Report for 2002-04-19
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Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".
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| This Weeks Issue | The Utah Skies Website | |
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| Sunrise: 6:43 am | Sunset: 8:10 pm | ||
| Astronomical Twilight Begins: 5:03 am | Astronomical Twilight Ends: 9:49 pm | ||
| Moonrise: 11:30 am | Moonset: 2:15 am | ||
| Winter has returned
again to northern Utah. After a couple of weeks of spring-like conditions,
winter returned with a vengeance. We got close to two FEET of snow in the
mountains and 6+" in the Park City area. Let's hope for a break
in the action this weekend so that we can get on to the good stuff.
When skies clear, we're in for a few special treats. First up... the Lyrid Meteor Shower which peaks on the morning of April 22nd. The Lyrid's are so-named because meteors of this shower appear to radiate from the constellation Lyra. To find Lyra, simply look for it's brightest star Vega which rises in the northeast shortly after sunset. Activity ought to be on the increase all weekend to a peak of about 10-15 meteors per hour in the early morning hours of the 22nd. Next, there will be a beautiful planetary
alignment in
the western sky after sundown. Checkout this shot by John French taken from Holt, Michigan on April 14th. Mercury was just below the horizon for this shot... and Jupiter was just above the top of the image. In the coming weeks, the area will get pretty crowded. |
All the "classical" planets (those which have been
known since antiquity) will be lined up from west to east.
Starting with tiny Mercury, we next move up to Venus, then Mars, to Saturn
and then finally on to Jupiter. There was a similar alignment in 2000, but
the planets are better placed for viewing this time. The next time this will happen is
in 2040. But.. don't sweat it just yet. The planets will remain in this
alignment for several weeks. In fact, the best views and the tightest
grouping are yet to come. Stay tuned.
There was a HUGE full halo Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) detected leaving the Sun on April 15th. It was pointed straight at Earth. Many places around the globe were treated to some spectacular displays of the northern lights. If you missed out, don't despair because on Wednesday April 17th, the Sun did it again. This time is launced a lopsided CME at us. Astronomers have issued an aurora watch for Friday 4/19 and Saturday 4/20 nights. My guess will be the earlier date. If you find yourself under clear skies, take a peek to the north. You never know when an aurora will hit. Given that our atmosphere is already pretty charged up from the previous strike, it could really light up nicely. |
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| The International Space Station will make
a pass over the northern Utah this weekend. Your best
shot for viewing this, the brightest object in the sky will be on Saturday
night at 8:43pm when the station takes about one minutes to cross 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 in space. .
Visit CNN/Space to find out more.
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Images are steadily coming back from the Mars Odyssey Spacecraft. 
In this one, we see a huge crater, right? Well... sort of. The crater in the center of the picture is fairly large. However, it is actually inside a much larger crater called Holden Crater. Click on the accompanying Mars Odyssey image for the full report. |
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Checkout
this shot taken by Finland's Peter von Bagh on Wednesday
evening(4/17). It wasn't even totally dark, but he manage to capture a
nice shot anyway. What beautiful shades of pink.
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Comet Watch: Comet Ikeya-Zhang |
Comet Ikeya-Zhang has dimmed slightly
from its absolute brightest a couple of weeks back. /IZ-20020407-APA.jpg) At an estimated
mag4.6, it is still visible to the unaided eye. At this point, the comet
has travel so far north that It is currently visible in both the morning sky
and the evening sky. In fact, if you have a clear view to the north
you may be able to watch it all night. How can the comet be visible all
night??? Good question. The reason is that the comet is
now far enough north that it only sets for a little while. Objects which
are far enough north are referred to as circumpolar, and never set. The
comet has reached that point for observers living at or above
mid-northern latitudes... ie.. NY, Chicago, Denver, SLC, San Fran.
This should make it easy for more people to view it. And, since it's still
pretty bright, April will be a good month for viewing the comet.
