Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday June 15th through Sunday June 21st.

The moon was new late on Sunday the 14th into the morning hours of Monday the 15th and will be at first quarter late on Sunday the 21st, so we’ll have a waxing crescent moon in the early evening skies all week.

Mercury is at greatest elongation on Monday evening when the innermost planet will be setting at 10:20 p.m., almost two hours after sunset. Mercury will also be below Venus and Jupiter, so you might have an easier time spotting it even though it is fainter than the two planets above it.

Jupiter is the lower of the two very bright planets in the west at sunset and is setting at 10:35 p.m. at midweek. Look for a very thin crescent moon between Mercury and Jupiter on Tuesday evening.

Venus is the higher of the two and is setting at 11:15 p.m. A view of Venus in a telescope now shows that it is only 75% illuminated and looks like a tiny gibbous moon. Look for the actual moon just above Venus on Wednesday evening.

In the predawn skies, Saturn is rising at 2:30 a.m. and Mars follows at 4:15 a.m.

The summer solstice for the northern hemisphere occurs at 3:25 a.m. on Sunday the 21st here in central Texas, marking the longest amount of daylight for the year. For Austin, we’ll see 14 hours and 6 minutes of daylight at the June solstice – compared to 10 hours and 11 minutes that we’ll see at the December solstice.

In space anniversaries this week, Friday June 19th marks 50 years since the Viking 1 mission entered orbit around Mars. The spacecraft consisted of an orbiter and a lander, which would touch down the following month. Viking 1 operated around Mars for just over four years and probably remains in orbit around the Red Planet, although there is a small possibility that its orbit has degraded and it has impacted the surface.

There will be no public viewing this summer on the UT campus telescopes so we can do maintenance and repairs. We expect to resume the regular viewing schedule in the Fall 2026 semester.

While you’re waiting for Austin-area telescope viewing to resume, you can tune in to McDonald Observatory live streams from west Texas. You can view past events on the McDonald Observatory YouTube channel and you can follow the observatory on social media and at McDonaldObservatory.org to be notified of future events.

Thank you for calling the University of Texas Skywatchers Report.