Report for 2001-10-26

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Welcome to the Utah Skies Report.
Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".

Astronomical Times

Sunrise: 7:50 am	Sunset: 6:32 pm
Astronomical Twilight Ends: 6:18 am	Astronomical Twilight Begins: 8:04 pm
Moonrise: 4:29 pm	Moonset: 2:13 am

Viewing Outlook

Skies have been cloudy off and on throughout the past week. The weekend forecast has been touch and go. My recommendation would be to keep poking your head out and view any chance you get. Don't forget to dress warmly though -- low temperatures are pushing towards 30°.  On a more technical note: Make sure you setup your telescope outside at least 30-60 minutes prior to viewing. This will allow the telescope to come to thermal equilibrium. If your telescope is kept in a cool place, like your unheated garage, then you can probably get by with the shorter cool down period of 30 minutes. If, on the other hand, you store your telescope inside your warm, cozy house, you'll need every one of the 60 minutes for your telescope to adjust to the colder temperatures outside.

Planetary Conjunction

We've got a special treat for you this weekend. I've been watching the coming attractions for several days now, but... Beginning Saturday morning (10/27), we'll be treated to a beautiful week long planetary dance between the two innermost planets in the solar system, Mercury and Venus.  The two will reach conjunction twice, coming as close as .6 degrees (roughly the diameter of the full moon).  First on Monday morning 10/29 and then again on Sunday morning 11/4.  Venus at mag-3.94 is the brightest star-like object in the sky. Mercury will be at mag-0.54.  Mercury will reach it's greatest elongation of 19 degrees (greatest apparent distance from the sun) that same morning.  Mercury will continue to brighten over the next week or so, eventually reaching mag-0.79 on Friday 11/9.  What's really rare about this whole sequence is the duration that the two planets will be so close. They will  be within 1 degree of each other for 11 days. We'll see Mercury sneak up from behind Venus, pass it, and then  eventually be overtaken by Venus again.   Viewing this planetary spectacle won't require any fancy equipment.  Just head outside before sunrise and look to the east. From my location, 6:45am has been ideal. Anyway... An unobstructed view to the east will be helpful to truly appreciate the event.

Venus is rising at about 6:15 am. It is still the brightest planet in the sky at mag -3.94, I see Venus frequently in the morning sky and it still looks quite impressive. If you're out before the sunrise, which is coming later and later, take a glance to the east. You'll see Venus blazing away.

Mercury is rising at about 6:20 am. You'll see Mercury shining just to the northeast of Venus. Keep an eye on Mercury it'll be getting considerably brighter in the coming days. In fact, Mercury reached what is known as greatest elongation this morning. Mercury is currently at its farthest separation from the sun, roughly 19°. Mercury will continue to brighten substantially over next week or so -- increasing to mag -0.77 by November 9th.

Mission Update

NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey fired its main engine Tuesday night and was captured into orbit around the red planet. "Early information indicates everything went great," said Matt Landano, the Odyssey project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "The orbit insertion burn went off just as we planned and we will now begin the three- month long aero braking phase."  Launched in the spring, the $300 million dollar spacecraft will use sophisticated imaging technology to examine the mineral content of the planet and to search for water sources below the planets surface. It'll be interesting to see what kinds of discoveries this mission brings. It seems that we learn so much from these adventures that we are often faced with more questions than answers. Stay tuned.

Hubble Vision

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 some of these incredible images, and share some of them with you.

