Home Page

Dark Skies Festival April 13-19

In celebration of International Dark Sky Week, join McDonald Observatory and community partners for events showcasing West Texas’s famous dark skies. Events will be held April 13-19 at McDonald Observatory and locations throughout Alpine, Fort Davis, Presidio, Terlingua, and others.

Astronomers Thought the Early Universe Was Full of Hydrogen. Now They’ve Found It.

Astronomers using data from the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) have discovered tens of thousands of gigantic hydrogen gas halos, called “Lyman-alpha nebulae,” surrounding galaxies 10 billion to 12 billion years ago. Known as Cosmic Noon, this is an epoch in the early universe when galaxies were growing their fastest. To spur this growth, they would have needed access to vast reservoirs of hydrogen gas, a key building block for stars. However, until recently, astronomers had only found a handful of these essential structures.

A Night at the Telescope

A group of astronomy undergraduate students from the University of Texas at Austin is invited to “test drive” the 107 inch Harlan J. Smith telescope at the McDonald Observatory. As Harlan J. Smith Scholars, the students are tasked with investigating a distant globular cluster and determining whether it may contain a black hole.

Livestream April 8: Dark Skies

Join us for live views of several celestial objects from the dark skies at McDonald Observatory! In celebration of the upcoming International Dark Sky Week and the Big Bend's own Dark Skies Festival, your hosts Saul Rivera and Stephen Hummel will be viewing some objects that can be appreciated under dark skies while discussing the impact of artificial light. Enjoy live views from a camera attached to a research-grade 16-inch telescope at the Frank N. Bash Visitors Center (weather permitting).

Help Renovate Our Visitors Center - Gifts Being Matched!

As our Frank N. Bash Visitors Center enters its third decade in service, we’ve started an extensive renovation of its public spaces. You are invited to be part of this transformative project by contributing to its funding. All gifts are currently being matched by sponsors!