Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday June 29th through Sunday July 5th.
The full moon for the month of June is late on Monday the 29th and then we’ll have a waning gibbous moon for the remainder of the week. This full moon is known as the Flower Moon, the Strawberry Moon, the Rose Moon, and the Honey Moon.
Mercury continues to sink back towards the sun and its next conjunction and is setting at 9:20 p.m. at midweek, about 45 minutes after the sun.
Jupiter is also moving towards its next solar conjunction and is setting at 9:50 p.m. this week.
Venus appears higher in the skies at sunset each night as it moves towards its greatest elongation in August. Venus is setting at 11:10 p.m., a little over two and half hours after the sun.
Saturn is rising at 1:35 a.m. and is now visible for 5 hours before sunrise as it moves back towards our evening skies.
Mars is rising at 4:00 a.m. and the planet Uranus will be one tenth of a degree away from Mars on Saturday morning, so you should be able to see both planets at the same time in binoculars and small telescopes.
In space anniversaries this week, Saturday July 4th marks 10 years since the Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter, following in the footsteps of the Galileo mission that ended 13 years before. Juno’s mission primarily focusses on the planet itself and is in a polar orbit, studying Jupiter’s composition, the magnetic and gravitational fields, and more. Because of its orbit, Juno does not make as many observations of Jupiter’s moons, but that role will be accomplished by future missions, two of which on their way to the Jovian system right now. Juno continues to operate in orbit around Jupiter and is expected to last for a considerable amount of time since it is powered by solar panels instead of the more common RTGs for deep space missions.
There will be no public viewing this summer on 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.
