Report for 2001-09-07
Welcome to the Utah Skies Report.
Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".
| Sunrise: 7:00 am | Sunset: 7:51 pm |
| Astronomical Twilight Ends: 5:24 am | Astronomical Twilight Begins: 9:26 pm |
| Moonrise: 10:27 pm | Moonset: 11:28 am |
Star Party
| Yup! We're doin' it again! Utah Skies will be hosting a star party at Park City's Trailside Park on Saturday night September the 22nd from 8:00pm until 1:00am. Our evening will begin with a tour of the solar system. First up will be views of the crescent moon -- then we're off to meet several other residents of our solar system. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and maybe even Pluto (if we can find it ;). Don't think for a moment that we'd limit our travels to the solar system. Nope! We'll journey throughout our galaxy and beyond. Star clusters, nebulas and even remote galaxies are on our itinerary -- So, mark your calendar and plan on coming up to party with us! |
Viewing Outlook
| After a bit of unsettled weather early
in the week, we are again looking forward to a beautiful weekend. I'll
repeat myself (again:). If your weekend plans will have you under dark skies, make sure to pack your telescope or binoculars! This should be standard operating procedures by now :) |
| The Hubble Space Telescope
has distinguished itself as the premier source of astronomical images.
Amazing HST images have graced the covers of major magazines and
newspapers worldwide. In recognition of the amazing advances in astronomy
and physics which have come from Hubble discoveries, we'd like to devote a
section of this report to share some of them with you. |
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| New images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are helping researchers view in unprecedented detail the spiral arms
and dust clouds of a nearby galaxy, which are the birth sites of massive and luminous stars. The Whirlpool galaxy, M51, has been one of the most photogenic galaxies in amateur and professional astronomy. Easily photographed and viewed by smaller telescopes, this celestial beauty is studied extensively in a range of wavelengths by large ground- and space-based observatories. This Hubble composite image shows visible starlight as well as light from the emission of glowing hydrogen, which is associated with the most luminous young stars in the spiral arms. |
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Space Weather Update
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Here's the latest solar update from spaceweather.com: They [may] look like a chain of Pacific islands, but that's where the similarities end. These sunspots, afloat in a fiery sea of plasma 6000 degrees hotter than the boiling point of water, stretch ten Earth-diameters from end to end. You can see them yourself crossing the center of our star on Monday and Tuesday. But don't look directly at the Sun! Use safe solar projection methods [or high quality solar filters] instead. |
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A new and potentially menacing sunspot group is emerging near the Sun's southeastern limb. Extreme ultraviolet images of the active region, like the one pictured right from SOHO, reveal tangled loops of hot gas arcing high above the sunspot group -- a telltale signature of complex magnetic fields that harbor energy for powerful explosions. |
Lunar
Phase
| The moon will reach first quarter on
Monday. The moon is a
wonderful viewing subject and now is a great time to observe it. The days
just before and just after first quarter offer the most detail with the
least effort. As the moon gets closer to full, you'll need to make use of
a moon filter to cut through the overwhelming brightness. Now's your
chance. Point your telescope or binoculars towards the
moon or just go outside and take a look! This image of the moon was captured in the morning. No need to stay up late for this one. The moon is often visible during the day. This weekend is one of those times. Have your morning coffee and then head outside for some lunar observing. |
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Planetary Report
| Mars is rising in the southeast around
4:00 pm. It will be high in the south-southwest by the time it gets dark.
We're starting to lose Mars. early in the fall. The Earth is rapidly pulling away from Mars in it's orbit causing Mars to continue to shrink - it is currently
down to 13" from 21" in June. Once it gets below 10", we'll
basically be unable to make out an surface detail. Additionally,
it continues to dim slightly as well - currently shining at magnitude
-0.74 Mars reaches
its Zenith, or highest point in the sky, around 8:15pm. Best views of the
planet start as soon as you can find it.
The accompanying view of Mars would be considered a really good telescopic view of the planet. |
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Saturn joins us now about
11:55pm. Look for Saturn in the
east-northeast. At magnitude 0.06,
Saturn is brighter than any of the stars in that area of the sky. Also,
as the Earth nears Saturn in it's orbit, it continues to grow -- currently
at to 18". Saturn is larger and will soon be brighter than Mars.
Get out there and checkout Saturn. If you've never done so through a telescope, you're in for a big surprise. The accompanying image by the Voyager spacecraft shows an amazing amount of detail in the planet, it's rings and even includes a couple of it's numerous moons. Before I forget, I need to mention that we're in for
a rare treat. The crescent moon will occult, or cover up, Saturn on Monday
morning Sept 10th. |
| Next, look for Jupiter rising around
1:40am. Jupiter is the king of the Planets. It is more massive than
all the other planets combined. Jupiter is currently shining at mag -2.11 and it has grown to a whopping
36". That's twice the apparent size of Saturn and almost 3 times that
of Mars.
