The Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin is located on the 15th floor of the Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy Building (PMA), at the southeast corner of Dean Keeton (26th Street) and Speedway Avenue.

Active teaching faculty, research scientists, and many research associates and postdoctoral fellows, maintain activity and research in virtually all areas of modern astronomy, from cosmology, first stars, galaxy formation and evolution, supernovae, black holes, and gamma-ray bursts, to our solar system, extrasolar planetary systems, star and planet formation and evolution, and the interstellar medium. Computational modeling is supported by some of the world's most powerful supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC).

The Department's association with McDonald Observatory (located in the Davis Mountains of west Texas) provides excellent observing access for students and staff, and nurtures a leading program in instrumentation development. The observatory is currently retrofitting the 10 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope with 150 integral field spectrographs to conduct the deepest yet survey of the early universe (HETDEX), while infrared instrument builders will contribute to the next generation Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), under construction in Chile, in which The University of Texas is a founding partner.