Report for 2001-12-28

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

Astronomical Times

Sunrise: 7:51 am	Sunset: 5:06 pm
Astronomical Twilight Begins: 6:12 am	Astronomical Twilight Ends: 6:45 pm
Moonrise: 3:44 pm	Moonset: 6:00 am

NASA Discovery

A NASA scientist has discovered sugar and several related organic compounds in two meteorites -- providing new evidence that the chemical building blocks of life on Earth might have come from outer space. Checkout Science@NASA at for more details. NASA has been quite busy lately. This news, along with a recent effort to study the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a star beyond the solar system, points towards some really big discoveries to come!

Moon occults Saturn

In the wee hours of Friday morning, the Moon occulted Saturn. This event hasn't been all that rare lately. We've had several since the fall... and luckily, we'll have several more opportunities to witness the event next year. I was able to view a similar event in September of this year. It was pretty cool to watch the behemoth of a Moon drifting over tiny looking Saturn. Of course, this is just an optical trick. Saturn is many, many times larger than the moon. The proximity of the Moon makes it look much larger. The whole event is caused by a chance alignment of the two prominent celestial bodies. Checkout the accompanying image by Dr. P. Clay Sherrod of the Arkansas Sky Observatory. Taken during the occultation of November 30th, this series graphically depicts the dynamics of the whole process.

Viewing Outlook

Hubble Vision

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)

Space Weather Update

GEOMAGNETIC STORM WARNING: An explosion on the Sun today triggered a solar proton storm around our planet and hurled a bright coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. Although the fast-moving (~1100 km/s) CME was not squarely Earth-directed, it could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetosphere as early as Dec. 28th Universal Time -- that is, Thursday night for North Americans, Friday morning for Europeans. NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% chance of severe geomagnetic storms at middle latitudes when the expanding cloud sweeps past Earth. Sky watchers along the northern tier of US states (and similar latitudes) should be alert for auroras during the nights ahead.  Checkout this amazing aurora image captured by Lyndon Anderson just outside of Bismarck, North Dakota. This image was captured on the morning of December 24th using a Pentax 50 mm lens at f/1.4. Lyndon was shooting with Fuji Superia 800 film exposures were about 15 seconds Let's hope our views are half as impressive!

Lunar Phase

The moon will be full Sunday. This means that it rises around sunset and set around sunrise. So... basically, you'll have the moon in your face all night. In your face??? Sounds kind of negative :) Perhaps I need to spend more time observing the moon. Hmmmm.... Might as well make the best of it. It's time to break out that new (or old) telescope and do some lunar observing. The accompanying image was taken by Utah Skies own Don Brown of Park City.

Planetary Report

Pluto, the 9th planet, is rising at about 5:50 am. At mag 13.92, 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 :)

Venus is rising about 7:45 am, but, this is only about 15 minutes before the sun... Still shining at mag -3.92 Venus is being completely overwhelmed by the Sun. Venus will return as the Evening Star late in the winter and into the spring.

Mercury is rising at about 9:00 am. This is about 65 minutes after the sun rises. You know what that means??? Yup. Mercury will be visible "for a while" in the western sky just after sunset. Have you found it yet? Mercury should be an easy target now. Mercury is currently spanning 5" and shining at mag-0.71.  The accompanying image shows Mercury transiting the Sun. This is an annimated gif. If you do not see Mercury drifting across the Sun, hit the reload button on your browser. This event occurred in November of 1999. I was fortunate enough to have been able to view the event down in SLC. While not a common event, these things do happen from time to time. You know you'll here about the next one right here.

Neptune, the 8th planet, is rising around 9:45. Shining at mag7.98, 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.

Uranus, the 7th planet, is rising at 10:35. Shining at mag5.90, 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.

Mars is rising in the southeast around  11:30 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 6" as compared to its 21" in June. It has dimmed significantly as well - currently shining at magnitude 0.72 down from -2.4 in June.  Mars will return for an even better pass in 2003. In the mean time, we can live vicariously through the works of Ed Grafton who took some of the most amazing Earth based images of the Red Planet that I have ever seen. If you haven't checked out his site, I'd highly recommend it. He has many awesome planetary and deep sky image that'll blow your mind.

Saturn joins us now about 3:20 pm. Look for Saturn in the east-northeast. Saturn has grown to an an impressive 20" -- this is almost as large as it ever gets and is currently shining at magnitude -0.30 -- which is also 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 Hubble Space Telescope image of Saturn. Look how thin the rings are! While they span over 100,000 miles, they are only a few miles thick!

Next, look for Jupiter rising around  5:20pm. 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 -2.72 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. Checkout this beautiful pair of images by.. Ed Grafton. Ed continually pushes the envelope for amateur astronomers. This image was taken with his C14 from his backyard in Houston. Wow! 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.

