Utah Skies
"Bringing the Joys of Astronomy to the Public Through Awareness, Advocacy, and Education."

Check out our Spaceweather Section

HMO

TCO

SLC

Constellation Report

 Constellation Report

The Deep Sky Wonder of CorvusThis weekend we move on to the constellation Corvus the Crow

Corvus was the bird of Apollo. He was instructed to fetch a beaker of water for Apollo. Unfortunately, Corvus got sidetracked. When he finally returned with the water, Apollo changed his feathers from a beautiful white color to a dark and dirty black. In addition, Apollo took Corvus' beautiful voice and replaced it with a screeching sound. Finally, Apollo put Corvus and the beaker of water (Crater) and placed them in the sky.

 

 

 

Deep Sky Report

The focus of our efforts here will be the deep sky objects of Corvus

Let's start things off by peaking at Delta Corvi. This is an easy double star for small telescopes. The components are mag 3 and mag 8. Delta Corvi, otherwise known as Algorab is the brightest of the stars at the northwest corner of the constellation.


Interacting Galaxy Pair.. NGC4038 & NGC4039 as imaged by Al KellyOk, let's start things off with a very interesting Interacting Galaxy Pair.. NGC4038 & NGC4039(mag10.7). Also known as the Antennae Galaxy, this pair is locked in a gravitational tug-o-war. They'll probably end up merged into one larger galaxy in a few hundred million years. Stay tuned :) 

Anyway... locating this object shouldn't be all that difficult as you can use the top two stars in Corvus to point the way. I was looking at this last weekend. They handle magnification well. At low power, they were hard to separate. This was simplified by cranking the power up to about 200x. 

How's this for a cool shot? Taken by astro-imager Al Kelly, the pair look like a heart rolled on it's side.

Planetary Nebula NGC4361 as imaged by Gordon WaiteNext we'll hit Planetary Nebula NGC4361, (mag10). Checkout this shot by Gordon Waite.

Spiral Galaxy NGC4462
Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, Spiral Galaxy NGC4462 (mag12)

Good Luck!

Events

> -

Did you ever consider...

"If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born US physicist. Reflecting on his role in the development of the atom bomb

News

NASA Spinoff 2009 Highlights Technologies That Improve Life on Earth
NASA Seeks Student Payloads for High-Flying Research Balloon
Ceremony Reset for ESA Handover of Tranquility to NASA
Poisk Poised for Live NASA TV Space Station Docking
NASA Sets STS-129 Prelaunch Events and Countdown Details
2009B required OT update available
2010A call for proposals announced
2010A PIT released
Observing databases offline August 17
NIRI Available for Science Observations
Shedding Light on the Cosmic Skeleton
Opening up a Colourful Cosmic Jewel Box
32 New Exoplanets Found
The Milky Way's Tiny but Tough Galactic Neighbour
The GalileoMobile starts its South American voyage
NASA-funded monkey-radiation experiment raises hackles
What will it take to force political action on climate change?
Google Droid is here: Can it go toe-to-toe with Apple's iPhone?
First Look at Carbon Capture and Storage in a West Virginia Coal-Fired Power Plant [Slide Show]
Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite: Pest Management Proves More Effective than Pesticides