The accompanying Voyager 2 image displays an incredible amount of detail in the planets clouds. Many of these are visible to amateur telescopes. Consider this image your goal. You won't be able to reach this level of detail, but on nights of excellent seeing, you will come really close. Check out the tools section of the Utah Skies website for a cool java applet which depicts the relative position of the four major moons.
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| Venus is the last to arrive on the scene,
rising at about 4:30. While not impressive telescopically, Venus is
stunning to the naked eye. If you're outside prior to the sun rising, make sure to look to the east. You'll see an impressive lineup of planets. |
| 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 Capricornus the Sea Goat. What's a sea goat, you may be wondering? The sea goat was one of the forms of the Sumerian water-god Ea. This would date Capricornus back more than 4,000 years!
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Deep Sky Report
The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of
Capricornus. To find this constellation, face south after dark and
you should be looking right at it. Capricornus is between about 20° and
35° above the horizon. To judge this distance, hold out your hand and
spread your fingers wide apart. The distance covered from your thumb to your
pinky finger covers about 20°.
Capricornus is home to a host of double and triple stars, and a lone Messier
object.
We begin our journey through Capricornus with a visit to Alpha Capricorni. This pair, which can be separated with the unaided eye, is a widely spaced double at over 380" of separation. The brighter of the two is a mag3.6 star with a golden-yellowish color, while the other is mag4.3 and yellow-orange. These make a fine pairing in binoculars or a small telescope. |
Next up is Beta Capricorni. This 3rd magnitude star is actually a triple star -- with 6th magnitude and 9th magnitude stars encircling it. |
| Moving 4° south we come to Sigma Capricorni. This pair is made up of 5th and 9th magnitude stars with a 55" separation. These stars are orange and reddish orange. | Move just 2.5° to the east-northeast and you'll find 3 more double stars in a triangular gathering. These are Omicron, Rho and Pi Capricorni. |
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Next up is the lone Messier object in Capricornus, Globular Cluster M30(mag7.3). This is a fairly bright, dense cluster. M30 is estimated to be about 40,000 light years distant and 100 light years in diameter. M30 can be found about 1/2° west-northwest of 41 Capricorni or about 6° east-southeast of Zeta Capricorni. M30 has a particularly dense core, due to a core collapse. It also has a noticeable thinning towards the outer edges. A small telescope will not be able to resolve stars in the core. This will appear as an impenetrably dense object. The outer halo of stars however are easy pickings. This is a great object to subject to averted vision. By looking slightly to the side of the object, you will be able to resolve additional stars throughout the cluster. |
| Moving on, we take a brief detour. Our
next object is not a deep sky object. Nope. Our next object resides within
our own solar system. Next up is the planet Uranus(mag5.7). At a distance
of about 19 astronomical units (the Earth-Sun distance or 93 million
miles), Uranus was the first planet to be discovered in modern times.
Similar to the accompanying image, Uranus appears as a bluish disk when viewed through a telescope. Don't expect to see any surface detail. The planet is simply too small(4") and too far away to reveal any details. It's bluish color is readily apparent though. This color is indicative of the atmospheric composition of Hydrogen, Helium, and Methane. |
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| Continuing on our detour, we come to the
8th planet, Neptune(mag7.8). At a distance of over 29 AU, Neptune is also
too small(2") to reveal anything but it's bluish color. This color is
an indication of it's atmospheric composition which is similar to Uranus.
Neptune follows a highly elliptical orbit which at times takes it outside of the loop of Pluto, making it the most distant planet periodically.
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| Jumping back out of our solar system and deep into our galaxy, we come to this weeks Utah Skies Challenge, a small cluster of galaxies. These are rather faint, but their numbers should help you to find them. Located around the stars Rho, Omicron and Pi Capricorni, discussed above, these galaxies were missed by the Herschel's during the creation of the NGC list. This gives you a clue as to just how faint these galaxies are. With the designations IC1319(mag 14), IC1321(mag15), and |  |
If you are able to find all of these objects, 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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Has there ever been more waste than
this? Hardly. |
Old news to astronomers: satellite data show that light pollution has become serious throughout the world — and especially in the United States. Colors indicate night-sky brightness directly overhead due to artificial light: only the black areas are totally free of large-scale light pollution.
While the east is undoubtedly the worst offender, I can easily make
out the Wasatch Front in this image. At a time when politicians are struggling to control soaring energy costs, a new study by Italian and American researchers underscores just how much electricity we waste as light beamed uselessly into space -- estimates for the US alone exceed $2,000,000,000 (2 Billion Dollars). The study also reveals that about two-third's of the world's population — and 99 percent of those living in the U.S. — endure at least some degree of light pollution in their nighttime sky. Worse, more than two-thirds of Americans and half of all Europeans can no longer discern the Milky Way with the unaided eye even on clear, "dark" nights. Light pollution is easily cleaned up, however. Use only as much light as you
need Help us 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 Aquarius.
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Stay up to date on astronomical happenings by regularly
checking the Utah Skies website at http://www.UtahSkies.org
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