The Astronomical League is sorry to announce that due to the global pandemic of COVID-19 virus, Astronomy Day originally scheduled for May 2, 2020, has been canceled. Any assistance you can offer in “spreading the word” would be appreciated.

The Astronomical League is pleased to be a co-sponsor of IDA’s International Dark Sky Week. This is a week-long celebration of the night. This year, IDA is encouraging people around the world to come together online to celebrate the night and engage with authors, creators, scientists, and educators whose works have been vital to the movement to protect the night from light pollution. 

The videos will be streamed to YouTube and Facebook daily from April 19-26. For the complete schedule, click here:

We have recently updated the Herschel II Observing List.  If you are working on this Observing Program (or thinking about it) be sure to check out the current objects lists on the web site: https://test.astroleague.org/herschel-ii-observing-program

There is also a brief explanation of the reasoning for the change and the objects affected.

During the Council Meeting at the AL Convention each summer, the Council reviews and considers adoptions of new Observing Programs.  If you have an idea that you would like to propose, now is the time to pitch it to the Observing Program Directors.  If you have a proposal, please contact Aaron Clevenson, at aaron@clevenson.org and let’s get things moving.

Not all proposals are accepted by the Ccouncil.  The role of the Observing Program Directors is to help you get your proposal together, give you advice on it, and to position you as well as possible for success at the Council Meeting.  Possible outcomes are:

• Adoption of the proposal.
• Adoption of the proposal with modifications.
• Adoption of the proposal pending with some additional work required.
• Postponement of the adoption until a future Council Meeting.
• Nonadoption of the proposal.
• If the Observing Program Directors do not think a proposal will be successful, we will council you and possible suggest you withdraw it.

To be adopted, all proposals must go through the proposal process.  Information on that process and that documents are required can be found on the web page:  https://test.astroleague.org/new-observing-program-proposal

The first step in that process is to discuss it with the Observing Program Directors.  Proposals should be additive to the Observing Program Division at the Astronomical League.  This means that they need to be educational and go beyond the existing Observing Program offerings.  More of the same, or “just a new list of objects” do not meet that criteria.

More information about the Observing Program Division at the AL can be found on the web page:  https://test.astroleague.org//observing.html