Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday May 9th through Sunday May 15th.
The moon is at first quarter late on Sunday May 8th and will reach full late on the night of Sunday the 15th into the morning of the 16th depending on your time zone, so we’ll have a waxing gibbous moon for all of the week. The full moon for the month of May is known as the Milk Moon, the Flower Moon, and the Corn Moon.
After the partial solar eclipse at the new moon, the Earth, Moon, and Sun are still aligned so we’ll see a total lunar eclipse at this full moon. Here in Austin, the partial eclipse will start at 9:27 p.m. on the night of the 15th and totality will start at 10:29 p.m. and last about an hour and a half. The partial eclipse will end at 12:55 a.m. on Monday morning.
Mercury is still setting about an hour after the sun but has faded to magnitude 3, so it will require a bit of patience to spot in the evening twilight.
In the morning skies, Saturn is rising at 2:30 a.m. at midweek, with Mars following at 3:45 a.m., Jupiter at 4:10 a.m. and Venus at 4:45 a.m.
Updating the progress on the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope, the alignment of all of the telescope’s 18 mirrors and the four science instruments is now officially complete. Now that the alignment is final, the team will move on to full commissioning of the science instruments. This process is expected to take about two months and then the telescope will be ready for full scientific operations in the summer. Once science observations begin, astronomers here at UT will be some of the first researchers to get that data with projects chosen for the Early Release Science Program and successful proposals in the first General Observer Program Cycle 1.
Public viewing on UT campus telescopes has finished for the spring 2022 semester. Please check back in a few weeks for information on the summer viewing schedule.
Thank you for calling the University of Texas Skywatchers Report.
