Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday November 5th to Sunday November 11th.
The moon is at third quarter late on Tuesday night so we will have a waning crescent moon for most of this week.
Mercury is low in the west-southwest at sunset and is to the right of the orange star Antares in the constellation Scorpius. Mercury is setting about an hour after the sun at midweek.
Mars is in the southwest in the early evenings and is setting at 7:50 p.m. at midweek. Jupiter is rising in the east-northeast at 7:15 p.m. at midweek. Look for the orange star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus to the right of Jupiter. The well-known winter constellation of Orion the Hunter is now up above the eastern horizon by 10 p.m.
Venus is rising at 4:15 a.m. and is up in the east-southeast as dawn breaks. A very thin crescent moon will be alongside Venus on Sunday morning. Saturn is now emerging from conjunction and is up an hour before sunrise by the latter half of the week.
Public viewing at the 16-inch reflector on top of Robert Lee Moore Hall is on Wednesday nights now from 7 to 9 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 now from 7 to 9 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 mackbrown-texasfootball.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. Observing events are weather permitting. Please call 232-4265 for weather cancellation information, which is updated 30 to 60 minutes before the scheduled viewing start time when a viewing is cancelled.
Thank you for calling the University of Texas Skywatchers Report.
