Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday August 26 through Monday September 2.
The moon is at third quarter early in the morning of Monday the 26th, and then we’ll have a waning crescent moon in the early morning skies for the rest of the week.
Venus continues to emerge from the twilight in the early evening skies and is setting at 9:05 p.m., now over an hour after the sun.
Over in the east, Saturn is rising at 8:25 p.m., just half an hour after sunset as it heads towards opposition next week.
In the morning skies, Jupiter is rising at 1:10 a.m., followed by Mars at 1:40 a.m. Jupiter will be to the lower right of the Moon on Tuesday morning and Mars will be to the right of the moon on Wednesday morning.
Mercury rounds out the pre-dawn planets, rising at 6 a.m., just over an hour before the Sun.
In space anniversaries this week, Sunday September 1st marks 45 years since Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to fly past the planet Saturn, passing at a distance of 13,000 miles above the ringed planet. Pioneer 11 also tested a path through Saturn’s ring plane in advance to the arrival of Voyagers 1 and 2 over the next two years. In 1990, the spacecraft became the fourth human-made object to pass beyond the orbit of Pluto, and the final signal from Pioneer 11 was received in November 1995. The spacecraft continues to travel away from the solar system at a speed of about 25,000 miles per hour and in about 900,000 years it will pass near a dwarf star in the constellation Octans.
Public viewing on UT campus telescopes will resume for the fall semester the first week in September. Check back next week for details on starting dates and times.
Thank you for calling the University of Texas Skywatchers Report.
