McDonald Observatory

📣 The Board of Directors for the @giantmagellan Telescope has elected @mcdonaldobs Director Taft Armandroff as its new chair! Learn about this exciting leadership transition: ow.ly/UZ4S50XmBlL [Taft Armandroff (left), Walter Massey (center) and Brian Schmidt (right)]

✨Dark Skies Festival kicks off one month from today! ✨ In celebration of #InternationalDarkSkyWeek, @mcdonaldobs & community partners are hosting events showcasing West Texas’s famous #darkskies! Check out the schedule & make a plan to visit! ow.ly/WJci50YtCjv

UT offers limitless opportunities for undergraduate research. The McDonald Observatory is an extraordinary example. Proud of our students for taking part in this special work.

A night at the telescope 🔭 A group of astronomy students from @TexasScience were invited to “test drive” the 107-inch Harlan J. Smith telescope at the McDonald Observatory (@mcdonaldobs) and investigated if a distant globular cluster contains a black hole. Read more here: utex.as/4bySg2U

Canis Major, the big dog, trots across the south on March evenings. It’s home to the brightest star in the night sky and so much more, we’ll tell you all about some of its wonders. Join us this week — on StarDate! ow.ly/ugnk50Yrtv6

📣 SPECIAL LIVESTREAM! 📣 🗓️ Tomorrow! Saturday 3/7 1:30PM CT 🌟 The 2026 Great Lecture in Astronomy - Galactic Archaeology: The History of Our Cosmic Home, presented by associate professor of astronomy @UTAustin, Keith Hawkins! Hope you can join us! ow.ly/jPp450YqpIr

Astronomers with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (#HETDEX), have made the largest, most accurate 3D map of the light emitted by excited hydrogen in the early universe, 9 - 11 billion years ago!! @mcdonaldobs News Release: ow.ly/aRcP50YpSgN #darkenergy

✨ Ryan Cantrell, a Public Programs Facilitator at the @mcdonaldobs Visitors Center, was recently featured by Curated Texan! Check out some of Ryan's gorgeous images of the incredible dark skies West Texas is famous for! #darkskies #milkyway ow.ly/uAPk50YpKqK

Reserve your spot! CosmicAI is at @sxsw ! Our panel, "Revolutionizing Astronomy with Next Generation Big Data," focuses on how AI is transforming astronomy to unlock new insights into the origins of our universe. Austin, TX! JW Marriott Mar 15 4-5 pm CT schedule.sxsw.com/events/PP11625…

Students in need of support today can access services on campus from 3 to 5 p.m. at WCP 1.118. The Counseling & Mental Health Center will have counselors available for walk-in counseling. Student Outreach & Support will also be on site.

CosmicAI team presenting "AI Among the Stars: How Machines Help Us Explore the Universe" at Texas Science Festival 2026! Join our email list/slack to stay posted on future events! cosmicai.org/get-involved @TexasScience @TACC @OdenInstitute

✨ Live Deep Sky Tour -- TONIGHT! ✨ 🔭 Part of @UTAustin & @TexasScience's #TexasScienceFestival, @mcdonaldobs will explore the constellation of Gemini, plus Jupiter, and the Moon! ✨LIVE!✨ 7:30 p.m. Central ow.ly/VbLg50YkmQp🔬

A total lunar eclipse is coming 🌕 🌏 ☀️ In the early morning hours of March 3, 2026 (UTC), the full Moon will pass through Earth’s shadow, reddening the lunar surface. Here’s what you need to know: go.nasa.gov/40rWLWD Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

A “dip” in Earth’s magnetic field is getting bigger. That could be dangerous for people and machines that are in orbit. We’ll have details on this, plus a massive storm on the Sun, and much more, this week — on StarDate! ow.ly/zgZq50YklnQ

Reminder! Austin in person event with CosmicAI and Texas Science Festival this Wednesday, February 25th from 1-2pm Details ⬇️ sciencefest.utexas.edu/events/expert-…

✨ Live Deep Sky Tour this THURSDAY @mcdonaldobs explores the constellation of Gemini, as well as Jupiter and the Moon! 🔭 This #livestream is part of @UTAustin & @TexasScience's #TexasScienceFestival! ✨Join us LIVE!✨ Thurs, Feb 26th, at 7:30PM CT ow.ly/VbLg50YkmQp🔬

I met with @giantmagellan (GMTO) President Dr. Dan Jaffe and his team to discuss the future of U.S. leadership in astronomy, scientific research, and innovation. Dr. Jaffe brings deep experience from @UTAustin as GMTO advances one of the world’s most powerful next-generation observatories. Projects like the Giant Magellan Telescope help keep America at the forefront of discovery, strengthen partnerships with our universities, and inspire young Texans to pursue careers in science and engineering. As Congress looks ahead to next year’s funding decisions, I will keep working to support smart investments that expand opportunity and maintain U.S. leadership in science and technology.

Discover a world of pure imagination. 🌎 Join @TexasScience for the Texas Science Festival, Feb. 18–March 5, with hands-on experiences on the UT Austin campus and around Central Texas. Activities include the 25th annual STEM Girl Day, fireside chats with world-renowned scientists, a planetarium event at the Austin Nature & Science Center and more: utex.as/4ayoJ7Y

If you’re a UT Austin student who needs extra support, we’re here to help 🧡🤘 Learn more: deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sos/how-we-can…

Follow your curiosity to the Texas Science Festival for two full weeks of science-inspired offerings! #TexasScience #TexasScienceFestival #ScienceFestival news.utexas.edu/2026/02/11/tex…

We’re excited to see our collaborators at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory spotlight recent progress from CosmicAI in a new press release following AAS Read it here public.nrao.edu/news/national-… @TheNRAO @NSF @SimonsFdn