|
Report for 2002-03-22
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Welcome to the Utah Skies Report.
Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".
Astronomical Times
| Sunrise: 6:28 am |
Sunset: 6:40 pm |
| Astronomical Twilight Begins: 4:56 am |
Astronomical Twilight Ends: 8:12 pm |
| Moonrise: 11:40 am |
Moonset: 2:24 pm |
| Utah Skies would like to invite you to
help kickoff the 2002 star party season
this Friday night 3/22 from 7:30pm until 10:00pm. The event, which will
benefit the Ecker Hill Middle School Astronomy Club, will be held behind
the Ecker Hill Middle School in Pinebrook. All are invited and guest scopes
are encouraged. This event will focus on some of the most easily
accessible objects in the sky. We'll explore the craters on the moon, the
rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter. Come on out for a couple of
hours and help support the Ecker Hill kids. Coco Espresso will be
providing complimentary coffee and hot cocoa. Additionally, members of the
astronomy club will be holding a bake sale to raise some extra money. So,
come on out and show your support for the kids. |
| Utah Skies has received approval from
the Board of Directors of The International Dark-Sky Association to form a
Utah based chapter of the IDA. This will allow Utah Skies and its associates to leverage the strength of a 9000-member, international organization in
raising awareness to the problems of light pollution and their solutions.
Anyone interested in joining in this effort should send an e-mail to ida-utah@UtahSkies.org.
With your help, we can make a significant difference. We can restore our
heritage of star-filled skies. |
| We got some beautiful evenings beginning
early in the week. Unfortunately, skies are looking less than beautiful
this weekend. Oh, well. I
couldn't sleep one night and got up for some awesome views of a few old
summer-time friends. M51,
M13,
Scorpius,
Sagittarius, etc. It definitely
got me excited for those beautiful summer nights ahead. |
 |
We've had several CME's lately. One which was detected
last Friday night arrived while the Earth's magnetic defenses were at their
strongest. Another was detected on Tuesday. The Tuesday CME is captured in
the SOHO image at right. Unfortunately, none generated any significant
auroral activity.
|
 |
 Fortunately
for us, good-old Lyndon Anderson
spotted these Northern Lights over North Dakota and saved them on
film. Many of the aurora images you've seen in the Utah Skies report are
the result of Lyndon's good work. |
The International Space Station will make several passes over the northern Utah this weekend. This
is the brightest object in the sky. You can easily spot the ISS without
any optical aid. Checkout NASA's
Human Spaceflight website for times when the ISS will be visible in your
area. Then, grab your binoculars or telescope and see what kind of detail
you can pick out. Or... just go and eyeball humans is space. .  The
accompanying image shows the ISS cruising several hundred miles above the Earth.
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A flood of information is coming back from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft.
 Indications
are that Mars contains huge amounts of hydrogen filled ice in the south
polar region. This is especially important given that water is deemed one
of the critical elements required for life as we know it.
NASA's Mars Odyssey traveled over 290 million miles to study
the red planet. The goal of this mission is to map the surface of the
planet in detail so that future
missions can target interesting features.
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Comet Ikeya-Zhang is at its absolute
brightest right now. /ikeyazhang_jones.jpg)
At an estimated mag3.4, it is one of the brightest comets in the last five
years or so. Unfortunately, it is also at it's closest to the Sun. This
means that it must compete against the light of the dusk sky. As the comet
continues its orbit of the Sun, it will begin to head back out to the
depths of our solar system. In the coming days, it will become visible in the morning
sky.
Checkout this awesome composite image by Gilbert
Jones captured on March 11th near Tucson, Arizona.
Astronomers speculate that the comets tail was disrupted by magnetic
particles in the solar wind.
Would you like to see more cool comet pics? Checkout
the Ikeya-Zhang
gallery on the space weather site.
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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? You can also see that the
comet is currently passing between the Earth and the Sun. This is why we
can't see it at present. It should reappear in the morning sky towards the
end of the month. I'm really looking forward to this since my best horizon
views are in the southeast, precisely where the comet is expected to reappear.
