April, 2004
Friday, April 30th, 2004
Cassini
Images Saturn
On March 27th, the approaching Cassini Spacecraft snapped this
gorgeous shot of the ringed planet, Saturn. With Cassini less than
30 million miles away, the planet completely filled the field of
view of its narrow angle camera. Cassini will rendezvous with Saturn
in July when it drops into orbit around the planet. Checkout the
Cassini-Huygens website for the latest on this incredible
journey.
Tuesday, April 27th, 2004
Comet
Bradfield
Comet
Bradfield (C/2004 F4) has begun to climb away from the glare of
the Sun and can
now be found in the eastern sky, just before dawn. While just
below naked eye limits, the comet should be an easy target in
binoculars or a small telescope. For more information, checkout Gary
W. Kronk's Cometography.com
Sunday, April 25th, 2004
Giant Sunspots
Huge sunspots can often be seen on our star. This one #599, spans
many Earth-diameters. If you'd like to see this, and other
sunspots, be sure to follow safe
solar viewing techniques.
Thursday, April 22nd, 2004
The
Moon and the Planets
The Moon
posed with Venus
and Mars
Thursday evening. (Click
for an annotated version). Look for an even tighter grouping
Friday night in the western sky shortly after sunset.
Wednesday, April 21st, 2004
New
Crew For The ISS
The Soyuz spacecraft docked with The
International Space Station (ISS) early this morning. The Soyuz
was carrying an American-Dutch-Russian crew who plan on spending the
next 6 months orbiting Earth. Checkout
NASA Mission Control for more information.
Tuesday, April 20th, 2004
Lyrid
Meteor Shower Peak
The annual Lyrid
Meteor Shower peaks in the wee hours of Thursday morning (4/22).
Best viewing will most likely be between midnight and first light..
Tuesday, April 13th, 2004
April 19th to April 26th
is National Dark Sky Week
The night sky is one of our most valuable natural treasures.
Unfortunately, it is threatened by the growing glare of improper
lighting emanating from our urban and suburban areas. Use the
upcoming National Dark Sky Week to
turn off all non-essential exterior lights and reacquaint yourself with this wonderful treasure.
Sunday, April 11th, 2004
Beautiful
Alignment
Having moved past The
Pleiades last weekend, Venus
is now approaching Mars
and bright Aldebaran. The group can be found, in the constellation Taurus
which is high in the western sky shortly after sunset.
Wednesday, April 7th, 2004
Aurora
Watch
A large Coronal
Mass Ejection (CME) was detected leaving the Sun yesterday
(4/6/04). This is expected to arrive as the Earth enters a high
speed solar wind tonight. Add in the fact that its forecast to
be cloudy here in northern Utah and you've got a recipe for aurora.
Keep an eye on the northern horizon after dark and checkout Spaceweather.com
for the latest information.
Sunday, April 4th, 2004
Venus
Moving Beyond The Pleiades
Venus is now moving beyond The Pleiades Star Cluster. This past
weekend was the closest such grouping in about 8 years. This image
was captured by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies
Venus Among The Stars of The Pleiades
Venus is currently moving amongst the stars of The Pleiades Star
Cluster. It will spend the remainder of the night... and tomorrow
night tightly grouped with the cluster. This is the closest such
grouping in about 8 years. This image was captured by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies
Thursday, April 1st, 2004
Venus
Encroaching upon The Pleiades
Checkout how fast Venus is approaching The Pleiades. This is 3
nights worth of exposure. Friday and Saturday nights will find Venus
mingling with the stars of the cluster. This sequence contains
images taken Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies
