Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday May 19th through Sunday June 1st.

The moon is at last quarter early on Tuesday the 20th and then we’ll have a waning crescent moon in the early morning skies until the moon is new late on Monday the 26th. After that, we’ll have a waxing crescent moon in the early evening skies until it reaches first quarter on Monday June 2nd.

Jupiter is in the west-northwest at sundown and is setting at 10:20 p.m. on May 19th and at 9:40 p.m. by the start of June as it heads towards solar conjunction at the end of the month. Look for a very thin crescent moon above Jupiter on the 28th.

Mars is high in the southwest after sunset and is setting 1:40 a.m. in mid-May and 1:10 a.m. by the end of the month. Look for Mars to the left of the moon on Saturday May 31st and to the right of the moon on Sunday June 1st.

In the morning skies, Saturn is rising at 3:45 a.m. on May 19th and at 3:00 a.m. by June 1st. Look for Saturn to the lower left of the Moon on the morning of May 22nd.

Venus is at greatest elongation west on May 31st and is rising a little after 4 a.m. for the second half of the month. Look for Venus and the crescent moon to make a nice paring on the morning of Friday the 23rd.

Mercury is rising at 6 a.m. on May 19th and then is in superior conjunction with the Sun on May 29th when it will move behind the Sun from the Earth’s perspective. After conjunction, Mercury will slowly emerge into our early evening skies.

In space anniversaries, Tuesday May 20th marks 10 years since the launch of the Planetary Society’s LightSail 1, the first stage of a test of that technology. LightSail 1 successfully demonstrated the sail deployment system, but solar sailing was not tested. Light sails are a form of spacecraft propulsion through radiation pressure of sunlight onto a large surface and have been used successfully demonstrated on JAXA’s IKAROS mission in 2010 and the LightSail 2 mission in 2019.

There will be no summer public viewing 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.