Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday June 23rd through Sunday June 29th.
The new moon for the month of June is on Wednesday the 25th so we’ll have a waning crescent moon for the first part of the week, and a waxing crescent moon in the western early evening skies for the second half of the week.
Jupiter is in conjunction with the sun on Tuesday when it will pass behind the sun from the Earth’s perspective and then will slowly emerge into the early morning skies over the next few weeks.
Mercury is low in the west-northwest at sundown and is setting at 10:15 p.m., an hour and 45 minutes after the sun, so you might be able to spot it if you have a good view of the western horizon after sunset. A very thin crescent moon will be alongside Mercury on Thursday evening.
Mars is up in the west as the sky darkens after sunset and is setting at 12:10 a.m. Look for Mars just off the limb of the moon on Sunday night.
Saturn is rising at 1:20 a.m. and will be one degree away from the planet Neptune by the end of the week, although you’ll need a medium-sized telescope to see the much fainter 8th planet.
Venus is rising at 3:50 a.m. and will be moving towards the planet Uranus over the next couple of weeks, but you’ll need binoculars or a small telescope to see the 7th planet.
In space anniversaries this week, Friday June 27th marks 30 years since the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-71 which was the first to dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. This was the first docking between the two countries since the Apollo-Soyuz mission twenty years earlier. Atlantis landed after 9 days on orbit and, among other mission objectives, delivered the new Russian crew to Mir and retrieved two cosmonauts and one US astronaut for their return to Earth.
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 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.
