Dobsonian Reflector: With their stable base, and simple design, these are the least difficult telescopes to build. And consequently.. dollar for dollar will provide you with the most "scope for the buck". 

Catadioptrics: These telescopes cost a little bit more. They do however come with additional advantages. Highest on the list of advantages is portability. These telescope squeeze the most telescope into the smallest space. The most common catadioptrics are the Maksutov-Cassegrain or the Schmidt-Cassegrain. 

Refractors: For any given aperture and quality level, refractors are the most expensive telescopes. They are noted for providing the sharpest images available. Refractors are typically what comes to mind when a person says they want a telescope. They are the most traditional looking...typically a long skinny tube on a "standard" looking telescope mount. Refractors come in a wide range of styles nowadays. You can get high powered planetary types or low power, rich-fields. 

Binoculars: Binoculars are a fine way to observe the heavens. Capturing many times more light than your eyes, they'll show you a surprising amount of stars and other deep sky objects. Binoculars also have a couple major advantages over telescopes. First off, they're much easier to take with you...wherever you go. Also... and this is the reason why I always take binoculars with me... They provide a much wider view of the skies. While a wide angle view in a telescope might span 2* or so... binoculars typically provide views spanning 5-7*. This is a huge amount of sky to take in. As in telescope selection... you get what you pay for. Don't buy cheap optics. You'll want to look for what are called astronomical binoculars... those with 50mm to 80mm apertures. These provide the light grasp required for deep sky observing. Many manufacturers have models to suit you needs.

Eyepieces: What astronomer on your shopping list couldn't use a new eyepiece? Eyepiece selection is critical when viewing. The choice of eyepiece focal length determines the power as well as the size of the field of view. A good range of eyepieces is important. You'll definitely want to have eyepieces capable of delivering  low, medium and high power views. Here's a quick bit of information on power. To determine the power of a given telescope/eyepiece combination, simply divide the focal length of the telescope by the focal length of the eyepiece. These numbers should be visible on all instruments.

CCD Cameras: Most of the images of deep sky objects which we've published in this report were taken with CCD cameras. These are simply much more efficient at gathering light than film. For any given exposure, you'll see more detail in a CCD image. There are a wide range of cameras to choose from in an equally wide range of prices.

Astronomical Software: There are many great packages out there which will provide you with information about where objects are to be found, how big or bright they are, how distant they are, etc. Often, they'll have images of many of these objects as well. These tools can be very helpful in planning a big observing session.

Miscellaneous: There are tons of miscellaneous items you can get for an astronomer.. I know... I have many of them :). Special filters to combat light pollution, or to enhance the views of certain types of nebulae. Star charts, books, magazines, etc. You might look into an observing chair. These are special chairs which allow you to set the height of the seat. This is very important... since, as you'd expect. The object you are viewing is often located in a very inconvenient location. This often requires you to bend or twist in weird directions which can lead to back-aches.

I hope this has given you some good ideas. Feel free to send us an e-mail with any questions you might have. We LOVE to talk scopes :)

After weeks cruising through Perseus and into Pisces, Comet Linear is approaching naked eye visibility. Tonight, the comet will be at mag4.7

The accompanying image was obtained by high school students at Amtsgymnasiet and EUC Syd (Sønderborg, Denmark) on 2001 November 23. It was obtained using a CCD camera. It this awesome or what? What kind of curriculum are they following? I didn't have pictures in my books that looked this good. If you want to see more of what kids SHOULD be doing in school, checkout the astronomy class website at http://www.amtsgym-sdbg.dk/as/Nov2001/.  This is one of the best images showing the comet's antitail. The inset is a combination of 3400 seconds and shows the antitail is split and curved. 

The annual Geminid Meteor Shower peaks next Friday(12/14). As the week progresses, we ought to see an steady increase in meteor activity. The Geminids typically peak in the neighborhood of 50-80 meteors per hour. They are one of the most reliable as far as the number of meteors goes. Any time you find yourself under clear skies, keep an eye out for meteors.

Viewing the Geminids is fairly straight-forward. Since they appear to emanate from a point in the constellation Gemini, you'll be best served to find a dark location with a view to the east. As the night progresses, this point (known as the radiant) will drift high overhead. Between 1:00am and 3:00am, the radiant will be at it's highest point in the sky, so.. this should be the best time to view. While you're looking...that really bright star in the middle of Gemini... is not a star... It's Jupiter. Pretty cool, huh?

