The terminator is that portion of the lunar surface which runs along the line where light meets dark. It is along this point that the most surface detail is visible.
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| A beautiful waxing gibbous moon by Jeff Stys |
Report for 2001-07-06
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 full.
It will continue to rise later and later each night. The illuminated
portion will also shrink gradually. As the week progresses, we'll have a
longer opportunity to do some
deep sky observing before the moon rises. When it does rise, you'll
want to check out the
details along the receding lunar terminator. The terminator is that portion of the lunar surface which runs along the line where light meets dark. It is along this point that the most surface detail is visible. |
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| Sunrise: 6:02 am | Sunset: 9:02 pm |
| Astronomical Twilight Ends: 3:58 am | Astronomical Twilight Begins: 11:06 pm |
| Moonrise: 10:09 pm | Moonset: 6:51 am |
Viewing Outlook
The skies have been a bit unsettled lately. It
would be nice if we could just get some rain and get it over with. Yesterday's
full moon had an eerie look through the clouds.
Planetary Report
| Mars is rising in the southeast around 7:05pm
tonight. It will be high in the south by the time it gets dark. Have I
said this before? If you happen to be outside this evening, make sure to take a
moment and glance towards the south. Mars will be the bright, reddish
colored star-like object. You can't miss it! The Earth has just overtaken
Mars in its orbit causing Mars
has to begin to shrink - it is currently at 20". Additionally,
it has started to dim slightly as well - currently shining at magnitude
-2.0
Mars is still by far the
brightest star-like object in the night sky. Make sure you check it
out often. Mars reaches its Zenith, or highest point in the sky, around 11:15pm. Best views of the planet start around 9:15pm. |
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Hubble Space Telescope image of the Mars Pathfinder Landing Site - Wow! |
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Venus is rising in the east about 3:20am. While it continues to dim slightly, at magnitude -4.12, it is by far the brightest star-like object in the sky. See if you can notice it's changing phase. |
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| We've got some newcomers on the planetary scene now.
Old favorites Saturn and Jupiter are now rising in the pre-dawn hours. Look for Saturn to
rise about 3:45am in the northeast and Jupiter to rise slightly further
north by about 4:55am. As if this wasn't enough, Mercury rises between the
two at about 4:50 am. The month of July will provide us with several conjunctions. |
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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 move on to the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion. Looking southwards after dark, you'll notice a constellation which resembles the letter J. This is Scorpius. Notice the two stars at the north eastern edge of the "J". This is the scorpions stinger. |
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Deep Sky Report
The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of
Scorpius. The constellation Scorpius is an astronomical treasure chest.
Scorpius contains 4 Messier objects as well as countless other NGC objects. It
is one of the more interesting constellations from a naked eye perspective and
it's appearance marks the beginning of summer.
| We'll
start things off with a beautiful globular cluster M4(mag5.9). Located
about 1 degree west of Antares in a remarkable area of the sky, this
relatively loose globular teems with activity. The longer you look at it,
the more stars you see. Member stars begin around mag 11, so quite a few
should be seen in small telescopes.
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Next up is
another fine globular cluster M80(mag7.2). |
| Moving on,
we come to The Butterfly Cluster M6(mag4.2) located about 4 degrees north
of the scorpion's stinger. With about 80 member stars which can be seen in
small telescopes, viewing M6 is quite satisfying. |
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Slightly to
the southeast, and often in the same low power telescope view is our next object
- the fine open cluster M7(mag3.3). This cluster contains well over 100
stars down to mag 14 making it another rewarding object to observe. Use a pair of binoculars to sweep this area of the sky if you can. It lies towards the heart of our galaxy in one of the richest areas of the sky. |
| Next up is a nice open star cluster NGC6124(mag5.8). Made up of stars which range from mag 9 and up, it is resolvable in even the smallest telescopes. Larger telescopes will reveal upwards of 100 stars. This object can be found about 6 degrees west of Zeta Scorpii. |  |
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Here's another nice open cluster NGC6231(mag2.6). Made up of stars between mag5 and mag6, this cluster reveals many stars in a pair of 50mm binoculars. Located in the tail of the scorpion about 1/2 degree north of Zeta Scorpii. |
| Another globular cluster inhabits the southernmost portion of Scorpius - NGC6388(mag6.85) This fairly tight cluster sits about 1.5 degrees south of theta Scorpii. Observers without unobstructed views to the south won't have much hope of spotting this beauty. |  |
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Moving on we come to this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object NGC6302(mag12.8). Also known as the Bug Nebula, this object is considerably brighter than it's listed 12.8 magnitude would imply. It's central stars are in the neighborhood of mag 10 making it accessible to smaller telescopes under dark skies. |
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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Utah Skies has been busy combating light
pollution. Recently, we helped residents of Draper City
deal with some obnoxious lights in their neighborhood. The meeting, which included residents
and representatives of both Draper City and Utah Power and
Light, focused on the area's excessive, wasteful use of light and how
to more efficiently and effectively handle the area's lighting
requirements. In the end, light shields were tested to see how
effectively they channeled the fixture's light. Additionally, it was
discovered by all that the bulbs which had been installed were far too
powerful for this area. So, the Utah Power and Light representative
promised to replace all of the offending bulbs with lower powered
bulbs. In the process, it was discovered that this remedy would also
save the city a considerable amount of money. All in all, it was a winning
situation for all involved. Do you have annoying lights in your neighborhood? If so, realize that you can do something about it. Call your local government and tell them that you expect them to use lighting intelligently. Let Utah Skies know what your issue is; perhaps we can help. We're going to reclaim our skies... one star at a time. |
Next Weeks Report
Next week, we'll continue our journey through the cosmos
and focus on the constellation Lyra.
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Utah Skies is proud to announce our first public star
party. Plan on joining us for an evening under stars on Friday night
July 20th from 9:00pm until 1:00am. We'll take you on a deep sky adventure
you won't soon forget guiding you to nebulas, star clusters and even distant
galaxies. As you might expect, we'll be
visiting several of the objects we introduced in this weeks Utah Skies
Report. Got a telescope of your own? Feel free to bring it along. Stay tuned for more details on this and other upcoming events by regularly checking the Utah Skies website at http://www.UtahSkies.org |
