, during the predawn hours of October 31, the waning gibbous Moon (one day before it reaches Last Quarter) makes a right triangle with Castor and Pollux in Gemini. To the left of the Moon is Regulus, Jupiter and Mars in a slightly lopsided line of three. Venus is making its appearance as “Morning Star” low in the east southeast with Spica less than 4° to the upper left of it. Venus, now at magnitude -4.2, will continue to climb higher into the morning sky and will be at its brightest for the predawn apparition in mid-December.
Early November
Daylight Saving Time ends, for North America, at 2:00 am local time on Sunday morning, November 1st. Clocks are turned back one hour. This does not occur for Hawaii, Saskatchewan, Puerto Rico, or in most of Arizona, as they observe standard time all year round.
The Moon is exactly at Last Quarter on November 1 at 2:25 pm CDT. 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.
The Fall constellations dominate the evening skies in early November, 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.
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.