I got out and viewed the comet last weekend. It was pretty sweet. Once I found it (a relatively easy task), I was able to see it with the naked eye. Of course the views in my 10x50 binoculars were far better. Better still was the view through my rich-field refractor. It's 120mm f/5 optics captured enough light to show off the comet, while still allowing a wide enough field of view to see the whole comet AND Andromeda. Next, we pulled out the big guns. For almost an hour on Sunday night, we pointed the 25" ObDob at the comet. While it's field of view was a bit too small to view the comet in it's entirety, it's enormous light grasp revealed incredible details in the head of the comet. It appeared as if the bright comet nucleus was surrounded by a fuzzy glow. Towards the front, it even appeared to have a forward shockwave preceding it. This leading wave wrapped around the nucleus and blended into the tail. It was very cool! I took this image using the 120mm refractor
mentioned above. It is the result of a two minute exposure using 800 speed
film. |
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 has recently passed between the Earth and the Sun and is now visible in the morning sky. I'm really looking forward to some clear skies so that I can take a peek and snap some pics. Hopefully I'll be able to capture some good pictures and add them to the report soon. |
 The moon
will reach first quarter tomorrow night (4/20). Rising around midday
and setting around midnight, the moon will be high overhead by dark.
Checkout this awesome image by Becky Ramotowski. This shot was of two day old moon. The amazing part of the image is not the illuminated portion, but the unlit portion. How can we see it? This phenomenon is known as Earthshine. Sunlight reflected off of the Earth is lighting the moon. Pretty cool, huh? |
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. |
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Neptune, the 8th planet, is rising around 3:35am. 
Shining at
mag7.93, Neptune
is a relatively easy target when viewed at the right time. That time,
however is not now. Neptune is rising just as astronomical twilight is
beginning. In other words, Neptune is rising about the same time that the
sky is starting to brighten. It'll be best viewed in late summer and the
fall, when it will high in the sky for hours before dawn. 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 2.84 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. Checkout the accompanying image of Neptune and its moon Triton. This image had to be taken by a passing spacecraft. Do you know why? The answer is because Neptune is a superior planet. No, it's not better than Earth. A superior planet is one which has a larger orbit than Earth. (Inferior planets have smaller orbits). Anyway... because Neptune has a larger orbit than the Earth, we never see phases like this.
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Uranus, the 7th planet, is rising at 4:30am. 
Shining at mag5.88, 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 1.92 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.
Checkout this shot of Uranus. You can clearly see several of it's moons in this image. At almost 2 billion miles away, this is one tough shot to make from Earth! |
Mercury is rising at
about 7:20 am.
It currently spans 6" and is shining at -1.13. Mercury has
gotten really bright over the last several weeks. It is now rising about
30 minutes after the Sun. So... you've got one half hour after sunset to
spy tiny Mercury above the western horizon.
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. |
Venus is rising about 7:55 am. Still shining at a blistering mag -3.93,  Venus currently spans 11". Venus is
now rising about 60 minutes after the sun... it has slowly
but surely moved to take up its role as the Evening Star. Many of
you have no doubt seen it blazing away in the western sky after sunset.
Watch as it climbs higher and higher 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 this cool shot of Venus from the Galileo Spacecraft taken as it swung past the planet a couple of years ago. Since Venus has such dense clouds, we can not see through to the surface. Nevertheless, we can learn quite a bit anyway. Astronomers have studied the winds and atmospheric composition of the planet.
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Mars is rising in the southeast around 8:30 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 4"..
a tiny fraction of it's peak of 21" in June. In fact, this is just
about as small as Mars ever gets. It has also dimmed significantly as well - currently shining at
a wimpy magnitude 1.57 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 this sweet image captured by the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor. Notice how much ice had accumulated at the south polar region. |
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Saturn joins us now about 9:05 am. Look for Saturn west of overhead as it gets dark. If you haven't been looking at Saturn recently, you'd better start. It's gonna be gone soon :( At this point, Saturn sets about 1.5 hours after the Sun. Saturn has currently spanning about 17" -- this is well shy of it's peak size and is currently shining at magnitude 0.13 -- which is also down considerably 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. 
Checkout this absolutely amazing mage of Saturn as captured by Ed Grafton. What an awesome shot. Notice the innermost ring. It's called the Crepe ring and it's almost transparent. Just so you know... this image was not taken from an observatory. Nope. This was taken from his backyard in Houston, Tx.
