McDonald Observatory
Welcome to McDonald Observatory, a research unit of The University of Texas at Austin located in the Davis Mountains of West Texas.
Information
Location:
Fort Davis, TX, 79734
Phone:
Toll Free 877-984-7827
Mon:
10:00 am - 5:30 pm
Tues:
10:00 am - 5:30 pm
7:00 pm - 10:30 pm
Wed - Thurs:
10:00 am - 5:30 pm
Fri - Sat:
10:00 am - 5:30 pm
7:00 pm - 10:30 pm
Sun:
10:00 am - 5:30 pm
 
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory is heading to the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching in Galveston!

McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory
You’re invited to a special event in Houston featuring astronomer Fritz Benedict at The Houston Museum of Natural Science on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 6:30 PM. Fritz’s talk is titled "Discovering Extrasolar Planets: A Tale of Two Telescopes.” Hundreds of extrasolar planets orbiting other stars beyond our solar syste...m have been discovered. Some of these extrasolar planets may actually be low mass stars. The talk will explain how research astronomers discover these very distant planets and determine their size and mass.

The presentation is $12.00 for museum members and $17.00 for non-members.
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Time:6:30PM Tuesday, October 27th
Location:Houston Museum of Natural Science
Donald Mayfield
Donald Mayfield
Any chance this talk will happen again, but in Austin?
November 2 at 9:51am
McDonald Observatory
McDonald Observatory
If it does, we'll post it on here!
November 3 at 7:41pm
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory welcomes the National Association of Science Writers to the UT-Austin campus for their annual meeting!

October 19 at 7:29pm
Craig Patterson
Craig Patterson
Dane, Wasn't the sky awesome this weekend? I did a lot of imaging.
October 20 at 5:15pm
Kathy Rusin-East
Kathy Rusin-East
Stars in Alaska have been beautiful....it's been warm enough to stand outside and look at them!
October 24 at 12:56pm
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory Boston University astronomers used their telescope at McDonald Observatory to make a discovery in the dust plume kicked up when LCROSS crashed into the Moon.

Robbi Hamida
Robbi Hamida
Awesome.
October 14 at 2:00pm
Lewis Westerfield
October 14 at 7:16pm
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory congratulates NASA on a successful LCROSS mission.

October 9 at 6:57am
Eliz
Eliz
I'm glad I didn't wake up before 4:00 a.m. to try to watch....
October 9 at 7:51pm
Roger J Forsythe
Roger J Forsythe
A little bitty tear let me down, maybe Santa's elves will get dibs next time
October 10 at 6:16pm
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory Dr. Hemenway discusses the exhibit "Rare Astronomical Works" and the significance of the pieces on display at the Harry Ransom Center. For more information: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2009/astronomical/#

Sara Hemenway
Sara Hemenway
I love this video.... and the exhibit is beautiful.
October 7 at 7:20pm
McDonald Observatory
McDonald Observatory
Nicely done! History & Philosophy of Astronomy was one of my favorite classes at UT and the highlight of the class was going to the HRC for a private viewing of many of the books now on display for the exhibit. UT certainly has a magnificent collection of historically significant astronomical texts.
(Facebook won't let me comment as anything but McDonald here but this is Frank C if anyone is interested.)
October 31 at 3:50pm
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory You are invited to a local Amarillo event with astronomer Darren DePoy of Texas A&M University on Friday, October 2, 7:30 PM at Harrington Discovery Center. Darren will give the talk as part of our joint celebration with Texas A&M of 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy. The talk is entitled "Planets Around Stars Other Than The Sun.”

For more information: http://www.dhdc.org/

Time:7:30PM Friday, October 2nd
Location:Don Harrington Discovery Center
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory
The Ransom Center's Associate Director and Hobby Foundation Librarian, Richard Oram, leads a free lunch-time gallery tour of Other Worlds: Rare Astronomical Works on Thursday, November 5, at noon.

Discover "other worlds" and the changing notions of the solar system, the moon, and the planets over the centuries. In conju...nction with the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, this exhibition, drawn from the Center's collections, showcases important astronomical discoveries of the last 500 years.

If you can't attend the curator's tour, free docent-led tours of Other Worlds and From Out That Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe are offered Tuesdays at noon and Saturdays at 2 p.m.

The exhibition is on display through January 3, 2010.

Visit the exhibition page to view a video preview, an interview with the curator, and an interactive spinning globe featured in the exhibition.

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/2009/astronomical/#
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Time:12:00PM Thursday, November 5th
Location:Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory
You’re invited to a special event in Lubbock featuring Texas A&M astronomer Nicholas Suntzeff at Texas Tech University on Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 7:00 PM. Nick will give a public talk as part of the joint UT-A&M, year-long speakers series celebrating the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). The talk is titled... "Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Evolution of the Universe.”

For more information on Nick Suntzeff, see:
http://faculty.physics.tamu.edu/suntzeff/
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IYA 2009 Texas State-Wide Speakers Series
Time:7:00PM Thursday, September 24th
Location:Texas Tech University, Science Building, Room 007
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory The University of Texas' Harry Ransom Center on the Austin campus has put together a wonderful exhibition of their astronomy-related books and artifacts in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy. It opened yesterday. Take a look, and be sure to watch the video with UT astronomer Dr. Mary Kay Hemenway.

Source: www.hrc.utexas.edu
The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, will present the exhibition "Other Worlds: Rare Astronomical Works," showcasing items from the center's ...
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory Here's a story from the UT homepage about a planetarium show that benefitted from the powerful supercomputers at The University of Texas at Austin.

Source: www.utexas.edu
We live on a planet powered by a star. --Whoopi Goldberg, Journey to the Stars Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History The Sun is the
Mike Lowe
Mike Lowe
Officially, it is called the National Solar Observatory, located at Sacremento Peak, Sunspot, New Mexico.
August 12 at 6:45am
McDonald Observatory
McDonald Observatory
NSO is a great place to visit. They and Sacramento Peak Observatory share a visitors center there inside the National Forest. We work together with both of them and other observatories in New Mexico and Arizona on joint outreach projects.
August 12 at 12:48pm
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory The Perseid meteor shower is coming up! Be sure to note it on your calendar and invite all your stargazing friends.

Nature’s annual late-summer fireworks show
Location:North America
Time:9:00PM Wednesday, August 12th
Frank Deck
Frank Deck
In Ohio, flat wide open spaces. clear view, clear skies, hopefully
August 7 at 5:52pm
Brenda
Brenda
Can't wait; missed this on McDonald Observatory Newsletter this week - thanks for the reminder. I saw on meteor last night, but it went right over my head (pun intended) that it was that time of year again...Cool!
August 7 at 9:21pm
McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory Check out this great new resource from NASA!

Source: www.jpl.nasa.gov
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is introducing a new Web site that will provide a centralized resource for information on near-Earth objects - those asteroids and comets that can approach Earth.
Dulcey Kantola
July 30 at 6:07pm
Kevin Yates
Kevin Yates
Hey Thanks, signed Jupiter.
August 1 at 9:54am
RECENT ACTIVITY
McDonald Observatory changed their Hours.