Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday August 10th through Sunday August 16th.

The new moon for the month of August is on Wednesday the 12th, so we’ll have a waning crescent moon for the first part of the week and a waxing crescent moon in the early evening skies for the latter half of the week.

With this new moon, some parts of the planet will be treated to a total solar eclipse. Although none of the eclipse will be visible in Texas, New England and Canada will see a partial eclipse. The path of totality for this eclipse stretches from northernmost Russia and eastern Greenland, along the western coast of Iceland, and across northern Spain before ending at sunset over the Mediterranean Sea. This is the first total solar eclipse visible for continental Europe since 1999.

Venus is still shining brightly in the west at sunset and is setting at 10:20 p.m., about two hours after the sun. Look for the waxing crescent moon alongside Venus on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Shortly after Venus sets, Saturn is rising at 10:45 p.m. and then is visible for the remainder of the night.

In the pre-dawn skies, Mars is rising at 3:05 a.m. Mercury and Jupiter follow and are less than a degree apart on Saturday morning. However, they will rise only an hour before the sun that day, so you will need a clear view to the eastern horizon to catch them.

The Perseids meteor shower peaks on the night of the 12th into the morning of the 13th, and this year’s peak helpfully coincides with the new moon. The Perseids get their name because they appear to come from a point in the constellation Perseus, which is fully above the horizon around midnight. The meteors are caused by the Earth passing through the debris left in our orbit by the comet Swift-Tuttle and can often produce over a hundred meteors an hour at the shower’s peak.

There will be no public viewing this summer on 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.