Report for 2002-03-08

< | Index | >

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

Astronomical Times

Sunrise: 6:51 am	Sunset: 6:25 pm
Astronomical Twilight Begins: 5:20 am	Astronomical Twilight Ends: 7:56 pm
Moonrise: 4:06 am	Moonset: 1:20 pm

Messier Marathon

Viewing Outlook

Space Weather Update

We've got a smattering of sunspots covering the Sun at this point. I watched them drift across the face of the Sun on Saturday and Sunday. It's a pretty cool site. If you have a telescope, for about $50-$75 you can pick up a solar filter which will allow you to view sunspots. It's an investment I'd recommend. Anyway... While there are no large sunspots at this point, several have twisted magnetic fields surrounding them which could (hopefully) lead to future Earth-directed CME's. We'll be keeping an eye on these. In fact, there was a huge CME recorded on Thursday 2/28. Unfortunately it was not Earth-directed. However... the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) dipped toward the south on Saturday 3/2. This is a position which essentially weakens Earth's resistance to aurora. Hence, we were under an aurora watch for the entire weekend. Unfortunately, skies were clear over northern Utah... a conditions which seems to reduce the likelihood of aurora over Utah. Only when skies are terribly overcast can aurora routinely make it this far south :( By late in the week, things are quieting down. While this is unfortunate for aurora watchers, it is a good thing for cell phone users. Yup... It's true. A new study has concluded that high levels of solar activity can disrupt cellular phone service. Find out more.

Checkout this awesome image of the northern lights taken by Lyndon Anderson of Bismarck, North Dakota on Thursday night (2/28). The photo was taken with a Pentax ZX-M camera using a 28 mm pentax lens at f/2.8. For this shot, Lyndon used Fuji Superia 800 film and 15 second exposures.  Wow!  If you're interested in photographing the northern lights, this is an ideal setup. Fast film shot through a fast lens. I wish the northern lights would have made it down here. I wish... I wish... I wish.

International Space Station and the Space Shuttle

The International Space Station and The Space Shuttle Columbia will each make several passes over the northern Utah this weekend. These are two of the brightest objects in the sky...with the ISS being the brighter of the two. Either can easily be spotted without any optical aids.  The picture to the left shows the ISS cruising several hundred miles above the Earth.   The picture to the right shows liftoff of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

The Shuttle was sent up the other day for a major Hubble upgrade. Essentially, Hubble's capabilities have been greatly expanded. It's CCD cameras are now larger and more sensitive with higher resolution than ever. We ought to see some even more amazing HST images in the coming weeks and months.

NASA is planning to use the newly upgraded HST to search for extra-solar planets as well as to push deeper into space than ever before.

For more information on this, checkout the CNN.com/SPACE website.

On February 1st, a new visitor to our solar system was spotted low on the western horizon. Discovered independently by Kaoru Ikeya of Shizuoka prefecture, Japan, Daqing Zhang in Henan province, China,  Comet Ikeya-Zhang is currently cruising north through the constellation Cetus. Astronomers believe that the comet (currently around mag8.5) will brighten significantly in coming months... possibly even to naked eye levels. You can be sure that we'll be following this one closely as it's peak of brightness is expected to be towards April... Just in time for the start of the 2002 Utah Skies Star Party Season. Checkout this

If you want to get an early jump on viewing Comet Ikeya-Zhang, checkout this ephemeris page. 

The comet, at mag5.1, is currently visible to the naked-eye. It is expected to reach its maximum brightness of about mag4.0 in the next couple of weeks. It'll stay at this level for a week or so and then begin to fade. So, with clear skies forecast for the weekend and no moon to hinder your viewing, now is the time to obtain some views.

The accompanying image shows the path Comet Ikeya-Zhang will take on it's trip around the Sun. Notice how the tail of the comet changes direction as it rounds the Sun. This is caused by the solar wind. In fact, it was this very behavior which first caused astronomers to speculate about the presence of a solar wind. If there were no wind, one would expect the tail of a comet to always trail behind, but... as this image shows, the tail of the comet always points away from the Sun. Cool, huh?

The accompanying image of the crater Clavius by Ed Grafton is one of my favorites. Take note of the incredible amount of detail captured in the image. Make sure you checkout his site. He does phenomenal work. 

Do you have a telescope? 
If you do, have you taken it out lately? 
If you don't, would you like to see stuff like this? 
You can with a modest telescope. So... what are you waiting for????

Pluto, the 9th planet, is rising at about 1:25 am. At mag 13.91, Pluto has brightened a whopping .01! But don't get too excited, it's still a tiny, faint little spec in a telescope... any telescope.  It is currently over 2.86 billion miles from Earth. Located in the southeastern sky before sunrise, Pluto is also not very well placed at this point for viewing. You'll have a much better chance of viewing Pluto late in the spring or in the summer.

