Checkout our Special Report on the Geminids for more details

On Friday afternoon, December 14th there will be an annular eclipse. This a a type of eclipse where the disk of the moon is smaller that that of the sun. As such, nowhere on Earth will you be able to experience totality. As it turns out, here in the US we'll only be able to see a portion of the sun covered. In Utah, the maximum will occur about 2:30 with a mere 5% of the sun eclipsed. The centerline of the eclipse will basically be in the Pacific ocean. It will pass about 300 miles south of Hawaii.

The eclipse will start around 1:30pm and end just after 3:00pm. To check times for other locations, checkout this page at skypub.com.

Remember. Be Safe. You may only view the sun with approved solar filters.

After weeks cruising through Perseus and into Pisces, Comet Linear is approaching naked eye visibility. Tonight, the comet will be at mag5.3 -- certainly visible from a dark sky location. Since its discovery in December of 2000, the comet has brightened from mag18 to almost mag 5. Projections are that it'll brighten further to around mag 4.9 in mid January. Not too shabby.

The accompanying image was obtained by Michael Jäger on 2001 December 3. It is an 5-minute exposure obtained using a Celestron Schmidt camera and special film. Notice how the tail seems to be growing.

As the accompanying Sky and Telescope map reveals, Comet Linear is cruising through the constellation Sculptor.

A Giant Star Factory in Neighboring Galaxy NGC 6822

Resembling curling flames from a campfire, this magnificent nebula in a neighboring galaxy is giving astronomers new insight into the fierce birth of stars as it may have more commonly happened in the early universe. The glowing gas cloud, called Hubble-V, has a diameter of about 200 light-years. A faint tail of nebulosity trailing off the top of the image sits opposite a dense cluster of bright stars at the bottom of the irregularly shaped nebula. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's resolution and ultraviolet sensitivity reveals a dense knot of dozens of ultra-hot stars nestled in the nebula, each glowing 100,000 times brighter than our Sun. These youthful 4-million-year-old stars are too distant and crowded together to be resolved from ground-based telescopes. The small, irregular host galaxy, called NGC 6822, is one of the Milky Way's closest neighbors and considered prototypical of the earliest fragmentary galaxies that inhabited the young universe. The galaxy is 1.6 million light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.   

The Hubble-V image data was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) by two science teams: C. Robert O'Dell of Vanderbilt University and collaborators, and Luciana Bianchi of Johns Hopkins University and Osservatorio Astronomico, Torinese, Italy, and collaborators. This color image was produced by The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI). A Hubble image of Hubble-X, another intense star-forming region in NGC 6822, was released by The Heritage Team in January 2001.

Anyway... observers in northern Utah will most likely be looking at clouds. So... those of you under clear skies will have an opportunity to see this event. Make sure to use proper eye protection to view the Sun at all times.

If you have a telescope, get it out and point it at the moon in the coming days. You will see an incredible amount of surface detail. Watching the moon grow from new to first quarter is quite interesting. Many "hidden" details can be seen during this period. 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.

Checkout this beautiful image of a tiny waning crescent moon by Jerry Lodriguss. This is a sweet shot. Jerry always captures the most subtle details in his work. I'd definitely recommend a trip over to his website.

Pluto, the 9th planet, is rising at about 6:40 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 10:40. Shining at mag7.97, 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.

Explanation: When NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by distant Neptune in August of 1989, astronomers were shocked. Since Neptune receives only 3 percent the sunlight Jupiter does, they expected to
find a dormant, dark, frigid planet. Instead, the Voyager images revealed evidence of a dynamic and turbulent world. One of the most spectacular discoveries was of the Great Dark Spot, shown here in
close-up. Surprisingly, it was comparable in size and at the same relative southern latitude as Jupiter's Great Red Spot, appearing to be a similar rotating storm system. Winds near the spot were measured up
to 1500 miles per hour, the strongest recorded on any planet. The Voyager data also revealed that the Great Dark Spot varied significantly in size during the brief flyby. When the Hubble Space Telescope
viewed the planet in 1994, the spot had vanished -- only to be replaced by another dark spot in the planet's northern hemisphere! 

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 11:25. Shining at mag5.88, 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 handful of Uranus' many moons.

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 4:20 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 -0.39 -- 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 close to 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 clearly see the changing seasons of Saturn. Cool.

Next, look for Jupiter rising around  6:25pm. 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 -2.69 and has grown to a whopping 47". This is as big as it will get during this pass and... 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 image was taken approaching Jupiter. Notice the incredible amount of detail visible in the clouds across the surface of the planet. This is far better than you'll ever see from an Earth based telescope. However... knowing what to look for should help you to pull more details from the eyepiece. Many of the features visible in this image are within the reach of modest amateur telescopes. 

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 Perseus. This constellation is 

The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Perseus . Perseus can be found .

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 it only when you need it
   

3. Use it only where you need it