Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday June 30th through Sunday July 6th.

The moon is at first quarter on Wednesday the 2nd, so we’ll start the week with a waxing crescent moon and then we’ll have a waxing gibbous moon for the remainder of the week.

Mercury is at its greatest elongation east late on the night of Thursday the 3rd and is setting at 10:15 p.m., a little over an hour and a half after the sun.

Mars is in the west-southwestern early evening skies and is setting at 11:50 p.m.

Saturn is rising at 12:55 a.m. as it works its way back towards our evening skies over the next couple of months. Neptune is still nearby Saturn, but you’ll need a telescope to see it.

Venus is rising at 3:45 a.m., almost three hours before the sun. Venus and Uranus will be about two degrees apart on Thursday night, but you’ll need binoculars or a small telescope to see the fair fainter Uranus.

Jupiter is just emerging from conjunction and is rising only 20 minutes before sunrise.

In space anniversaries this week, Wednesday July 2nd marks 40 years since the launch of the European Space Agency’s Giotto spacecraft on its mission to study Halley’s Comet. The mission made its closest approach to the comet in March 1986 and then studied another comet in July 1992 shortly before it was decommissioned. The spacecraft was named after the Italian painter who observed the comet in 1301 and included it in his painting The Adoration of the Magi.

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.