The accompanying image was taken by the 2.6 meter Nordic Optical Telescope.

Uranus, the 7th planet, is rising at 6:05. Shining at mag5.92, Uranus is a relatively easy target. However, this is another tiny planet at only 3".  It is also rising at almost the same time as the sun. So... you'll have to wait a few months to seek it out. Additionally, given it's tiny size, It 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 over 1.95 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.

Here is another awesome image by, Ed Grafton. Have you checked out his site yet?????

Mercury is rising at about 6:10 am. This is only about 15 minutes before the sun rises. Yup. Mercury is diving back towards the Sun. It'll join Venus in the evening sky later this month. Mercury is currently shining at mag0.05. 

What makes Mercury so difficult to view? Well, because it is the innermost planet, Mercury never gets more than 28° away from the Sun. Because of this, Mercury is usually too close to the Sun to be seen at all. On those times when it is further away from the Sun, it is always low on the horizon... the worst part of the sky to view through.

The accompanying image shows Mercury and the crescent moon in a close conjunction. Pretty cool, huh?

Venus is rising about 7:40 am; almost 40 minutes after the sun... Still shining at a blistering mag -3.91 Venus is being completely overwhelmed by the Sun. But, Venus is slowly moving to take up its role as the Evening Star. Watch as it climbs higher and higher in the western sky over the next few months. By late spring, Venus will dominate the night sky. 

Did you know that Venus goes through phases? No... not those kind of phases... Phases of illumination, like the moon. It's true.

Checkout this Ultra Cool... Ultra-Violet image of Venus taken the Hubble Space Telescope.

Mars is rising in the southeast around  8:45 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 over 175 million miles. This has caused Mars' apparent diameter to shrink. It is currently down to a measly 5".. a fraction of it's peak of 21" in June. It has also dimmed significantly as well - currently shining at a wimpy magnitude 1.28 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 the Hubble Space Telescope which takes the most amazing astro-images ever seen. If you haven't checked out the Hubble Heritage site, I'd highly recommend it. It's loaded with many awesome planetary and deep sky image that'll blow your mind.

Checkout how much dust is in the air in this image. This is a "planet wide" dust storm. Whole continents all but disappeared. Let's hope for clearer Martian skies on the next pass. 

Saturn joins us now about 10:40 pm. Look for Saturn almost overhead as it gets dark. Saturn has currently spanning an an impressive 18" -- this is just shy of it's peak size and is currently shining at magnitude 0.09 -- which is also down a bit from its brightest. Don't waste any time... NOW is a great time to view Saturn. It will stick around through the remainder of the winter and into the spring, but.. your views will be best RIGHT NOW.   

Saturn and the moon have been playing a continual game of hide and seek. That's right, Saturn was involved in yet another lunar occultation. This makes the 10th time in less than a year! Saturn will hide behind the moon four more times before May. These events are interesting for more than the chance nature of the event. As Saturn drifts out from behind the dark side of the moon, astronomers are given the opportunity to see some of Saturn's hidden rings. That's right... hidden rings. There are some very extremely faint rings which extend beyond the main rings. NASA spacecraft have photographed them. Occultations offer special opportunities for earthbound residents to observe them. Unfortunately, this event will be missed my residents of northern Utah, with Provo being just inside the grazing limit.

Checkout this absolutely amazing mage of Saturn as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Wow! What an incredible amount of detail.

Next, look for Jupiter rising around 12:20pm. 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 -2.36 and spans 41". This is off a bit from it's peak of 47" earlier this winter... 

Checkout this beautiful series of images by Ed Grafton from Houston, Texas. Wow! This image clearly shows the interaction between Jupiter's Great Red Spot and the large white oval storm system it has been interacting for the last few weeks. Also visible in the image just to the left of the GRS is the shadow of Jupiter's moon Europa and just beyond the right edge of the planet is Europa itself. This is a very cool series of shots! If you're planning on viewing Jupiter's Great Red Spot, you'll want to checkout this Sky and Telescope article which contains a list of Great Red Spot Transit Times. 

Many of the features visible in this image are within the reach of modest amateur telescopes. And why not? These images were taken from suburban Houston using a 14" Celestron. Depending on the size of the telescope and the quality of your skies, you might even do better! In fact, on a few amazingly steady nights I have.

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 Cancer the Crab. This constellation has few bright stars. It's brightest are grouped in a centrally located quadrangle which encompasses it's brightest star cluster. 

The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of 

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.