Hopefully I'll be able to capture some good pictures when it does. |
|
The moon reached first quarter last night (3/21). The illuminated will
continue its cycle and grow daily. Each night it will rise about 40 minutes
later and... of course... set 40 minutes later. I
took the accompanying image of the moon from my home in Park City last
spring.
All of the detail captured in the image is easily within reach of a small
telescope. And why not, the image was taken through a 6"
Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope. These are nice, compact telescopes noted for
the sharp images they provide. The moon will be about this size at Friday
nights star party. Make sure you come and check it out.
|
In this section, we visit the planets in the order in
which they are currently rising. We do our best to track down the finest images
available.
for 2002. As
an added feature, you may also click on any of the planetary images to view a
planetary reference page filled with important facts about the planet.
Pluto, the 9th planet, is rising at
about 12:25 am.  At mag
13.89, Pluto has brightened another
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.
Checkout this awesome series captured by Gordon
Waite. This series depicts how Pluto was originally discovered. After
years of searching for a planet beyond Neptune, Clyde Tombaugh in 1930
came upon Pluto. His was not a simple discovery. He didn't just scan the
sky with his telescope and see Pluto. Nope. He took countless images of
the sky. Each image would be compared to an image taken days or weeks
earlier. While the stars are essentially motionless over short periods of
time, solar system objects would appear to move. On February 18, 1930,
Tombaugh compared images taken on January 23rd with images taken on
January 29th. While blinking the images, a technique which alternates the
images from one side to the other, he noticed that one of the stars moved.
That star was actually the planet Pluto. And so on that fateful day, the
population of our solar system increased by one. No other planets have
been found in our solar system since!
(Just in case you're having trouble, you should see
Pluto dancing towards the lower left corner of the image. If you don't,
hit your browsers "Reload" button.)
|
Neptune, the 8th planet, is rising around 4:25am. Shining at mag7.96, Neptune
is a relatively easy target. In fact, it too has brightened .01
magnitude.  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 over 2.8 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 image was taken by the Voyager 2
spacecraft as it approached the distant planet. The large, dark oval to
the left side of the image rotates around the planet in about 18 hours.
This image, and many others came from NASA's "Welcome
to the Planets" website.
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Uranus, the 7th planet, is rising at 5:15am. 
Shining at mag5.91, 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?????
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Mercury is rising at
about 6:10 am. 
It currently spans 5" and is shining at -0.54
The accompanying Mariner 10 image of Mercury's southwest quadrant
reveals the amount of destruction brought upon the planet by comets and
meteors. Since Mercury has no atmosphere, every object coming its way is
able to score a direct hit. This image was taken a the spacecraft made
it's closest pass to the planet at a distance of about 120,000 miles. The
largest craters are about 60 miles in diameter.
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Venus is rising about 7:15 am; almost 45 minutes after the sun... Still
shining at a blistering mag -3.91, Venus currently spans 10". But, Venus is slowly
but surely 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 and through the summer and Fall, 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. Venus is current a round 96% illuminated sphere. As it climbs higher
in the sky (larger angular separation from the Sun) the illuminated
portion shrinks. By the time Venus is only 1/2 illuminated, it will have
brightened to mag -4.3. It will continue to brighten to about mag -4.7
late in the fall when it reaches its greatest elongation (angular
separation from the Sun). At that point, Venus will be only about 1/4
illuminated, but will have grown to over 44".
Checkout these cool images of the changing phases of
Venus by the Maple
Ridge Observatory.  
These were taken using a special Bessel U Filter which allows the
transmission of ultra-violet light. Note the detail captured in the clouds
of Venus' upper atmosphere.
|
Mars is rising in the southeast around 8:25
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 1.30 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 Maple Ridge
Observatory. If you haven't checked out
their website, 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 10:05
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 0.11 -- 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. Occultation's
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 Thierry Legault from Paris, France.
Wow! This is an incredible amount of detail, especially when you consider
that this image was taken from.
|
Next, look for Jupiter rising around 12:45pm. 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
-2.29
and spans 40". This is off a bit from it's peak of 47"
earlier this winter... 
