In 2024, the Madison Astronomical Society’s board of directors voted unanimously to rejoin the Astronomical League after an absence of nearly three decades. MAS members can now opt to join the AL when they renew their annual MAS membership or when they initially join the club. Happily, about 60 MAS members have added the AL to their MAS memberships to date.

If you have not yet browsed the AL website, we encourage you to do so at www.astroleague.org. There’s much to learn there. And there are many benefits to AL membership, too. These include:

• The Reflector magazine is a quarterly publication that you will receive as part of your membership. It comes in hard copy by mail or in an electronic format. It includes astronomical news, previews of upcoming celestial events, how-to articles, and information about AL award programs.
• The League coordinates around 70 observing programs designed for amateurs who want to take on more challenges with their visual observing or their astrophotography. Typically, a program requires the observer to view, image, or sketch about 100 targets of a particular kind. The observer keeps a log, submits it to a peer reviewer, and if it is found to be satisfactory, the observer is awarded a certificate of accomplishment and a lapel pin. There are programs for every skill level, from beginner to accomplished observer, and for every observing instrument, from the naked eye to scopes, binoculars, and sophisticated imaging equipment.
• The League hosts excellent in-person and virtual meetings. MAS is part of the AL’s North Central Region. Our regional conference was held in the spring of 2025 in Minneapolis. The 2025 national gathering, called Al Con, was held in the summer of 2025 in Bryce Canyon, Utah. To keep updated on AL’s virtual meeting schedule, we suggest you join the Astronomical League’s Facebook page, where they announce their “Global Star Parties.”
• The League also publishes helpful observing guides. Some are related to the observing programs, but they make excellent resources on their own. You can purchase them from the AL website (others are available gratis). And recently, the League has begun posting interesting observational materials every other day on its Facebook page. Useful material for personal use or for outreach!
• Finally, please check out the AL’s online Store, where members can purchase observing materials, books, and all sorts of neat AL swag.

We hope that your experience with the Astronomical League will be rich and rewarding. If you have questions or comments about the AL or its programs, please feel free to contact our MAS/Astronomical League liaison, Jack Fitzmier, at jfitzmier@gmail.com.

Did you know…

MAS was a founder and charter member of the Astronomical League.

In January of 1936 the Madison Astronomical Society—not yet a year old—joined a brand new affiliation of astronomy clubs called the American Amateur Astronomical Association. The AAAA was founded in 1935 and was the brainchild of Edward Halbach of Milwaukee. Halbach is a legend in the world of amateur astronomy and had been instrumental in the founding of the Milwaukee Astronomical Society in 1932. Though it had the support of more than a dozen astronomy clubs at its peak in 1938, the AAAA proved to be untenable, or perhaps just ahead of its time. After 1938, it ceased activities.

The loose affiliation of astronomy clubs would continue to meet and organize for most of the next decade and at a Detroit meeting in 1946, the final plans for what would become the Astronomical League were in put in place. At a meeting in Philadelphia in July of 1947, the Astronomical League was officially launched.

The Madison society was involved from the very start. MAS members Harold Porterfield and Charles Huffer were instrumental in the formation of the North Central Region (NCRAL) and hosted the first NCRAL conference in Madison in 1949. It would host another in 1960, and Madison would go on to host no fewer than three national conventions (1954, 1978 and 1993). Many other MAS members served as delegates to the League over the years including the influential Paula Birner Carey, who helped found the MAS and would do the same for the Racine Astronomical Society in 1954. For nearly fifty years, MAS and the AL enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship. 

Unfortunately, by the 1990s, the relationship between MAS and the AL had begun to unravel. In 1993, the club hosted the AL’s national convention, which was widely regarded as a resounding success. However, this event marked the beginning of tensions between the two organizations. Although the exact nature of the conflict remains unclear, there were apparent disagreements regarding the convention’s format. MAS, as the host society, sought to break with tradition and adopt a workshop format instead of the traditional reading of papers. Additionally, there were apparent disagreements over the disbursement of profits. These issues led the board of MAS to vote the following fall to withdraw from the AL after nearly a half-century of association. The decision to leave was not without controversy. It required the concurrence of the general membership, and the board brought it up at three or four consecutive meetings before ultimately achieving a majority decision to sever the ties.

MAS is delighted to be back in the AL after so many years away, giving our current members a chance to avail themselves of League benefits and continue the tradition of collaboration.

(excerpted from an article in Northern Lights, the NCRAL quarterly newsletter, by John Rummel and Jack Fitzmier)