We'll provide more information in next weeks report. Or... if you just can't wait :)
Checkout Gary Kronk's Comet & Meteor Shower website at http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/geminids.html. You'll find lots of additional information 

PEERING INTO THE HEART OF THE CRAB NEBULA

In the year 1054 A.D., Chinese astronomers were startled by the appearance of a new star, so bright that it was visible in broad daylight for several weeks. Today, the Crab Nebula is visible at the site of this violent stellar explosion. In this new image, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has zoomed in on the center of the Crab to reveal its structure with unprecedented detail.

Located about 6,500 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Taurus, the Crab Nebula is the remnant of a star that began its life with about 10 times the mass of our own Sun. Such a massive star consumes its nuclear fuel so rapidly that it lives only some 50 million years before exploding as a supernova. For the Crab star, the end came on July 4, 1054. The explosion was witnessed as a naked-eye "Guest Star" by Chinese astronomers, and is also depicted in rock paintings of Native Americans in the southwestern United States.

The Crab Nebula image was obtained by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in 1995. Images taken with five different color filters have been combined to construct this false-color picture. Resembling an abstract painting by Jackson Pollack, the image shows ragged shreds of gas that are expanding away from the explosion site at over 3 million miles per hour.

The core of the star has survived the explosion as a "pulsar," visible in the Hubble image as the lower of the two moderately bright stars to the upper left of center. The pulsar has about 1.4 times the mass of the Sun, but jammed into an object only about 10 miles in diameter. This incredible object, a "neutron star," is even more remarkable because it spins on its axis 30 times a second.

The spinning pulsar heats its surroundings, creating the ghostly diffuse bluish-green glowing gas cloud in its vicinity, including a blue arc just to the right of the neutron star.

The colorful network of filaments is the material from the outer layers of the star that was expelled during the explosion and is now expanding outward at high speed. The picture is somewhat deceptive in that the filaments appear to be close to the pulsar. In reality, the yellowish green filaments toward the bottom of the image are closer to us, and approaching at some 300 miles per second. The orange and pink filaments toward the top of the picture include material behind the pulsar, rushing away from us at similar speeds.

The various colors in the picture arise from different chemical elements in the expanding gas, including hydrogen (orange), nitrogen (red), sulfur (pink), and oxygen (green). The shades of color represent variations in the temperature and density of the gas, as well as changes in the elemental composition.

These chemical elements, some of them newly created during the evolution and explosion of the star and now blasted back into space, will eventually be incorporated into new stars and planets. Astronomers believe that the chemical elements in the Earth and even in our own bodies, such as carbon, oxygen, and iron, were made in other exploding stars billions of years ago.

K. Davidson (U. Minn.) led the research team of W. P. Blair (JHU), R. A. Fesen (Dartmouth), A. Uomoto (JHU), G. M. MacAlpine (U. Mich.), and R. B. C. Henry (U. Okla.) in the collection of the HST data. The Hubble Heritage Team created the color image from black and white data processed by Dr. Blair.

Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgments: William P. Blair (JHU)

I was out observing the sun over the past weekend (Yes... there was a brief moment where I could see through the clouds :) Anyway.. I was amazed by the size and quantity of the sunspots that are currently visible. One would think that we should be able to get some auroral activity soon???? Especially as we move away from the full moon, and towards the new moon, we'll have darker skies with each passing night. Stay tuned...

I took the accompanying image through a 6" Orion Argonaut telescope using an Olympus OM-1 camera. The Argonaut is what is referred to as a Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope. This design regularly delivers razor sharp images.

If you have a telescope, get it out and point it at the moon. You will see an incredible amount of surface detail. I'd recommend using a moon filter though. The full moon can be a bit overpowering in a telescope. I use what is called a variable polarizer. This is a moon filter that allows you to decide how much filtering you want to do. Perhaps just a little at first and last quarter and a lot approaching full. The moon is an especially easy target to view. It's big. It's bright. You just can't miss it. You just might discover (or rediscover) a love for astronomy. 

