Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday August 11th through Sunday August 17th.
The moon is at third quarter late on the night of Friday the 15th so we’ll have a waning gibbous moon for the work week and a waning crescent moon for the weekend.
Mars is low in the west-southwest at sunset and is setting at 10:15 p.m. at midweek.
Over in the east, Saturn is rising at 10:05 p.m. and Neptune is still nearby. Look for Saturn near the moon on Monday night.
Venus and Jupiter are rising a little after 4 a.m. this week and will be less than a degree apart on Tuesday morning. After their closest approach, they will slowly move apart as Venus continues to sink back towards the sun and its next solar conjunction.
Mercury is rising at 5:40 a.m., almost an hour and a half before the sun.
The Perseids meteor shower peaks on the night of Tuesday the 12th into the morning of the 13th, although this year’s shower will have interference from the waning gibbous moon. The Perseids get their name because they appear to come from a point in the constellation Perseus, which is above the horizon around midnight. The meteors are caused by the Earth passing through the debris left in our orbit by the comet Swift-Tuttle and can often produce over a hundred meteors an hour at the shower’s peak.
In space anniversaries this week, Tuesday August 12th marks 20 years since the launch of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on its mission to observe the Martian climate, study Mars’ geology and gather information for future missions, as well as serving as a relay for surface missions. MRO arrived at the Red Planet in March 2006 and continues to operate in Martian orbit.
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.
