Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday October 28th through Sunday November 3rd.
The moon is new early on Sunday November 3rd, so we will have a waning crescent moon for all of this week.
Mercury is at inferior conjunction on Friday November 1st and will be moving from the evening skies into the morning skies. Saturn is setting just 20 minutes after the sun as it heads towards conjunction next week.
Venus is low in the southwest at sundown and is setting at 9:25 p.m. Venus will be at greatest elongation east on Friday morning when it will be 47 degrees away from the sun.
Jupiter is up in the east at 11:20 p.m., followed by Mars at 3:10 a.m.
With this weekend's new moon, some parts of the world will get to see a solar eclipse. This is an unusual hybrid eclipse where at greatest eclipse, some parts of the world will see a total eclipse while others will see an annular eclipse when a tiny ring of the sun's disk is still visible around the eclipsing moon. The path of greatest eclipse runs through the mid-Atlantic Ocean and across central Africa, but a partial eclipse will be visible over the eastern most North America, northern South America, most of Africa and the Middle East and the southern parts of Europe. While Texas will miss out on any of this solar eclipse, we will get to see a partial one about this time next year.
Don't forget to fall back one hour this weekend as we return our clocks to standard time in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Public viewing at the 16-inch reflector on top of Robert Lee Moore Hall is on Wednesday nights currently from 8 to 10 p.m. RLM is located on the southeast corner of Dean Keeton and Speedway. Take the elevator to the 17th floor and follow the signs to the telescope.
Public viewing at the 9 inch refractor at Painter Hall is on Friday and Saturday nights from currently 8 to 10 p.m. Painter Hall is located on 24th street about halfway between Speedway and Guadalupe and is northeast of the UT Tower. To get to the telescope, take the elevator to the 5th floor and exit to the left. Follow the 5th floor hallway to the end and take the staircase through the double doors on the left. Once you reach the 6th floor, go to your right and follow the signs up to the telescope. Please note that there will be no Painter Telescope viewing on Saturday evenings when the UT football team has a night home game. To check the football schedule, logon to texassports.com.
All events are free and open to all ages and no reservations are required. Note that viewing times and availability change throughout the year so please check the schedule before planning a visit. Due to this weekend's time change, all star parties schedules will move to 7 to 9 p.m. for the remainder of the semester starting next week. Observing events are weather permitting. Please call 512-232-4265 for weather cancellation information, which is updated 30 to 60 minutes before the scheduled viewing start time.
Thank you for calling the University of Texas Skywatchers Report.