Pluto, the 9th planet, is rising at about 7:05 am. Pluto is a tiny, faint little spec in a telescope... any telescope. It is currently almost 3 billion miles from Earth. It's size varies between 0.11" and 0.065" and it's brightness between mag 13.6 and mag 16. Mag 13.6 is pushing the limits of a 6" just to detect it, while mag 16 is doing the same to a 16".  But... pushing the limits and beyond the limit are two different things. Utah Skies readers are pretty hard core. I'm sure that there'll be a few out there who just have to go out and see what you and your telescope are made of. Let me know how you do. Here's my claim: "Photons from Pluto have struck my retina". Now.. with that said, I could not tell for sure which of those tiny specs was Pluto. Hey... at least I'm honest :) 

Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in January 1930. The discovery was not simply that of a man with a telescope under dark skies. Nope. As early as 1905, Percival Lowell had been lecturing and writing on his belief that there must be another planet beyond the orbit of Neptune. His studies of the outer planets and the orbits of comets convinced him that there was another body out there that was affecting their orbits. Tombaugh combined Lowell's predictions with his own tenacity to make this amazing discovery.

The accompanying image by the Hubble Space Telescope shows you that even the mighty Hubble struggles with this object. You can imaging what Tombaugh went through during his search.  Anyway...don't expect much... just finding Pluto is an impressive accomplishment. If you're planning on searching for Pluto, your best bet will be in the spring -- as it is currently in the constellation Ophiuchus.

Neptune, the 8th planet, is rising around 11:05. Shining at mag7.96, Neptune is a relatively easy target. However, at only 2", it displays absolutely no surface detail. Almost star-like in binoculars, it shows it's beautiful blue color in telescopes. Neptune gets this beautiful blue coloring from a layer of Methane in its upper atmosphere.

Located almost 3 billion miles from Earth, Neptune has a huge circular orbit -- taking just over 164 years to orbit the Sun. In fact, Neptune's orbit varies by less than 1% from circular. Neptune has a couple of other claims to fame... It has the fastest wind speeds in the solar system with gust at almost 1500 mph.

Similar to Jupiter, it is categorized as a gas giant. Neptune is roughly 17 times more massive than the Earth. In another similarity to Jupiter, Neptune has a  Great Dark Spot.

William Herschel is credited with the discovery of Neptune in 1781. However, it had been recorded in several catalogs as a star as far back as 1690.

The accompanying Hubble Telescope image reveals some varying cloud patterns on Neptune. 

Uranus, the 7th planet, is rising at 11:50. Shining at mag5.87, Uranus is a relatively easy target. However, this is another tiny planet at only 3".  It simply displays absolutely no surface detail. It does however show it's beautiful aquamarine color. Uranus also gets its beautiful coloring from a layer of Methane in its upper atmosphere.

Located almost 2 billion miles from Earth, Uranus has a huge orbit -- taking just over 84 years to orbit the Sun. It is categorized as a gas giant as is Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. Uranus is roughly 14 times more massive than the Earth. 

Discovered by William Herschel in March of 1781, Uranus was the first planet to be "discovered". All the others are plainly visible, and hence have been known since antiquity. The name Uranus was suggested for mythological reasons. Since Jupiter was the father of Saturn, it made sense to name the next planet out Uranus -- the father of Saturn.

The accompanying image shows the aquamarine color of Uranus along with a couple of surprises First off is it's ring system. Yup... Uranus has rings similar to Saturn's'. They're nowhere near as bright, but... they're there. Secondly, and in my opinion more interestingly, Uranus orbits on its side. While all the other planets rotate on the same plane as their orbit around the sun, Uranus rotates on it's side while orbiting. How did Uranus get knocked over? Astronomers speculate that at some point, Uranus was struck near one of its poles by a large planet-sized object. Also visible in this image are a handful of Uranus' many moons.

Mars is rising in the southeast around  12:15 pm. The Earth continues to pull away from Mars in it's orbit. In fact, the distance between the two planets has grown from about 40 million miles this summer to almost 118 million miles. This has cause Mars' apparent diameter to shrink. It is currently down to a measly 7" as compared to its 21" in June. It has dimmed significantly as well - currently shining at magnitude 0.49 down from -2.4 in June. 

The accompanying Hubble Telescope image shows an amazing amount of detail on the planets surface which is centered on right ascension 0600.  We'll have to wait until its next approach in the spring/summer of 2003 before we get and more nice views of the red planet. 

