Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers' Report for Monday June 1st through Sunday the 7th.
The full moon for the month of June is on Sunday the 7th. This full moon is known as the Flower Moon, the Strawberry Moon the Rose Moon and the Honey Moon.
On Friday the 5th Venus is at its greatest elongation west and will be just shy of 46 degrees from the sun in the morning skies. Venus is currently rising at about 4 a.m. Look for Mars to the lower left of Venus this week as the pair slowly move closer together over the next few weeks. Jupiter and Neptune are still close to one another and are rising at 1 a.m. Mercury is also in the morning skies and is rising at 5:30 a.m. at midweek.
Saturn is now in the southwestern skies at 9:30 p.m. and is setting at 2 a.m.
By the end of the week, all three stars of the summer triangle will be above the eastern horizon by 10 pm. The summer triangle is the stars Deneb (in the constellation Cygnus), Vega (in the constellation Lyra) and Altair (in the constellation Aquila).
On May 24, the space shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California after poor weather prevented a landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission successfully repaired and upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope.
Last Friday three new members arrived at the International Space Station, bringing the total crew number up to six for the first time. This is also the first time that members representing all five of the international partner countries have been in orbit together. The five partners are NASA, the Russian Federation Space Agency, The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. The space shuttle Endeavour is due to launch on June 13 on a 16-day mission to the space station.
Public viewing on UT campus telescopes will resume next week. Please call the recording next Monday for specific details.
Thank you for calling the University of Texas Skywatchers' Report.