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 Eridanus the "River of Orion". Eridanus' long and winding shape has led to it being referred to in many cultures. For instance, it represented The Nile to the Egyptians, The Po to Italians, and the Yellow River to the Chinese.  Eridanus is the longest constellation in the sky, spanning over 50°.

Deep Sky Report

 

Ok, let's start things off with Elliptical Galaxy NGC1199(mag11.5). This object has the distinction of being the northern-most of this weeks objects in Eridanus. So.. I'll bet that many will be able to find this one pretty quickly. Once you've tracked this galaxy down, you might be in for a treat. Depending on the aperture of your scope, you just might notice a whole bunch of companions. As the accompanying image shows, NGC1199 is the brightest in a fairly large grouping of galaxies. Check it out.

Next we'll hit Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC1300(mag10.5). Located about 6° south east of NGC1199, this should be another relatively easy find. You should be able to spot this in instruments as small as 4". However, to see the spiral arms, you'll need a bit more aperture. Probably 8-10" and a dark clear view to the south. Actually, dark and clear is probably a prerequisite for all the rest of this weeks objects.

Moving about 2.5° southwest of NGC1300 we come to Spiral Galaxy NGC1232(mag9.9). This beautiful spiral is very photogenic as you can see. Spirals like this one are some of my absolute favorite viewing subjects. There is a certain grace to their appearance. At just shy of mag10 and a mere -20° declination, you guys ought to be all over this one.

Next we'll hit Spiral Galaxy NGC1532(mag11). Again, this is not the faintest galaxy we've ever sent you out after, but it's far southern declination of -32° will most certainly give you a run for your money :) Remember... an objects height above the horizon is 90 - your latitude - the objects declination. So, in this case NGC1532 is 90-40-32=18° above the horizon. This example works for my viewing location here in Park City.

Moving on, we come to Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC1291(mag8.5). This is the brightest object in this weeks list. What do you think of as you view the accompanying image??? Exactly... Breakfast. This looks like a picture perfect sunny-side egg :) However, at -41° declination, this object will be a mere 9° above the southern horizon from my viewing location in Park City. This'll be a really tough catch for us "northerners" :) My advice would be to save this for a trip to southern skies. Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida... or... perhaps a bit more exotic :)

Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, Irregular Galaxy NGC1487(mag12). This object isn't the faintest object in our list, but... the combination of relatively faint combined with the extreme southern declination of -42° will make it really tough for observers across most of the US. This galaxy is classified as irregular. No doubt. Look at it's weird shape. Perhaps this is the result of some ancient galactic collision??? Perhaps it's just a chance alignment of distinct galaxies??? 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

The True Cost of Outdoor Lighting

Anybody who's ever received an electric bill knows that lighting your home or business can be fairly expensive. Well, the bill you get from your power company is only a small portion of the total cost. True, you are the one who pays the utility company. But, society foots a substantial bill for other "hidden" costs.

For example: to power five 100-watt light bulbs from dusk to dawn for one year costs about $150. Yup... $150 to light up the neighborhood every night for a year.
Now, let's look at the "hidden" costs

To produce the electricity to run those five lights from dusk to dawn the utility company must burn about one ton of coal. Hmmm.. You may already see where this is going.

Burning one ton of coal releases the following toxins into the environment:

• 6600 lbs of Carbon Dioxide - a greenhouse gas

• 50 lbs of sulfur dioxide - a prime ingredient in acid rain

• 30 lbs of nitrogen oxide - a ground level ozone

• trace amounts of Mercury - even the tiniest amounts are harmful to ones long term health and has also been linked to birth defects.

Many respiratory problems are caused by or intensified by these airborne toxins. How many of you suffer from, or know somebody who suffers from asthma? According to The Mayo Clinic, there are a number of factors which may increase the chances of developing asthma. High on their list was exposure to environmental pollutants. As if this wasn't bad enough, researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that death rates rose with increasing levels of particulate matter. This is probably not a surprise to anyone, but... to hear this from some of the world's premier medical researchers just drives the point home.

So. How are you feeling about your exterior lights now? 
We're using the same tired, old solutions to solve our problems. 
We have got to use our heads. 
We need to devise some new solutions. 

Lest you think we're only raising an issue and walking away...Let us throw out a few suggestions:

• Examine your goals. Not every situation requires lighting. Once you have determined a need for lights,
• Install full cut-off lights. These fixtures restrict light to the target area, making the most effective use of your lighting energy, enabling you to:
• Use lower wattage bulbs and still get the same "on the ground" illumination
• Install motion detectors. This will allow you to have an increased sense of security while at the same time consuming substantially less energy

Checkout the Light Pollution Section of the Utah Skies website at www.UtahSkies.org for more information on the harmful effects of improper lighting or for ideas on how to improve your lighting. Please contact us with any questions you may have or to Volunteer to help curb light pollution.

Next Weeks Report
Next week, we'll continue our journey through the cosmos and focus on the constellation Lepus.  

 

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

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