Report for 2001-11-09
Welcome to the Utah Skies Report.
Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".
| Sunrise: 7:07 am | Sunset: 5:15 pm |
| Astronomical Twilight Begins: 5:33 am | Astronomical Twilight Ends: 6:49 pm |
| Moonrise: 6:12 am | Moonset: 2:37 pm |
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Utah Skies would like to invite you to attend this our
next Star Party. The event will take place this Friday night November 9th
out at Park City's Trailside Park. Thanks to an early sunset, we're going to
begin this event at 6:00pm and continue until midnight. We couldn't resist
the beautiful weather forecast, so... we're going to do it one more time! Come on out. Admission is, of course, free. We'll treat you to some of the most spectacular astronomical views possible through some of the most impressive telescopes in the state of Utah. Come on out and see the giant planets Saturn and Jupiter which will be rising at 7:00pm and 9:00pm respectively. Of course we would never limit you to such nearby objects. Nope! We'll venture out into the depths of our galaxy and beyond. This could be your last warm weather opportunity of the year to checkout such deep sky wonders as the Andromeda Galaxy, the Double Cluster and the Orion Nebula. Directions and a brief itinerary, can be found on the Utah Skies website at www.UtahSkies.org. |
| The weekend forecast is calling for beautiful clear skies... timed perfectly to coincide with tonight's Utah Skies Star Party. I'll certainly be taking advantage of the clear skies and relatively warm temperatures while they last. |
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Ganges Chasma -- or Gangis Chasma (as it is sometimes spelled) -- is a several kilometers-deep side canyon at the east end of the vast Valles Marineris trough system. In several places, portions of the steep walls of Ganges Chasma have collapsed down into the chasm, creating large landslide deposits. |
| 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. |
| Located about 130 million light-years away, NGC 4650A is one of only
100 known polar-ring galaxies. Their unusual disk-ring structure is not yet understood fully. One possibility is that polar
rings are the remnants of colossal collisions between two galaxies sometime in the distant
past, probably at least 1 billion years ago. During the collision the gas from a smaller galaxy
would have been stripped off and captured by a larger galaxy, forming a new ring of dust, gas, and stars, which orbit
around the inner galaxy almost at right angles to the larger galaxy's disk.
This is the vertical polar ring which we see almost edge-on in Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 image of NGC 4560A, created using 3
different color filters (which transmit blue, green, and near-infrared light). The ring appears to be highly distorted and the presence of bluish, young stars below the main ring on one side and above on the other shows that the ring is warped and does not lie in one plane. The typical ages of the stars in the polar ring may provide a clue to the evolution of this unusual galaxy. Because the polar ring extends far into the halo of NGC 4650A, it also provides a unique opportunity to map "dark matter" which is thought to surround most disk galaxies. |
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Using techniques similar to medical
ultrasound diagnostics, scientists have peered inside the Sun and
discovered what lies beneath sunspots, planet-sized dark areas
on the surface of our star. Sunspots are surprisingly shallow, say
researchers, and they lie on top of swirling hurricanes of electrified gas
big enough to swallow the planet Earth. Checkout the sunspots on this image of our star captured by Don Brown of Utah Skies. This was taken with a digital camera shooting through the eyepiece of a 6" telescope. Pretty cool, huh?
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Checkout this beautiful aurora image by Steven Lichti near West Lafayette, Indiana Checkout www.spaceweather.com and view their aurora gallery. |
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The moon reached last quarter yesterday. At this point,
we'll be seeing a less than 1/2 illuminated moon rising well after midnight.
The best time to observe the moon will actually be in the early morning
hours. Set your telescope up for a brief tour of the moon before you head to
work. Lunar observing is typically at its best during those times when the
moon is less than 1/2 illuminated. Subtle details which can't be seen on the
full moon often spring into view during these times. The moon is an easy
target, so... what are you waiting for? I took the accompanying image using an old Olympus OM-1 through a 10" f/4.5 reflector earlier this year. There is so much detail visible on the moon in even the smallest telescope. Pull your scope out and surprise yourself!
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| Venus is rising at about 5:50 am. It is still the brightest planet in the sky at mag -3.93, 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 5:55 am. It has reached its maximum brightness now,
shining at mag -0.77. If you've been watching Mercury and Venus recently,
you will have noticed just how fast Mercury moves. It was not even visible
in the east two weeks ago. Then it came up quickly and passed Venus. Now,
its on the downward slope of its orbit and will be gone in the next few
days. Get out there and take your last couple of looks at Mercury.
