Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday June 2nd through Sunday June 8th.
The moon is at first quarter late on Monday the 2nd and then we’ll have a waxing gibbous moon for the remainder of the week.
Mercury is emerging from solar conjunction into the western skies after sunset and is setting at 9:10 p.m. at midweek, just 40 minutes after the sun.
Jupiter is also low in the west and is sinking towards the sun as it moves towards its next conjunction and is setting at 9:30 p.m. at midweek, an hour after sunset.
Mercury and Jupiter will move towards one another over the course of the week and will be at their closest on Sunday evening.
Mars is still high in the southwest at nightfall and is setting at 1 a.m. at midweek.
Over in the morning skies, Saturn is rising at 2:40 a.m., now almost four hours before sunrise.
Venus is rising at 4:00 a.m., two and a half hours before sunrise, so early risers should be able to catch it before the sky brightens at dawn.
In space anniversaries this week, Tuesday June 3rd marks 60 years since the launch of Gemini 4 with astronauts Jim McDivitt and Ed White onboard. During the 5 day mission, Ed White performed the first spacewalk by an American, and the astronauts performed several experiments as part of the steppingstones to the Apollo moon missions.
And 50 years ago on June 8th, the Soviet Venera 9 mission, including both an orbiter and a lander, launched on its way to Venus. Venera 9’s orbiter became the first spacecraft to orbit Venus on October 20, 1975, and two days later, the Venera 9 lander became the first spacecraft to return photos from the surface on Venus.
There will be no summer public viewing 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.