A GRAZING ENCOUNTER BETWEEN TWO SPIRAL GALAXIES  According to the Hubble Heritage Team, "In the direction of the constellation Canis Major, two spiral galaxies pass by each other like majestic ships in the night. The near-collision has been caught in images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.   The larger and more massive galaxy is cataloged as NGC 2207 (on the left in the Hubble Heritage image), and the smaller one on the right is IC 2163. Strong tidal forces from NGC 2207 have distorted the shape of IC 2163, flinging out stars and gas into long streamers stretching out a hundred thousand light-years toward the right-hand edge of the image.   Computer simulations, carried out by a team led by Bruce and Debra Elmegreen, demonstrate the leisurely timescale over which galactic collisions occur. In addition to the Hubble images, measurements made with the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array Radio Telescope in New Mexico reveal the motions of the galaxies and aid the reconstruction of the collision.    The calculations indicate that IC 2163 is swinging past NGC 2207 in a counterclockwise direction, having made its closest approach 40 million years ago. However, IC 2163 does not have sufficient energy to escape from the gravitational pull of NGC 2207, and is destined to be pulled back and swing past the larger galaxy again in the future.   The high resolution of the Hubble telescope image reveals dust lanes in the spiral arms of NGC 2207, clearly silhouetted against IC 2163, which is in the background. Hubble also reveals a series of parallel dust filaments extending like fine brush strokes along the tidally stretched material on the right-hand side. The large concentrations of gas and dust in both galaxies may well erupt into regions of active star formation in the near future.   Trapped in their mutual orbit around each other, these two galaxies will continue to distort and disrupt each other. Eventually, billions of years from now, they will merge into a single, more massive galaxy. It is believed that many present-day galaxies, including the Milky Way, were assembled from a similar process of coalescence of smaller galaxies occurring over billions of years. "

Space Weather Update

We've been in the midst of a solar storm for the last week or so. Numerous CME's have been recorded leaving from the sun. Along with this heightened sunspot and CME activity has been a large number of aurora sightings as well.

Aurora Update

We've had a bunch of auroral activity world-wide in the early part of the week. One burst even made it into the central portions of the US. Check out the amazing image by Stan Richard taken in central Iowa earlier this week. Reports of auroral activity have come in from as far south as North Carolina.

Lunar Phase

The moon will be full on Wednesday. As such, it will big and bright and setting late. Don't fight it. Plan on doing some lunar observing. Views like the accompanying image are readily achievable using amateur telescopes. So, dust your telescope off and get out there and do some viewing. As the time chart above indicates, the moon will be outside waiting for you. No need to stay up late or get up early. How much easier could it get :)

Planetary Report

Mars is rising in the southeast around  2:35 pm. It will be high in the south-southwest by the time it gets dark. We're rapidly losing Mars. The Earth has pulled away from Mars in it's orbit causing Mars to  shrink - it is currently decreased in apparent size down to a measly 9" as compared to its 21" in June. Mars has finally reached the size where we're basically be unable to make out any surface detail. It has dimmed significantly as well - currently shining at magnitude -0.01 down from -2.4 in June.

Saturn joins us now about 8:40 pm. Look for Saturn in the east-northeast. Saturn has grown to an an impressive 20" and currently shines at magnitude -0.22.  We had quite a few people viewing Saturn through the various telescope that were set up at Friday nights Utah Skies Star Party. Amazed is probably the best way to describe viewers. Check out this pair of images by Astro-imager Ed Grafton of Houston, TX. The level of detail he has captured is absolutely exquisite.

Next, look for Jupiter rising around  10:45pm. Jupiter is the king of the Planets. It is more massive than all the other planets combined. Jupiter is currently shining at mag -2.41. This is brighter than Mars at its brightest earlier this summer. Jupiter continues to grow and current covers a whopping 41". You definitely need to add Jupiter to your list of regular viewing targets again. It is a very impressive sight in any telescope. Jupiter can even be quite dynamic. Astronomers often watch the changing patterns of its moons as they transit and are occulted by the giant planet. And, speaking of transits, you have to check out the tools section of the Utah Skies website for a cool java applet which depicts the relative position of the four major Jovian moons. It's called JavaJup. I regularly refer to JavaJup to help plan my viewing sessions.   The accompanying image of Jupiter's icy moon Ganymede taken by the Galileo spacecraft shows an incredible amount of surface detail. Ganymede appears incredibly scarred from years of meteor bombardment.

Constellation Report

Our Constellation report is an easy way for people to become familiar with the nighttime sky. We’ll discuss myths associated with a particular constellation as well as describing the numerous deep sky objects residing within its boundaries. 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 Pisces the fishes. According to Roman legend, Venus and her son Cupid escaped from Typhon, a fire-monster, by swimming through the sea. To stay together in the dark depths, they tied themselves together by a rope. Hmmmm.... I don't see two people swimming... do you?

