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May 1 – Full Moon Carbon Star RY Mon best in evening May 2 – Alpha CVn Colourful Double May 3 – Antares 0.5-degrees N of Moon May 4 – Carbon Star X CnC best in evening May 6 – Eta Aquaria Meteors best in predawn skies but 3/4 Moon interferes May 7 – Markarian’sContinue reading “Episode 533 – The Observer’s Calendar for May 2026 Show Notes”

M40 – 9.6 Magnitude 1.7’ This is a pair of faint stars located in Ursa Major. They are a tough find in binoculars, and you will be challenged to split them with binoculars. In telescopes, they appear to be an identical pair of stars and easy to split even at low power. M108 – 10thContinue reading “Episode 531 – 12 Months of Messier April Edition Show Notes”

Gamma Leonis – Colourful double star April 2 – Full Moon Spica and Moon less than 4-degrees apart April 3 – Morning Targets April 5th – Spot Sirius unaided eye before sunset this week. April 6th and later NGC 2903, large 9th mag. Spiral in Leo M48 – 6th mag. OC well placed at theContinue reading “Episode 528 – The Observer’s Calendar for April 2026 Show Notes”

M41 This cluster in Canis Major is visible as a hazy patch to the naked eye just below Sirius. M41 is resolvable in binoculars and appears fairly loose in telescopes at low power. Some sources say it was observed by Aristotle, but it was not, reading his notes he refers to a star with a Continue reading “Episode 526 – 12 Months of Messier – March Edition Show Notes”

End of Feb. beginning of March Comet C/2024 E1 Wierzchos 6th – 7th magnitude Mar 1  –  Struve 1183 Monoceros – Colourful Double Mar 2 – Regulus .4-degrees S of Moon – Need to be further East…7-degrees for us Mar 3- Full Moon & Lunar Eclipse for Western NA 5:30am here 5 Lynx colourful doubleContinue reading “Episode 524 – The Observer’s Calendar for March 2026”

M1- a 1054 AD Supernova noted by Chinese astronomers created this nebula. Also possibly noted by Navaho in their Potroglyphs. Bevis found the nebula remnant. Christened the “Crab Nebula” by Lord Rosse for it’s appearance through his large speculum telescope. The Crab nebula is a supernova remnant in Taurus and appears as a hazy patchContinue reading “Episode 523 – 12 Months of Messier February Edition Show Notes”

Feb 1 – Full Moon 26 Aur Coulourful Double Feb 2 – Regulus occulted by Moon for Most NA 8:50pm EST Feb 3 – Zodiacal Light becomes visible this month in W evening skies when Moon isn’t in sky. Feb 6 – Carbon Star W Orion best this evening Feb 7 h3945 CMa Colourful DoubleContinue reading “Episode 520 – The Observer’s Calendar for February 2026 Show Notes”

Resources: Based on SEDS http://www.messier.seds.org/Messier.html Atlas of the Messier Objects: Highlights of the Deep Sky by Ronald Stoyan Deep Sky Companions: The Messier Objects By Stephen O’Meara Messier Nebulae & Star Clusters by Kenneth Glyn Jones The Search for the Nebulae by Kenneth Glyn Jones The Year-round Messier Marathon by Harvard Pennington Equipment: Naked EyesContinue reading “Episode 518 – 12 Months of Messier Month 1 Show Notes”

Jan 1 – Struve 627 in Orion Colourful Double Star  Jan 2 – 40 Harmonia at opposition a large S-type (silicate) asteroid located in the inner region of the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.  Jan 3 – Full Moon They are named after Quadrans Muralis, a 19th-century constellation that is no longer officiallyContinue reading “Episode 516 – The Observer’s Calendar for January 2026 Show Notes”