Report for 2002-01-04

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

Astronomical Times

Sunrise: 7:52 am	Sunset: 5:12 pm
Astronomical Twilight Begins: 6:13 am	Astronomical Twilight Ends: 6:50 pm
Moonrise: 11:36 pm	Moonset: 11:46 am

Viewing Outlook

Aurora

According to Canadian photographer Phil Hoffman  "The new year started off with natural fireworks here in the Yukon" Phil captured the accompanying image on Jan 1st.".  Well, it just so happens that we're moving into primetime for aurora watching. As you'll see in our Spaceweather Update section, sunspot activity remains high indicating a good chance of CME activity. Plus, the moon is rising later each night and shrinking in the process. This  combination greatly increases our chance of viewing the northern lights. Lets hope that our luck improves. This would be an awesome way to start the new year!

Near Earth Asteroid Discovered

Hubble Vision

A Bird's Eye View of a Galaxy Collision What appears as a bird's head, leaning over to snatch up a tasty meal is a striking example of a galaxy collision in NGC 6745. A large spiral galaxy, with its nucleus still intact, peers at the smaller passing galaxy (nearly out of the field of view at lower right), while a bright blue beak and bright whitish-blue top feathers show the distinct path taken during the smaller galaxy's journey. These galaxies did not merely interact gravitationally as they passed one another, they actually collided.   When galaxies collide, the stars that normally comprise the major portion of the luminous mass of each of the two galaxies will almost never collide with each other but will pass rather freely between each other with little damage. This occurs because the physical size of individual stars is tiny compared to their typical separations, making the chance of physical encounter relatively small. In our own Milky Way galaxy, the space between our Sun and our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri (part of the Alpha Centauri triple system), is a vast 4.3 light-years.   However, the situation is quite different for the interstellar media in the above two galaxies - material consisting largely of clouds of atomic and molecular gases and of tiny particles of matter and dust, strongly coupled to the gas. Wherever the interstellar clouds of the two galaxies collide, they do not freely move past each other without interruption but, rather, suffer a damaging collision. High relative velocities cause ram pressures at the surface of contact between the interacting interstellar clouds. This pressure, in turn, produces material densities sufficiently extreme as to trigger star formation through gravitational collapse. The hot blue stars in this image are evidence of this star formation.   This image was created by the Hubble Heritage Team using NASA Hubble Space Telescope archive data taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in March 1996. Members of the science team, which include Roger Lynds (KPNO/NOAO) and Earl J. O'Neil, Jr. (Steward Obs.), used infrared, red, visual and ultravoilet filters to image this galaxy system. Lynds and O'Neil are currently using the Hubble data along with ground-based radio observations to further study the interactions within NGC 6745. .   Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgement: R. Lynds (KPNO/NOAO)

Space Weather Update

All's quite on the aurora front. However, there are quite a few sunspots visible on the surface of our star. There have even been a couple of "backside" CME's recently. These are CME's which occur on the side of the sun facing away from us. While they pose no threat as far as geomagnetic storms go, they serve to remind us that our star is still in a highly active period. Keep an eye on the Utah Skies website for late break aurora news.

Lunar Phase

The moon will reach last quarter Saturday night. If we could get some clear skies, we're finally moving into a more deep sky observing friendly lunar phase. With the moon rising around midnight this weekend, we've got several hours where we can seek out our favorite deep sky objects. This weeks deep sky report will provide you with several tempting treats. I took the accompanying image last spring. From now until the coming first quarter are ideal times to view the moon. It is way of it's peak brightness, so you'll be able to pick out the subtle details. Check it out. The craters of the moon look absolutely amazing... even in tiny telescopes. Go ahead.. pull your telescope out of the closet and go observe Earth's closest neighbor.

Planetary Report

Pluto, the 9th planet, is rising at about 5:25 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 7:50 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. Checkout this cool image of Venus taken by Brian Colville of the Maple Ridge Observatory.

Mercury is rising at about 9:10 am. This is about 70 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-0.70.  The accompanying image shows the incredible amount of meteor bombardment which Mercury has gone through in its history. Since Mercury has no atmosphere, the marks of each and every strike are still visible on the planets surface.

Neptune, the 8th planet, is rising around 9:20. 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 10:05. 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  11:10 am. 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 140 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 0.79 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 astro-photographers like Robert Gendler, who takes some of the most amazing astro-images 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 2:50 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 -0.25 -- which is also close to the brightest 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 beautiful image of Saturn by Dr. Clay Sherrod of the Arkansas Sky Observatory.

Next, look for Jupiter rising around  4:50pm. 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 image by Dr. Clay Sherrod of the Arkansas Sky Observatory. 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 Lepus.

Deep Sky Report

 

Ok, let's start things off with the only Messier object in the list Globular Cluster M79(mag8). This object can be found in smaller telescopes and binoculars. At higher powers, you'll begin to see some structure. In order to resolve the individual stars, you'll need to increase the aperture. An 8-10" telescope should be able to resolve stars along the fringe, while 16+" is required to resolve the core. Check it out. I guarantee that you'll enjoy this one. Globulars are one of my favorite observing targets... right up there with galaxies and nebulae :)

Next we'll hit Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC1888(mag12).  This is the northern most object in this weeks report. This should greatly simplify your attempts to find it. Start at Betelgeuse and move about 5° to the southeast. This object won't knock you off your feet, but it should be easily found in instruments in the 8" range. Pushing the magnification will reveal a bit of mottling through the galaxy core.

Moving on we come to Spiral Galaxy NGC1832(mag11.4).  This galaxy is just a fraction of a degree north of 3rd magnitude Mu Lepus. You should have no trouble finding this object in a 4-6" telescope. Moving to the 8-10" range under dark skies will begin to show the galaxies spiral arms. Once you've found this object pump up the magnification. This galaxy is only 2.8'x1.9'.

Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC1784(mag11.75). To find this galaxy, follow the line down from the western star in Orion's belt down through Betelgeuse and continue on for several degrees. The galaxy is just about equidistant between Mu Lepus and Betelgeuse. This galaxy is a bit larger than the previous at  4.2'x2.8'. This spreads out the light a bit and lowers the surface brightness. Again, you should be able to find it in a 4-6" telescope. However, you'll need at least 10" to begin to resolve the spiral arms. It'll take a larger scope and dark skies to truly appreciate this beauty. 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

Who watches the watchdog?

Utah Skies is concerned about recent developments right here in our own backyard, Summit County, Utah. We've had good lighting ordinances on the books here for about four years now. Unfortunately, the very group charged with upholding and enforcing those ordinances has been asleep at the wheel. Many homes and even whole developments have been constructed in the last several years which do not comply with county lighting codes. To make matters worse, the county's new library at Kimball Junction does not even comply. It  makes use of unshielded lighting which creates huge amounts of glare that shines into the eyes of area drivers and also into the night sky. Using a precision light meter, we have taken measurements which shows that the library emits many times the allowable limit of light from their property. This is absolutely unacceptable. Perhaps Summit County officials needs to hear from concerned residents? Their inaction threatens the very things which make this area special. A quick glance towards Kimball Junction at night is all that is needed to realize that this is a problem which can quickly get out of hand.

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 Orion.  

 

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

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