Deep Sky Report

The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Pisces. To find Pisces, face towards the south east after dark and look up high. Pisces runs along the eastern and southern borders of Andromeda which we covered last week.

 

Ok, let's start things off the only Messier object in this weeks report, Spiral Galaxy M74(mag9.2). Located about 1.5° east-northeast of 3.6 magnitude eta Piscium, M74 is a classical spiral galaxy viewed face-on. This galaxy is highly photogenic, but somewhat illusive visually. Locating it is not the problem as it is a short star-hop from an easily identifiable star. The problem is that M74 is fairly large, but faint. The resulting low surface brightness means that you'll want to search for this object under reasonably dark skies. Otherwise, it'll be overwhelmed by sky glow.

Next up is Irregular Galaxy NGC502(mag14). This is one of the dimmer galaxies we've thrown at you. It's only saving grace is its small size. This object actually has much higher surface brightness than M74. Lest you feel your time in finding this object has been wasted, let me also note that this galaxy is over 100 million light years away! To help put this in perspective, remember that 1 light year equals 6 trillion miles. Do the math... we're talking really, really far away.

Next up is a neighbor of NGC502, Elliptical Galaxy NGC524(mag10.6). This galaxy is slightly brighter, but slightly larger than the previous galaxy. So, I'll venture to say that you'll face similar issues. As the accompanying image shows, there are quite a few galaxies located in the same field of view as this one. How many others can you spot. Like NGC502, this galaxy is also about 100 million light years away. In case you were wondering, that means that the light which you are seeing in your telescope left the galaxy 100 million years ago. Now that's a long time coming!

Next up is Spiral Galaxy NGC7541(mag11.7). Located a degree or so north of gamma Piscium (the western-most star in the constellation) , this beauty of a spiral continues our trend deeper into space residing some 125 million light years away.

Our final stop in Pisces leads us to this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, Elliptical Galaxy NGC7562(mag11.5). This tiny galaxy spans only 2.3'x1.6'. Again, its relatively high surface brightness is what will help you out. This is the most distant galaxy in our report -- located 47.7 MPC (mega parsecs) or roughly 155 million light years away. To find this object, create an equilateral triangle by adding NGC7562 above gamma and theta Piscium. Good Luck!

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.

Light Pollution Update

Has there ever been more waste than this? Hardly. Raising a child under light polluted skies is like depriving them of ever hearing music!

Has anyone seen the parking lot and outdoor lights at the new Summit County Public Library at Kimball Junction? They're pretty hard to miss...and are a problem. The exterior lights at the new facility do not comply with county ordinances, the purpose of which, in the words of the County "...is to regulate the use of outdoor artificial illuminating devices emitting undesirable light rays into the night sky, or onto private properties which have a detrimental effect on the rural mountain environment."  Rural mountain environment. That's where we've all chosen to live. Rural mountain environments should not suffer the same kinds of sky glow problems found in ALL major metropolitan areas. It seems that the contractor didn't fully understand Summit County's outdoor lighting code; that's the only reasonable conclusion we can draw. These fixtures carelessly and wastefully spray light in all directions, including up into the sky and add to the already obnoxious glow emanating from Kimball Junction at night. As if this isn't bad enough, on our way home from last weekends star party, we saw that these non-compliant lights were glaring away at 1:30am!  This is a blatant waste of taxpayer money! Your money! We need to start thinking about using lighting intelligently. If not, we're going to destroy one of the things that makes Summit County special. Take a look at this satellite image and it's obvious that light pollution has become a serious problem throughout the world — 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. But, don't lose hope. Light pollution is easily cleaned up. All we need to do is act intelligently. Here are a coupe of principles to keep in mind: Use only as much light as you need Use it only when you need it Use it only where you need it 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 Cetus. 

 

Stay up to date on astronomical happenings by regularly checking the Utah Skies website at http://www.UtahSkies.org

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