"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back
to its old dimensions.'' - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Meet Stefan Seip, our newest Featured Astrophotographer

Star Party - Saturday Night - September 18th

APOD

Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District

Thursday's Classroom

Venus and The Beehive


Early risers can see a beautiful alignment involving the brilliant planet Venus and Utah's namesake deep sky object, M44, The Beehive Star Cluster. For the next several mornings, look for the two rising in the east around 3:00am and climbing until first light puts the beehive to bed. Venus will be easily visible until almost sunrise... and... if you know where to look... even beyond that! Pictured here is Venus meeting with The Pleiades Star Cluster in April. Checkout examples of other similar alignments.

First Ever Extrasolar Planet Photographed

A group of European astronomers have released what may be the first-ever photograph of an extrasolar planet. The other 120 or so extrasolar planets have all been detected by the wobble they put on their host stars orbit. This is the first direct image of such a planet. Check out CNN.com/SPACE for more info. 

Park City Lightning


The skies lit over Park City lit up big time this evening.

Early risers were treated to a beautiful conjunction this morning (Tuesday 8/31) as brilliant Venus posed alongside the ringed planet Saturn among the stars of Gemini. Click here for an annotated version.

Early risers will get to a beautiful conjunction tomorrow morning (Tuesday 8/31) as brilliant Venus poses alongside the ringed planet Saturn. The pair, separated by a mere 2°, will rise together about 3:00am and climb above the eastern horizon until the light of the Sun ends the show. Click here for a map. Pictured above is a previous encounter between Venus and Jupiter.

Yet another beautiful moonrise for the residents of Pack City. This "almost full moon" was seen rising above the foothills just east of town.

Moon in The Belt of Venus

On the first clear night in some time, The Moon was found rising in The Belt of Venus. With clear skies forecast for the next several nights... this scene should repeat itself throughout the weekend. Just look towards the southeast around sunset. 

Astronomers have announced the discovery of an Earth-like planet orbiting a star much like our Sun. Checkout CNN.com/SPACE for more details.

NASA is developing plans to send a robotic mission up to fix the ailing Hubble Space Telescope. Space Agency officials say they hope to have the details of the endeavor finalized by next summer. Without such a mission, Hubble will stop functioning some time in 2007 or 2008. Click here for more details.

The orbiting Cassini Spacecraft fired its main engines for 51 minutes yesterday to increase its orbital distance from Saturn. The move will keep it from flying through Saturn's rings... and sets the stage for an extremely close flyby of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The October 26 flyby will be a mere 750 miles above Titan with the spacecraft "dipping it's toe" into its atmosphere. Checkout SpaceDaily.com for more info.

Moisture from an impending storm seemed to surround the moon on Saturday night. Checkout Atmospheric Optics to find out about the Lunar Corona.

Stretching beyond the outcropping dubbed Longhorn are the plains of Gusev Crater as imaged by the Mars Spirit Rover. Each new bit of information reveals more of Mars' watery past. Checkout the Mars Rover Website for more information.

A Moon Pillar appeared shortly after moonset on Friday evening. Not sure what that is? Checkout Atmospheric Optics for all the details.

As if trying to share in the lime light of discovery, the planet Neptune has revealed 5 more moons of its own. A team of astronomers using the 4m Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii telescope announced the discovery of 5 new moons... and a possible 6th. The accompanying image shows the Cerro Tololo Observatory. How'd you like to observe under conditions like this? Pretty sweet, huh? Checkout this BBC News/Science article for all the details.

Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope have pushed back the hands of time. By studying the Beryllium content of stars in Globular Star Cluster NGC6397, they determined the cluster to have formed within 200-300 million years of the galaxy's first stars. Checkout the ESO press release for more information.

Making the most of the sharpest images ever taken of Saturn, astronomers using the orbiting Cassini Spacecraft have discovered two new, ultra-tiny moons orbiting the ringed planet. Measuring between just 2 and 2.5 miles in diameter, these moons are by far the smallest in the Saturnian system. The discovery brings to 33, the number of moons orbiting the giant planet.

The returning Genesis Spacecraft fired its thrusters early Monday morning (8/9) as part of a trajectory adjustment designed to bring it successfully back to Earth. In a novel landing approach, it will be plucked from the sky as it descends over Utah. Genesis was launched in August of 2001 on a mission to catch particles or the solar wind.  Click here to read all about it.

The 2004 Perseid Meteor Shower peaked in the wee hours this morning. All I can say is... "they rocked!" Hundreds of meteors were seen throughout the night... with a peak burst (around 4am) of about 5 meteors per minute. Then towards the end... we were joined by The Moon and the planets Venus and Saturn among the stars of Gemini. If you missed the event... it will continue for the next several nights in a somewhat subdued manner.

The 2004 Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks tonight and into tomorrow morning! Will it be good? Will it be great? Will it be awesome? We'll just have to wait and see. One things for sure... the tiny waning crescent moon won't put a damper on the event this year. Check out our Perseids Page for more info. 

Venus, The Moon and Saturn

While you're out looking for Perseid Meteors, be sure to checkout the beautiful conjunction between the tiny Crescent Moon, and the Planet Venus. If you're really good, you'll even spot the Planet Saturn due east of the Moon. The trio will be due east before sunrise. Check out our Conjunctions Page to view past such events.. 

The orbiting Cassini Spacecraft took this shot as it passed by Saturn's moon Titan. Imaged in ultraviolet light, it clearly shows two distinct atmospheric layers surrounding the solar systems second largest moon. What would cause such a phenomenon? Click HERE to find out. 

Yesterday's headline ended with a question mark. Today's undoubtedly deserved an exclamation point. This shot of the ringed planet was taken on July 17th while Cassini was still 3.6 million miles away. Pretty sweet, huh?

We've grown used to amazing shots of Saturn's Ring System, right? Well... this incredible shot taken by the orbiting Cassini Spacecraft shows some beautiful detail in Saturn's south polar region as well. Checkout SpaceFlightNow.com for more information.

A Boeing Delta II rocket carrying the Messenger Spacecraft had a picture perfect launch early this morning. It will travel almost 5 billion miles before arriving at its destination... the planet Mercury. Checkout the Messenger Website for more information.

Due to unfavorable weather conditions the launch of NASA's Messenger Spacecraft has been postponed until Tuesday morning. Messenger is headed for the innermost planet, Mercury. Mercury... a land of extremes with 1100° temperature swings... between a blistering 800° during daylight hours and a frigid -300° at night. Messenger will take 7 years to reach Mercury... and then spend a year orbiting the tiny, rocky world. Checkout the Messenger Website for more information.

Well... I guess you only get blue moons... well.. once in a blue moon. Saturday nights blue moon rose a ruddy shade of orange. Maybe next time?

Kp Index
Red = Elevated Levels

IDA

Space Weather

Clark Planetarium