Jupiter is after all 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 Thierry Legault from Paris, France.
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 Io. This is a very
cool shot! In fact, his whole website
is loaded with awesome images.
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.
|
| 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. |
This visible-light picture , taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, reveals an intergalactic "pipeline" of material flowing between two battered galaxies that bumped
into each other about 100 million years ago. The pipeline [the dark string of matter] begins in NGC 1410 [the galaxy at left], crosses over 20,000 light-years of intergalactic space, and wraps around NGC 1409
[the companion galaxy at right] like a ribbon around a package. Although astronomers have taken many stunning pictures of galaxies slamming into each other, this image represents the clearest view of how some interacting galaxies dump material onto their companions. These results are being presented today at the 197th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego, CA.
Astronomers used the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph to confirm that the pipeline is a continuous string of material linking both galaxies.
Scientists believe that the tussle between these compact galaxies somehow created the pipeline, but they're not certain why NGC 1409 was the one to begin
gravitationally siphoning material from its partner. And they don't know where the pipeline begins in NGC 1410. More perplexing to astronomers is that NGC 1409 is
seemingly unaware that it is gobbling up a steady flow of material. A stream of matter funneling into the galaxy should have fueled a spate of star birth. But astronomers
don't see it. They speculate that the gas flowing into NGC 1409 is too hot to gravitationally collapse and form stars.
Astronomers also believe that the pipeline itself may contribute to the star-forming draught. The pipeline, a pencil-thin, 500 light-year-wide string of material, is moving
a mere 0.02 solar masses of matter a year.
Astronomers estimate that NGC 1409 has consumed only about a million solar masses of gas and dust, which is not enough material to spawn some of the
star-forming regions seen in our Milky Way. The low amount means that there may not be enough material to ignite star birth in NGC 1409, either.
The glancing blow between the galaxies was enough, however, to toss stars deep into space and ignite a rash of star birth in NGC 1410. The arms of NGC 1410, an active, gas-rich
spiral galaxy classified as a Seyfert, are awash in blue, the signature color of star-forming regions. The bar of material bisecting the center of NGC 1409 also is a
typical byproduct of galaxy collisions.
Astronomers expect more fireworks to come. The galaxies are doomed to continue their game of "bumper cars," hitting each other and moving apart several times
until finally merging in another 200 million years. The galaxies' centers are only 23,000 light-years apart, which is slightly less than Earth's distance from the center of
the Milky Way. They are bound together by gravity, orbiting each other at 670,000 miles an hour (1 million kilometers an hour). The galaxies reside about 300 million
light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. The Hubble picture was taken Oct. 25, 1999.
Credits: NASA, William C. Keel (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa) |
| 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 Leo
Minor (the little lion).
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The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Leo
Minor.
This constellation caused me to scratch my head for a second. Plain and simple,
I really was not familiar with this constellation. There are so many awesome
objects in other nearby constellations that I've just overlooked this one. And
why not? It contains no Messier's... no Caldwell's. Hmm....Is there even
anything init? So...
with assignment in hand, I headed out to find out about Leo Minor. It turns out
that I've been missing out on a bunch of fine deep sky objects. As you'll see
shortly, Leo Minor is loaded with beautiful galaxies of all shapes and sizes. Our first stop
in Leo Minor is a tight double star Beta Leo Minor(mag4.2). This is made up of
components of mag4.5 and mag6.5. They are separated by a mere 0.4". This
will require steady skies and a bit of magnification to split.
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. |
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|
Ok, our fist
object is a beautiful Spiral Galaxy NGC3344(mag9.95) This big,
bright galaxy is viewed almost perfectly face-on.
It spans almost 7' in diameter and has an almost stellar core. I love the
delicate detail of the spiral arms. This is the classic look of a spiral
galaxy. If you look closely, it almost looks like some stars are being
flung off as it spins.
