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| A daytime view of the moon |
Report for 2001-06-15
Welcome to the Utah Skies Report.
Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".
Lunar
Phase
| The moon is a couple of days past last
quarter and is sporting just a bit less than a "half-moon"
phase. Additionally, it
won't be rising
until fairly late. This will basically give us a large portion of the night to
seek out our favorite deep sky objects. As a side note, many of you may
have noticed the moon high in the sky during the day. That's right. Since
the moon doesn't rise until early morning, it won't set until well into
the afternoon. As the chart below indicates, the moon won't set until
almost 3:00pm. Try to make it a point to get out and observe the
moon during the day. It presents some interesting views to the naked eye.
You might even be able to spice up a picture by including a crescent moon
in it somewhere. |
|
| Sunrise: 5:55 am | Sunset: 9:00 pm |
| Astronomical Twilight Ends: 3:49 am | Astronomical Twilight Begins: 11:06 pm |
| Moonrise: 2:36 am | Moonset: 2:53 pm |
Viewing Outlook
As you can also see from the table above, it's getting
harder and harder to do any observing. It doesn't really get dark until almost 11:00pm
and then it only stays dark for a few hours. The only good thing that can be
said (and this is a pretty good thing:) is that we're finally starting toget comfortable nights to observe. I was out viewing last Saturday night until about
1:30am and never needed more than a t-shirt. I'm hoping for a resumption of
that trend.
The weekend weather outlook is warm and clear. Let's hope it stays that way.
Mars is clearly the star of the show at this point. It size and brightness are
providing us with the best view of the red planet in over a decade. I hope
everybody will get a chance to view it now. Details on the planets surface are
somewhat susceptible to seeing conditions. So, the best advice would be to view
it as often as possible. This should ensure that you'll get some really good
nights in. As an added bonus, tonight around 11:00pm, Mars will drift within a
couple of arc seconds of a globular cluster. This should make for an interesting
site.
Astronomy 101
In our last lesson, we spoke about the size of our
galaxy. Lets take a look at some of the types of objects which call our galaxy
home. This week, we'll
focus on star clusters. "A star cluster is a group of stars held together by its own gravity".
Star clusters come in a couple of distinct flavors - Globular and Open.
Globular clusters, are a tightly packed groups of stars, usually with a
spherical shape and containing anywhere from thousands to millions of stars.
There are about 150 known globular clusters in our galaxy. Although they may
look compact, these clusters typically have diameters greater than 100 light
years. These are some of the most impressive objects to observe in a telescope.
Open clusters on the other hand are loose associations of stars. They often seem
unrelated, like more of a chance grouping or alignment. Open clusters, due to
the "spread out" nature, often look best when viewed in
binoculars.
Note the differences between the two star clusters below.
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| A "typical" Globular Cluster - 47 Tucanae | A "typical" Open Cluster - IC 348 |
Ok... Enough science class... Let's get out and do some observing!
Planetary Report
| Mars is rising in the southeast around 9:00pm
tonight. If you happen to be outside this evening, make sure to take a
moment and glance towards the southeast. Mars will be the bright, reddish
colored star-like object. You can't miss it! Mars has grown to 21". This is the maximum it will achieve on this pass of the Earth. By the way, this is the largest Mars has appeared in over a decade! Mars has also brightened to magnitude -2.36 making it by far the brightest star-like object in the night sky. Telescope observers will have a special treat tonight. Mars will be passing almost directly in front of globular cluster NGC6355(mag 9.6). Observing this could be a challenge because Mars is so much brighter than the cluster. They will be at their closest between 11:00pm and midnight. So observing them after this time might make your task a bit easier. We got some spectacular views of Mars last weekend. The details on the planets surface were impressive. I keep saying this, but... If you own a telescope, or know someone who does, take it out and use it. This is what you bought it for. Objects like Mars are visual treats. They are also really easy to view with a telescope. Just point and look! No searching for hard to find objects. The moon and the planets are ideal places to begin your astronomical journey. Mars reaches its Zenith, or highest point in the sky, around 1:00am. Best views of the planet start around 10:30pm. |
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Venus is rising in the east about 3:40am. While it has dimmed slightly to about magnitude -4.25, it is still by far the brightest star-like object in the sky. Look for a small crescent moon just a few degrees to the southwest of Venus early Sunday morning. |
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| Our Constellation report is an easy way for people to become familiar
with the nighttime sky. We’ll discuss myths associated with the various
constellations as well as describing the numerous deep sky objects residing
in the area. No equipment is required to view the constellations, though
a star chart can be quite helpful. This ease of observing makes constellations
a natural place to begin your journey to the stars. This weekend we’ll focus on the constellation Serpens Caput. This constellation is unique among all others. It is the only one, which consists of two parts: Serpens Caput, the Head of the Serpent and Serpens Cauda, the Tail of the Serpent. Between both parts lies next weeks constellation, Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder. Although Serpens Caput and Serpens Cauda are really separated, they count as one constellation. |
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Deep Sky Report
The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of
Serpens Caput.
| First off, lets take a look at the lone Messier
object in this area, Globular Cluster M5(5.75). This is truly one of the finest clusters in the sky.
This object lies
about 6 degrees southwest of a
Serpens Caput. Use the chart above to help you locate this object.
Once you arrive on the scene, you'll be struck by the the beautiful colors
of the cluster. Notice the contrast between the older straw colored stars
and the younger bluish stars. This cluster is estimated to be about 13
billion years old. That's pretty late in life to be going through another
round of star birth.
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If you are able to find this object, you may be one of the few, the proud, the Deep Sky Obsessed. E-mail your findings to DeepSkyObservations@UtahSkies.org. |
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Check out our updated light pollution section. In it, you'll find ways to cut your outdoor lighting bill dramatically. At the same time, you'll be helping to preserve our environment. While you're there, use our new, automated e-mail generator to send an e-mail to your government officials. Tell them that you want to see them move Utah to the forefront in combating wasteful light pollution. |
Next Weeks Report
Next week, we'll continue our journey through the cosmos
and focus on the constellation Ophiuchus. If you haven't heard of this
constellation, don't worry. You'll certainly remember it after our next report.
Closing
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 http://www.UtahSkies.org. Visit
our site and discover the cosmos. While you're there, sign up to receive the free,
fully illustrated Utah Skies Report. Many of our up coming star parties will only
be announced to people on our e-mailing list. Sign up today.