Saturn joins us now about 4:45 pm. Look for Saturn in the east-northeast. Saturn has grown to an an impressive 21" -- this is as large as it ever gets and is currently shining at magnitude -0.43 -- which is just about as bright as it gets. NOW is your best time to view Saturn. It will stick around through the winter and into the spring, but.. it is at its biggest and brightest RIGHT NOW.  The accompanying image The accompanying image shows Saturn with two of its many moons. Pretty cool, huh? 

Saturn is, as mentioned above, a gas giant. This means that it is large and composed mainly of gas. How large? Well, Saturn is over 95 times more massive than the Earth and has a diameter that is more than 9 times that of the Earth. If you throw in the diameter of the rings, that number jumps to over 20 times that of the Earth. Wow!

Checkout this sweet Hubble image of the ringed planet. What amazing detail it has captured. You can easily see three of Saturn's moons in the image, but.. if you look really closely, you can see the shadow of one of the moons on the planets surface. Cool.

Next, look for Jupiter rising around  6:55pm. Jupiter is the king of the Planets. It is more massive than all the other planets combined. In fact, Jupiter is over 300 times more massive than the Earth. Not surprisingly, Jupiter also has the largest moon in the solar system, Ganymede. Jupiter is currently shining at mag -2.66 and has grown to a whopping 46". Jupiter will grow to over 47" -- just shy of it's maximum possible size of 50".. 

Jupiter is the second most reflective (a quality know as albedo) planet in the solar system. Only Venus reflects more of the sun's light. Add this fact with Jupiter's immense size, and it's no wonder that Jupiter shines so brightly.

This accompanying animated gif was taken approaching Jupiter. Notice the movement of the clouds across the surface of the planet. You'll even see one of it's moons cruise on by. If you don't see any motion in the image, hit your browsers "Reload" button.

Many of the features visible in this image are within the reach of modest amateur telescopes. Depending on the size of the telescope and the quality of your skies, you might even do better! In fact, on an amazingly steady night last fall, I did.

I'll remind you again. 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 and their shadows. It's called JavaJup. I regularly refer to JavaJup to help plan my viewing sessions.

This weekend we move on to the constellation Aries the Ram. Legend has it that Aries had a Golden Fleece, and could fly through the air. Hmmm.... a flying ram? Must have scarred away all the deep sky objects. This constellation has a few nice double stars and a couple of challenging deep sky objects... but not much else.

The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Aries . Aries is high and directly to the south at 10:00pm. Aries is due east of Pisces and southeast of Triangulum. There are a few nice objects in this readily identifiable constellation.

The Affects of Light Pollution on Health
We often discuss the problems associated with Light Pollution in weekly The Utah Skies Report. This week we're going to discuss the health risks associated with improper lighting. " Health risks from improper lighting?", you may ask....

Yes. Serious health risks. Consider the following  findings from some of the world's preeminent medical researchers.

Did you know that sleeping in a room that is not totally dark suppresses melatonin production and disturbs your natural circadian rhythm? A recent article in the Journal of Neuroscience (August 15, 2001) discusses this very connection.

Even more disturbing, sleeping in a room that is not totally dark has been linked to breast cancer. In an article published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (October 17, 2001). Researchers found that "Exposure to light at night may increase the risk of breast  cancer by suppressing the normal nocturnal production of melatonin...." They went on to state that "There was an indication of increased risk among subjects with the brightest bedrooms." And then concluded that "The results of this study provide evidence that indicators of exposure to light at night may be associated with the risk of developing breast cancer."

So.... why wouldn't a bedroom be totally dark at night? Very often street lights or a neighbors porch or security lights shine into peoples homes from dusk to dawn. This is the case in my neighborhood, how about yours?. Do you have lights shining into your home? Are you concerned that this could have a negative impact on your health?

Remember,

Light Pollution provides no benefit to the light polluter

Light Pollution wastes huge amounts of money.

Light Pollution causes the needless waste of our valuable natural resources.

Light Pollution causes the needless generation of electric power and the associated release of toxins into our environment

Light Pollution has been linked to a variety of serious health problems

Light Pollution and it's partner glare, actually reduce our visibility by blinding us with light

Light Pollution turns neighbors into adversaries when one persons lights are turned on another

Light Pollution destroys the beautiful views of the heavens which mankind has pondered for all our existence

Light Pollution is a serious problem

But, don't lose hope; Light Pollution is easily cleaned up. All we need to do is act intelligently.

Here are a few, simple principles to keep in mind:

1. Use only as much light as you need
   

2. Use only when you need it
   

3. Use it only where you need it