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
Favorite Pages
Video
McDonald Observatory This weekend, UT-Austin's student newspaper traveled to McDonald to cover our HETDEX project. Read their story here, and be sure to watch the video!
www.dailytexanonline.com
Six astronomers huddled around a cluster of glowing monitors, wrapping up a six-day test run for a $34 million experiment that will keep the McDonald Observatory’s largest telescope busy for three years, probing the mysteries of dark energy.
McDonald Observatory
The best views of this year's Leonid meteor shower will come in the hours before dawn on November 17, according to the editors of McDonald Observatory's StarDate magazine. Expect to see at least a dozen meteors per hour, though some astronomers predict 100 per hour or more. For viewing tips and additional graphics, see...:
http://stardate.org/mediacenter/2009-leo
McDonald Observatory is heading to the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching in Galveston!
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.
Time:6:30PM Tuesday, October 27th
Location:Houston Museum of Natural Science
McDonald Observatory welcomes the National Association of Science Writers to the UT-Austin campus for their annual meeting!
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.
mcdonaldobservatory.org
McDonald Observatory congratulates NASA on a successful LCROSS mission.
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/20
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 Star...s Other Than The Sun.”
For more information: http://www.dhdc.org/
Time:7:30PM Friday, October 2nd
Location:Don Harrington Discovery Center
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/20
Time:12:00PM Thursday, November 5th
Location:Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas
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
IYA 2009 Texas State-Wide Speakers Series
Time:7:00PM Thursday, September 24th
Location:Texas Tech University, Science Building, Room 007
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.
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 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.
Ranger supercomputer renders Sun anew for most advanced planetarium show ever produced | The Univers
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
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McDonald Observatory changed their Hours.
