Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday June 16th through Sunday June 22nd.

The moon is at third quarter on Wednesday the 18th, so we’ll start the week with a waning gibbous moon and then we’ll have a waning crescent moon for the second half of the week.

Jupiter is now setting just a few minutes after the sun as it heads towards conjunction next week.

Mercury is low in the west-northwest and below and to the left of the stars Castor and Pollux of the constellation Gemini the Twins. Mercury is setting at 10:05 p.m. at midweek.

Mars is high in the southwest at sunset and is very close to the bright star Regulus in the constellation Leo the Lion. Mars is setting at 12:30 a.m. at midweek.

Saturn is rising at 1:50 a.m. and will be near the moon on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

Venus is also in the pre-dawn sky and is rising at 3:50 a.m. at midweek. A thin crescent moon will be near Venus on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

The summer solstice for the northern hemisphere occurs at 9:42 p.m. on Friday the 20th 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.

The June solstice occurs when the sun reaches its farthest point north, marked on the globe as the Tropic of Cancer. The December solstice happens when the sun hits its farthest point south and is above the Tropic of Capricorn.

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 2025 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.