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Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah
Skies Challenge Object, Elliptical Galaxy NGC3158(mag11.85)
If you look closely, most of the lights you see in the image are galaxies.
NGC3158 is the brightest galaxy in this cluster of galaxies. If you're able to
find 3158, you should also be able to see several of the other brighter
members. To see more than about half a dozen galaxies you'll need at least
10-12" of aperture and dark skies. How many will you find?
Good Luck!
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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.
It’s
not just an astronomy problem
Many people think that light pollution
is just a problem for astronomers. They think that since they don’t own a
telescope, they are unaffected by the problem. This is simply not true. Light
pollution is a problem that affects us all. Typically, people are not even aware
of the effects. But, that doesn’t reduce its impact one bit.
Light pollution wastes incredible sums
of money nation wide. While the cost to the typical homeowner might be in the
$150-250 range per year the cost to the nation is approaching $10 billion
annually. This is an absurdly large
amount of money to waste. Diseases could be studied, the hungry could be fed,
our nations children could be better educated.
Light pollution wastes incredible
amounts of energy, energy that our nation simply does not have. It is largely to
secure this energy that young men and women in our military risk their lives in
the Middle East. They protect our access to energy. The very least we can do is
use it wisely.
Light pollution pollutes our
environment. By wasting electricity, we force our utility companies to consume
more energy and therefore emit more toxins into the environment. How many of you
have, or know someone who has a lung ailment. Many respiratory problems are
caused by or intensified by these airborne toxins. 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. And, a recent study published by the American Cancer
Society entitled "Air
Pollution Linked to Deaths From Lung Cancer" concluded that "every
reduction in air pollution will likely lower death rates".
Light pollution itself is a threat to
human health. Recent studies by the nations medical researchers indicate that
light at night interferes with our body’s immune system. A study published by
The Journal
of Neuroscience discusses how light shining into your bedroom can disrupt
the circadian rhythm, your bodies internal clock. There are even links between
light pollution and certain forms of cancer, including breast cancer. In an
article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute entitled "Night
Shift Work, Light at Night, and Risk of Breast Cancer" researchers
found that "Exposure to light at night may increase the risk of breast
cancer by suppressing the normal nocturnal production of melatonin...."
They went on to state that "There was an indication of increased risk among
subjects with the brightest bedrooms."
Light pollution is a threat to wildlife.
It’s true. Many types of wildlife are simply unable to cope with such
disruption of their nighttime environments. For example, did you know that
millions of migratory birds die each year because of light pollution? It's true.
They rely on the stars to navigate. When they fly over light polluted areas,
they lose their sense of direction. Many fly until exhaustion and die. How about
sea turtles? Did you know that sea turtle hatchlings look for the moon to guide
them to the safety of the ocean? Many sea turtle hatchlings are attracted to the
bright lights of nearby developments and end up being run over by cars.
So if you think light pollution only
hurts astronomers, you are dead wrong. Sure, light pollution robs us of
beautiful star filled skies, but… it also hurts every man, woman, child and
creature on this planet. If there were benefits to light pollution, it might be
a judgment call as to whether the benefits outweighed the costs. But… since
light pollution produces absolutely no benefit to society and only costs, it
should be an absolute no-brainer.
Would you like to do something to
address these problems? It’s simple.
-
Turn your lights off when they’re
not needed. For most people, this means most of the time.
-
Do you receive guests each and every
night? If not, don’t automatically turn your lights on each night.
-
Do you receive guests in the wee
hours? If not, don’t leave your lights on all night.
-
If you’re going out, you don’t
need to turn every single exterior light on.
-
Also, consider using lower wattage
bulbs. You might be surprised that you can see quite well with 40 or 60-watt
bulbs instead of 100 watt bulbs.
-
If your building or renovating,
install only full cut-off fixtures. They ensure that all the light produced
by the fixture ends up on the ground where it's needed. This has the added
benefit of allowing you to use lower wattage bulbs.
-
Install motion detectors. These
allow you to have an increased sense of security while at the same time
consuming substantially less energy.
Every little bit helps.
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 Sextans.
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