By the way... did you know that tiny Mercury has the largest crater in the entire solar system? It's true |
| Mars is rising in the southeast around 1:15 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 8" 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 0.08 down from -2.4 in June. This is the first time in quite a while that Mars is now greater that mag 0. |
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Saturn joins us now about 6:45
pm. Look for Saturn in the
east-northeast. Saturn has grown to an an impressive 20" and
currently shines at magnitude -0.31.
The accompanying image of Rhea, Saturn's 2nd largest moon, shows in detail the amount of destruction brought upon this moon by meteors. It's surface is heavily cratered, similar to our moon. |
| Next, look for Jupiter rising around
8:50pm. Jupiter is the king of the Planets. It is more massive than
all the other planets combined. Jupiter is currently shining at mag -2.50
and has grown to a whopping 43". If you think
this is impressive, wait until the beginning of the new year. Jupiter will
grow an additional 10% to reach 47" and brighten to -2.72. You
definitely need to add Jupiter to your list of regular fall/winter viewing targets. 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 volcanic moon Io taken by the Galileo spacecraft shows an incredible amount of surface detail. Io appears wildly colored. Much of this is a result of volcanic activity. Io is in fact, the most volcanically active body in the solar system. It is believed that the intense gravitational pull of Jupiter is responsible for much of the internal heating of Io. |
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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 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 Sculptor.
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The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Sculptor. To find Sculptor look to the south around 9:00pm. Sculptor is directly south of Cetus and Aquarius -- constellations which we've looked at in previous reports, |
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Ok, let's start things off with one of the biggest and brightest galaxy visible in southern skies, NGC253(mag7.1). Also known as the Sculptor Galaxy, this beautiful spiral spans roughly 1/2° and (for a change:) has a high surface brightness. As I just mentioned, this is a southern galaxy -- it has a declination of -25°. This placement means that we never get to view this galaxy at its best. Nevertheless, this galaxy will be visible in a decent pair of binoculars. In larger telescopes, the views are quite enjoyable. I was able to make out the spiral arms in the 10" and am looking forward to viewing it in the 25". |
| Moving about 2° to the southeast, we come
to Globular Cluster NGC288(mag8.1). With a diameter of almost 14', this
globular is almost as big as the Hercules cluster. This cluster is
designated X class, meaning that it is a fairly loosely structured
cluster. It is also big and bright, with stars in the mag 12 range. If you have a nice wide field of view, you might even see this cluster and the preceding galaxy in the same field of view. |
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Next up is an Elliptical Galaxy
NGC7507(mag10.4). Located along the western edge of the constellation,
this object is actually easier to find by starting from mag1.2 Formalhaut
which is about 5° to the west/southwest. This galaxy is fairly
condensed at 2.6'x2.6' so it's relatively concentrated brightness should
make it fairly easy to see. It brightens rapidly towards the core and has
a round shape.
While you're in the neighborhood, see if you can spot Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC7513(mag 11.8). This fainter galaxy will be in the same low power field of view to the upper left of NGC7507. |
| Next up is Barred Spiral Galaxy
NGC7713(mag12). Located just a degree east of Beta Sculptoris, the galaxy
should be fairly easy to locate. Its central bar should be visible in
larger apertures as a gradual brightening at the core. |
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Next up is another fine Spiral Galaxy
NGC300(mag9). This large, irregular spiral spans over 1/3° and has a
bright core with loosely defined arms. The galaxy appears like a cloud in
large astronomical binoculars. The core is an easy target in an 8"
while the arms are hinted at -- kind of a haze around the core. You'll
probably need at least 16" and dark skies to view them
definitively. This galaxy is part of a large, extended group of galaxies known as the Sculptor Group. The group contains NGC 55,247, 253 and 300. |
| Our final stop in Sculptor leads us to this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC55(mag7.8). While far from the dimmest object in the report, this object is located far from any bright stars that could be used for guiding. It is also the southern most of our objects. Again, this will reduce it's visibility somewhat. Finally, it is a relatively large object. This will, of course, reduce it's surface brightness. With all that said you may be wondering why you should even take the time to search for it in the first place. Well, this IS our challenge object, and many of you simply can't resist a good challenge, right :) Also, this galaxy is fairly close to our own. So, it offers some nice details which are not visible in other galaxies. It shows a considerable amount of mottling throughout it's elongated extent. In larger telescopes under dark skies, it even reveals individual stars, emission nebulosity and dark dust clouds. NGC55 is viewed nearly edge-on and is about 8 million light years distant. |  |
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. |
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. 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! For more information on the Summit County codes, checkout www.co.summit.ut.us 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. But, don't lose hope. 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 Triangulum.
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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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