Welcome to the Utah Skies Report.
We’re broadcasting this morning from beautiful Park City, “View-tah”.
Well, it doesn’t look like the weather is going to cooperate with
astronomers tonight. It looks like your best viewing will be from
Saturday night on.
In our planetary report today we focus on Jupiter.
Jupiter can be seen shining brightly overhead shortly after sunset. To
find Jupiter, simply face towards the south and look up. Shining near
its peak visual magnitude of about –2.6, Jupiter is the brightest
“star-like” object in the sky.
Jupiter orbits the sun at a distance of almost ˝ billion miles. This is
almost 5 times the separation of the earth and the sun.
Jupiter is the largest of the planets. In fact, Jupiter’s mass is
greater than all the other planets combined. It weighs over 300x more
than the earth and has a diameter of over 11x larger than the earth.
Jupiter has many surface features that are visible in a small telescope.
It is, in my opinion, the most interesting planet to observe and is my
favorite. Many colored bands may be seen encircling the planet as well
as the “great red spot”.
The great red spot is a hurricane like storm that was first seen by
Galileo back in the 1600’s. The great red spot is visible as a small,
pale reddish circle located at central lattitudes.
Another aspect of Jupiter which I find interesting is its moon system.
Jupiter has dozens of moons. 4 of these moons can be seen orbiting
Jupiter nightly. These are plainly visible in even the smallest of
telescopes or binoculars. From time to time, you may even see one of
these moons transiting Jupiter. This means that the moon can be seen
with Jupiter in the background. A related event is referred to as a
shadow transit. In this case, the shadow of one of the moons can be seen
drifting across the face
of Jupiter. These are much easier to see, as they look like ink spots on
the bright planets surface. This weekend looks to be an active one for
transits.
If you own a telescope or know someone who does, set it up this weekend!
Jupiter and its orbiting moons are one of the few sites in astronomy
that changes before your eyes. See it for yourself or show the kids.
Best views of these events will be in the 150x and above range.
Here’s a helpful tip… for best performance, set the telescope outside at
least 30 minutes prior to observing. Taking a warm telescope out into
the cool night air will not provide you with the best possible views.
Are you considering the purchase of a telescope? If so, here are a
couple of thoughts to keep in mind.
First off. The primary purpose of a telescope is to gather light.
Magnification is
beneficial, but only up to a point. Stay away from cheap telescopes that
claim
mind-boggling levels of magnification. Quality optics on a stable base
is what you should be looking for.
Next week, we'll focus on the planet Saturn and one of the skies most
beautiful objects, The Orion Nebula. We'll also continue our discussion
on light pollution and explain how you can help restore Utah's Skies to
their original beauty.
This “Star Cast” has been presented by Utah Skies. View-tah’s Astronomy
Home. Utah Skies can be found on the World Wide Web at
www.UtahSkies.org. Visit our site and discover the cosmos. We have
numerous images of deep sky objects such as galaxies, nebulas and star
clusters. We also have lots of astronomy-related information plus links
to other astronomy sites. Utah Skies is also your best source of
information on light pollution.
This is Anthony Arrigo wishing you clear skies.