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Next, look for Jupiter rising around 10:55am. 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 -2.07 and spans 36". This is off quite a bit from it's peak of 47" earlier this winter...  It
too has passed the meridian by the time it gets dark. You'd better take
advantage of what's left of the good Jupiter views. They won't get any
better till next fall.Here's another beautiful image by Ed Grafton. This is a very cool shot! In fact, his whole website is loaded with awesome images like this. Notice the inky dark spot in the upper left. That is actually the shadow created by Jupiter's moon Ganymede. 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. |
Pluto, the 9th planet, is at 11:30pm.  At mag
13.84, 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 2.8 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.) |
| 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. |
Hubble's Panoramic Portrait of a Vast Star-Forming Region NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a panoramic portrait  of
a vast, sculpted landscape of gas and dust where thousands of stars arebeing born. This fertile star-forming region, called the 30 Doradus Nebula, has a sparkling stellar centerpiece: the most spectacular cluster of massive stars in our cosmic neighborhood of about 25 galaxies. The mosaic picture shows that ultraviolet radiation and high-speed material unleashed by the stars in the cluster, called R136 [the large blue blob left of center], are weaving a tapestry of creation and destruction, triggering the collapse of looming gas and dust clouds and forming pillar-like structures that are incubators for nascent stars. The photo offers an unprecedented, detailed view of the entire inner region of 30 Doradus, measuring 200 light-years wide by 150 light-years high. The nebula resides in the Large Magellanic Cloud (a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way), 170,000 light-years from Earth. Nebulas like 30 Doradus are the "signposts" of recent star birth. High-energy ultraviolet radiation from the young, hot, massive stars in R136 causes the surrounding gaseous material to glow. Previous Hubble telescope observations showed that R136 contains several dozen of the most massive stars known, each about 100 times the mass of the Sun and about 10 times as hot. These stellar behemoths all formed at the same time about 2 million years ago. The stars in R136 are producing intense "stellar winds" (streams of material traveling at several million miles an hour), which are wreaking havoc on the gas and dust in the surrounding neighborhood. The winds are pushing the gas away from the cluster and compressing the inner regions of the surrounding gas and dust clouds [the pinkish material]. The intense pressure is triggering the collapse of parts of the clouds, producing a new generation of star formation around the central cluster. The new stellar nursery is about 30 to 50 light-years from R136. Most of the stars in the nursery are not visible because they are still encased in their cocoons of gas and dust. Some of the nascent stars are forming in long columns of gas and dust. Previous Hubble observations revealed that the process of "triggered" star formation often involves massive pillars of material that point toward the central cluster. Such pillars form when particularly dense clouds of gas and dust shield columns of material behind them from the blistering radiation and strong winds released by massive stars, like the stars in R136. This protected material becomes the pillars where stars can form and grow. The Hubble telescope first spied these pillars of stellar creation when it captured close-up views of the Eagle Nebula. The new image of 30 Doradus shows numerous pillars — each several light-years long — oriented toward the central cluster. These pillars, which resemble tiny fingers, are similar in size to those in the Eagle Nebula. Without Hubble's resolution, they would not be visible. One pillar is visible within the oval-shaped structure to the left of the cluster. Two [one dark and one bright] are next to each other below and to the right of the cluster. One pillar is at upper right, and still another is just above the cluster. Newborn stars within most of these pillars already have been discovered in pictures taken by Hubble's infrared camera, the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer, which can penetrate the dust to detect embryonic stars. Eventually, intense radiation and stellar winds from the developing stars will blow off the tops of the pillars. The Hubble image shows that one such eruption already has occurred in 30 Doradus. A trio of young stars has just been "born" by breaking out of its natal pillar. These new stars are just a few hundred thousand years old. In another 2 million years, the new generation of stars will be in full bloom. But the massive stars in R136 will have burned themselves out. And the nebula's central region will be a giant shell, devoid of gas and dust. Still later, all of the most massive stars and gas will have disappeared from the entire region. Only older, less massive stars will remain in a region cleared of gas and dust. The mosaic image of 30 Doradus consists of five overlapping pictures taken between January 1994 and September 2000 by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Several color filters were used to enhance important details in the stars and the nebula. Blue corresponds to the hot stars. The greenish color denotes hot gas energized by the central cluster of stars. Pink depicts the glowing edges of the gas and dust clouds facing the cluster, which are being bombarded by winds and radiation. Reddish-brown represents the cooler surfaces of the clouds, which are not receiving direct radiation from the central cluster. Credits: NASA, N. Walborn and J. Maíz-Apellániz (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD), R. Barbá (La Plata Observatory, La Plata, Argentina) |
| 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 Coma Berenices, The Hair of Berenice. According to an ancient story, Berenice was the wife of King Ptolemy. Ptolemy went off to do battle against the Assyrians. Berenice offered her hair as a sacrifice for his safety. Upon his return, she cut her hair and placed it upon the altar. Jupiter is reputed to have descended from heaven and taken it back with him for all to admire. Coma Berenices made up of relatively faint stars. However, it is located between some well defined constellation. Canes Venatici is to the north, Virgo to the south, Leo on the west border and Bootes on the east border. |
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The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Coma Berenices.
