Are you working on an Observing Program or Observing Award with the Astronomical League?  Do you often wonder what some of the requirements mean?  These are now defined for you on the AL Website.  To get information, suggestions, and definitions, please click on the Observe Dropdown.  This will bring you to the Main Observing Programs Web Page.  As you scroll down the page, you will see a section about Terms in Common Usage.  This will provide you with the definitions used by the AL’s Observing Programs for “Highest Level”, Go-To Telescopes, Remote Telescopes, Seeing, and Transparency.  There is also a section to go to suggested simple scales for observers to use when they are making observations for Seeing and Transparency.  Enjoy.  Aaron Clevenson, Observing Program Director

Dear Astronomy Colleagues:

Librarians across the country need your assistance to prepare the public for the August 21st solar eclipse!

Thanks to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (with additional help from Google,) over two million pairs of eclipse glasses will be distributed free through public libraries in anticipation of the solar eclipse.  More than 2,000 public libraries will receive a package of hundreds of free glasses, plus an information booklet on how to do public outreach about the eclipse (http://www.starnetlibraries.org/EclipseGuide/).

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