Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday May 6 through Sunday May 12.

The new moon for the month of May is late on the night of Tuesday the 7th for the US central time zone. We’ll start the week with a waning crescent moon and then have a waxing crescent moon in our early evening skies for the second half of the week.

Jupiter is now just a week away from conjunction with the sun, so it is very low in the west at sundown and is setting at 8:40 p.m. at midweek.

In the morning skies, Saturn is rising at 3:50 a.m. and Mars follows 50 minutes later at 4:40 a.m.

Mercury is at its greatest elongation on Thursday, when it will be rising at 5:30 a.m., over an hour before sunrise. After greatest elongation, Mercury will start sinking back towards the sun and its next solar conjunction.

Venus is rising at 6:20 a.m., about 20 minutes before the sun, as it heads towards its solar conjunction in a few weeks.

In space anniversaries this week, Saturday May 11 marks 15 years since the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The astronauts delivered and installed two new instruments for the telescope and replaced a guidance sensor, six gyroscopes, and two battery modules over the course of five spacewalks. The mission landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on May 24 after just under 13 days in orbit.

Public viewing on UT campus telescopes has finished for the spring semester. Stay tuned for information on the summer viewing schedule.

Thank you for calling the University of Texas Skywatchers Report.