Report for 2002-01-25
Welcome to the Utah Skies Report.
Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".
| Sunrise: 7:45 am | Sunset: 5:35 pm |
| Astronomical Twilight Begins: 6:09 am | Astronomical Twilight Ends: 7:10 pm |
| Moonrise: 2:19 pm | Moonset: 4:47 am |
Viewing Outlook
| Skies have been spotty at best lately. I
did manage to get a few good nights in here and there... including last
night (Thursday). I managed to spend about 45 minutes under clear, moonlit
skies. During this time, I viewed Jupiter, Saturn, The Moon, plus... the
Orion Nebula and... this weeks star clusters. Given how bright the moon
was, I was surprised how good the clusters looked. Of course Jupiter and
Saturn were able to stand up to the moon. Anway... I'll repeat the usual advice: "If you find yourself under clear skies... take advantage of the situation. Break out your binoculars or telescope". |
Space Weather Update
 Solar
activity is has been pretty quiet lately. There are only a couple of
visible sunspots now and things have been kind of quiet on the CME front. Look at
our Star in this Spaceweather.com
image. The large sunspot (9787) is about 3 times the size of the Earth.
Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it?
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Hubble Vision
| The Hubble Space Telescope has distinguished itself as a 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. Our latest comes directly from the Hubble Heritage Team. |
| FIREWORKS OF STAR FORMATION LIGHT UP A GALAXY Newly released images obtained with NASA'S Hubble Space Telescope in July 1997 reveal episodes of star formation that are occurring across the face of the nearby galaxy NGC 4214. 
Located some 13 million light-years from Earth, NGC 4214 is currently forming clusters of new stars from its interstellar gas and dust. In the
Hubble image, we can see a sequence of steps in the formation and evolution of stars and star clusters. The picture was created from
exposures taken in several color filters with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary
Camera 2. NGC 4214 contains a multitude of faint stars covering most of the frame, but the picture is dominated by filigreed clouds of glowing gas surrounding bright stellar clusters. The youngest of these star clusters are located at the lower right of the picture, where they appear as about half a dozen bright clumps of glowing gas. Each cloud fluoresces because of the strong ultraviolet light emitted from the embedded young stars, which have formed within them due to gravitational collapse of the gas. Young, hot stars have a whitish to bluish color in the Hubble image, because of their high surface temperatures, ranging from 10,000 up to about 50,000 degrees Celsius. In addition to pouring out ultraviolet light, these hot stars eject fast "stellar winds," moving at thousands of kilometers per second, which plow out into the surrounding gas. The radiation and wind forces from the young stars literally blow bubbles in the gas. Over millions of years, the bubbles increase in size as the stars inside them grow older. Moving to the lower left from the youngest clusters, we find an older star cluster, around which a gas bubble has inflated to the point that there is an obvious cavity around the central cluster. The most spectacular feature in the Hubble picture lies near the center of NGC 4214. This object is a cluster of hundreds of massive blue stars, each of them more than 10,000 times brighter than our own Sun. A vast heart-shaped bubble, inflated by the combined stellar winds and radiation pressure, surrounds the cluster. The expansion of the bubble is augmented as the most massive stars in the center reach the ends of their lives and explode as supernovae. Deprived of gas, the cluster at the center of NGC 4214 will be unable to form further new stars, and its luminous stars will continue to go supernova and disappear. Elsewhere in the galaxy, however, gas will start to collapse and form yet another new generation of stars, even as the clusters visible today gradually fade away. The faint stars covering most of the picture are much older than the bright blue supergiants, and show us that episodes of star birth have been occurring in NGC 4214 for billions of years. The principal astronomers are: John MacKenty, Jesús Maíz-Apellániz (Space Telescope Science Institute), Colin Norman (Johns Hopkins University), Nolan Walborn (Space Telescope Science Institute), Richard Burg (Johns Hopkins University), Richard Griffiths (Carnegie Mellon University), and Rosemary Wyse (Johns Hopkins University). Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI) Acknowledgment: J. MacKenty and J. Maíz-Apellániz (STScI) |
Lunar
Phase
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The moon will be full on Monday. This is a time when
viewing the moon greatly benefits from the use of lunar filters. These are
filters which greatly reduce the intensity of the moon light, allowing you to see
details across the surface. Without a lunar filter, you will struggle to see
the incredible details the moon has to offer. I spent several minutes
looking at the moon last night at lowest power. It was a pretty cool sight.
All those craters make you realize that the Moon has had a very violent
past.
Checkout this shot of the moon by Utah Skies own Don Brown. |
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Planetary Report
Pluto, the 9th planet, is rising at
about 4:00 am. At mag 13.93, 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".
As the accompanying Hubble Space Telescope image shows, imaging Pluto is tough. |
Mercury is rising with the Sun at about 7:50 am. 
Mercury is currently spanning 10" and shining at mag3.82. Mercury is much bigger, but much dimmer now than it was several months ago.
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Neptune, the 8th planet, is rising around 8:00. 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. |
Venus  is rising about
8:05 am. This is about fifteen or twenty minutes after the sun... Yup...
