Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday May 16th through Sunday May 22nd.
The full moon of May was late on Sunday the 15th and the moon will reach last quarter on the afternoon of Sunday the 22nd, so we’ll have a waning gibbous moon all of this week.
Mercury is in inferior conjunction with the sun on Saturday the 21st when it will pass between the Earth and the Sun from the Earth’s perspective. After conjunction, Mercury will slowly emerge in the morning skies along with the rest of the planets visible to the unaided eye.
And over in the morning skies, Saturn is rising at 2:05 at midweek as it slowly makes its way back to our evening skies in the late summer. Look for Saturn above the waning gibbous moon on Sunday morning.
Mars rises at 3:35 a.m. and Jupiter follows about 25 minutes later as the two planets move closer to one another this week and next week. Venus is rising at 4:40 a.m. and is moving back towards the sun and its next conjunction in the fall.
In space anniversaries this week, Sunday May 22nd marks 70 years since one of the early US tests of the effects of rocket launches on live animals that paved the way for the human spaceflight program a decade later. On this mission, two monkeys and two mice were launched on an Aerobee sounding rocket and were recovered unharmed.
And 10 years ago on Sunday, the first fully functional SpaceX Dragon spacecraft of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Three days later, the Dragon capsule rendezvoused with the International Space Station and was grabbed by the station’s robotic arm. The capsule left the station, splashed down, and was successfully recovered on May 31.
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.
