Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday June 8th through Sunday June 14th.
The moon is at third quarter on Monday morning and then we’ll have a waning crescent moon in the morning skies for the remainder of the week.
Mercury continues to move away from the sun and is setting at 10:20 p.m. at midweek, almost two hours after sunset, so you might be able to catch it with a good view to the western horizon.
Venus and Jupiter will pass by each other in the west at sunset this week and will be 1.6 degrees apart from one another on Tuesday evening. Looks for the bright stars Castor and Pollux of the constellation Gemini nearby too. Both planets are setting around 11 p.m. this week.
In the morning skies, Saturn is rising a little before 3 a.m. at midweek as it makes its way back to our evening skies. Look for Saturn to the right of the waning crescent moon on Wednesday morning.
Mars follows Saturn, rising at 4:30 a.m. Look for Mars to the lower right of the thin crescent moon on Friday morning.
In space news from last week, on June 3, 2026, NASA officially concluded the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (or MAVEN) mission, which studied the question of why Mars has lost most of its atmosphere and water to space. MAVEN launched in November 2013 and entered orbit in September 2014 to start what was a planned two-year mission. The spacecraft ended up operating for over 12 years until contact was lost in December 2025. After attempts to re-establish contact failed, the mission was officially ended last week.
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 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.
