Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday November 24th through Sunday November 30th.
The moon will be at first quarter early on the morning of Friday the 28th, so we’ll have a waxing crescent moon in the early evening skies for most of the week and start into the waxing gibbous phase on the weekend.
Mars is now very low in the west-southwest at sunset and is setting just 40 minutes after the sun.
Saturn is high in the south by 8 p.m. and is setting at 1:45 a.m. Look for Saturn to the left of the moon on Friday night and to the right of the moon on Saturday night.
Jupiter is rising at 8:50 p.m. at midweek, about three hours after sunset.
Mercury is emerging from last week’s conjunction and is quickly moving into our morning skies. Mercury is rising at 5:55 a.m. at midweek, a little over an hour before the sun.
Venus is rising at 6:20 a.m., just 40 minutes before the sun as it heads towards its next conjunction.
In space anniversaries this week, Wednesday November 26th marks 60 years since the launch of Asterix, the first satellite launched by the country of France. The satellite was designed to study the Earth’s ionosphere, but a mishap during the launch damaged the spacecraft’s ability to collect and transmit data, although Asterix was confirmed by American radar to have reached orbit. With this launch, France became the sixth country to put a satellite into Earth orbit and only the third country behind the US and the Soviet Union to launch a spacecraft on its own rockets. Because of the high altitude of the satellite, it remains in Earth orbit and is not expected to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere for hundreds of years.
There will be no public viewing on UT campus telescopes this week because of Fall Break. Next week will be the final week of public viewing for 2025. Viewing for the spring semester will start in the second half of January 2026.
Thank you for calling the University of Texas Skywatchers Report.