Venus is slowly moving into the night sky. We'll be all over it in the
next several weeks. Still
shining at mag -3.92 Venus is being completely
overwhelmed by the Sun which shines at mag -26.74. Venus will return as the Evening Star late
in the winter and into the spring. Checkout this cool image of Venus taken
by the Galileo Spacecraft. |
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Uranus, the 7th planet, is rising at 8:50am. 
Shining at mag5.92, 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.
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Mars is rising in the southeast around 10:20
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 0.99 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 Ed Grafton 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. |
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Saturn joins us now about 1:25 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 -0.11 -- 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 the Hubble Space Telescope.
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Next, look for Jupiter rising around 3:15pm. 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 -2.64 and has grown to a whopping 46". This is just about 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 the Hubble Space Telescope. You can see Jupiter's moon Ganymede drifting in front of the giant planet. 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.
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This weekend we move on to the constellation Canis Major. Often referred to as the Big Dog, Canis Major is one of Orion's two faithful dogs. See how they follow him across the sky :)
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Deep Sky Report
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The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Auriga. To find Auriga, look north of Orion which we covered last weekend and east of Perseus which we covered a few weeks back.
Sirius, often called the Dog Star, is the brightest star in the night sky. Only mighty Jupiter and the moon outshine it. At mag -1.5, Serious completely blows away any other stars. In fact, Sirius is over 20 times brighter than the Sun! Sirius is also our 5th closest neighbor at only 8.7 light year. This proximity certainly explains the intense brightness. If you catch it rising in the southeast sky, you'll often notice it sparkling wildly. When this happens, you can typically see it changing colors dramatically. First, white, then red, then green... Sirius is also a double star. However, given the difference in brightness between it and it's companion, you'll have a tough time splitting the two.
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for
2002. We've
added high resolution star charts for all of our deep sky objects. Along with
the map of the constellation which we've always had, clicking on any of the deep
sky objects will bring up a high resolution star chart centered on that object.
Hope this helps.
First up is the only Messier on the
list, Open Star Cluster M41(mag4.6) 
M41 can be found easily, as it is located about 4 degrees south of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. It is home to about 100 stars, including several red giants. The brightest star in the cluster is about 700 times more luminous than our Sun. The cluster spans about 25 light years across, is at a distance of 2,300 light years. and is estimated to be about 200 million years old. M41 is a fairly large, loose cluster. In the
eyepiece, it is a beautiful object which spans about 1/2°. Given its
size (about that of a full moon), you'll want to enjoy this beauty with a
nice low power, wide field eyepiece. I popped in the 31mm Nagler
especially for this one. |
Next up is a beautiful Open Star Cluster NGC2362(mag4.1) 
You'll instantly notice that this object is a much tighter cluster than M41.
And, considering that it's also a bit brighter, it's interesting that
Messier did not record it as well. This cluster contains about about 50
stars surrounding mag4 Tau Canis Majoris. This is a very beautiful and very
interesting cluster. The majority of cluster members look as if they're
playing some sort of supporting role for the brighter star which is several
magnitudes brighter than any of the others.
In binoculars, the cluster resembles a soft haze, while a 6" resolves about 25 of the member stars. In a large telescope, this object is quite impressive |
| Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, another fine Open Star Cluster, NGC2360(mag7.2)  This
object, which has about as many members as NGC2362, will actually show
more stars in smaller instruments. A 6-8" telescope will reveal
almost twice as many stars as NGC2360. It's not until you move up to
larger telescopes that you begin to pull some of the fainter members of
NGC2362 into
view.
In the eyepiece, NGC2362 is simply beautiful. It's delicate internal structures will entice you. Another thing to note is the fact that there is no really distinct ending to this cluster. It simply blends into the surrounding Milky Way. 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
Continued Progress in Summit County
Utah Skies has been hard at work trying to control the growth of poor lighting in our area. We have contacted numerous county officials and the media to try to bring this issue to resolution. Today, we'd like to pass on some additional, very positive Summit County update.
On Tuesday January 22nd, we attended a meeting of the Summit County Planning Commission. It was a very productive meeting indeed. The new Development Plan is nearing completion and is being reviewed for completeness. The main thrust of the plan is to reign in development and gain control of the process. Key points covered at the meeting were: Development should be planned. Open space should be preserved. View sheds should be maintained. And, of great importance to us, Dark Skies should be protected! We found considerable support among residents and commissioners alike as we pushed for even stronger wording stressing the need to protect the skies overhead. We suspect that there will be a strong effort to undue the damage which has already been inflicted by the uncontrolled development of past years. We were most excited to see among the commissioners a sense that there was a critical need to address these issues. There was even talk of incentivising businesses and residents to address the issues.
Utah Skies applauds these efforts. We feel that this is a serious quality of life issue and are glad to see the county moving proactively to protect the night environment. You can help too! Simply turn off your outside lights when you're not expecting company. If you have security concerns, you might want to install a motion detector. This will quickly save enough money to pay for itself while giving you added peace of mind.
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 us in the fight to curb light pollution.
Next Weeks Report
Next week, we'll continue our journey through the cosmos
and focus on the constellation Puppis.
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Stay up to date on astronomical happenings by regularly checking the Utah Skies website at http://www.UtahSkies.org |