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 Ok, let's start things off with the
beautiful Black-eye Galaxy, M64(mag8.5). This Spiral Galaxy is very cool
to observe. It shows an significant amount of detail in telescope from
about 4" and up.
This beautiful image was captured by... Robert Gendler. Do yourself a favor... checkout his site if you haven't yet done so. |
Next we'll hit Elliptical Galaxy M85(mag9.2).  Also
visible in the image is small barred spiral NGC 4394(mag10.9)
One of the hardest things you'll find in your search for the following galaxies is not finding them... the hardest task is identifying which is which. Between Denebola (the tail of Leo) and Vindemiatrix in Virgo, you'll find the largest collection of galaxies in the sky. There are hundreds and hundreds of them. Of these, almost two dozen are Messier objects...Another 1/2 dozen are Caldwell objects. |
Continuing along we come to another fine Spiral Galaxy, M88(mag9.5). This
is one sweet spiral. Of course the fact that this is a Robert
Gendler shot only adds to the beauty.
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| Moving along, we come to a nice Barred
Spiral Galaxy, M91(mag10.2). This
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| Next up is a Spiral Galaxy, M98(mag10.1). This
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Next up is another Spiral Galaxy, M99(mag9.8). Also
known as the Pinwheel Nebula, this beaufiful shot was taken by...
yup... Robert
Gendler.
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Finishing our Messier objects for the week is Spiral Galaxy, M100(mag9.4). This is
a beautiful, "classic" spiral galaxy. Many of the faint objects you
see in the area are other, more distant galaxies. How many can you spy?
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This beautiful shot was taken by... nope...not this time :) Al Kelly. Checkout Al's site for some sweet pics and some good info on astro-imaging. |
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Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, Spiral Galaxy NGC4559(mag9.85).  This galaxy
will be a fairly easy find in telescopes down to about 4". Given it's
proximity to Gamma Comae Berenices (only 2° east of the mag4 star), you might
even be tempted to search with a smaller instrument). If you've got a Telrad
finder on your scope, you absolutely can't miss this object... assuming you can
find the constellation :)
Anyway... by about 6-8", you ought to easily make out an elongated, oval shape. In the 8-10" range, you ought to make out some of the mottling in the core of the galaxy |
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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. |
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Checkout the recent CNN article on Light Pollution. Reclaiming our skies starts with YOU!Many of you are aware that IDA-Utah is continually at work trying to get better lighting ordinances and stricter enforcement. But, did you realize that you have a part to play in all of this too? Yup... you sure do. If your home has exterior lights, your actions make you part of the bigger picture. You are either part of the problem... or part of the solution. If your lights are on only when necessary... if you've properly shielded your lights... they your are part of the solution... a model for your friends and neighbors. If, on the other hand, you wastefully leave your lights on all night (or worse... 7x24) then you are part of the problem. It is your lights which are adding to the glow over your neighborhood. Your lights are adding to the wasted power generation and pollution emissions by your local lighting company. Don't for one moment think that your actions don't count. They count in terms of wattage... they count in terms of wasted resources... they count in terms of wasted money. But, more importantly, they count because others see what you do. If you leave your lights on then it appears to them to be less of a problem. So...If you efficiently and effectively make use of exterior lights, that's great. But, you can do even more. You can talk to your neighbors about their lights. You can tell them how they can save money, natural resources, the environment by following some of the thoughts below. Light Pollution Reduction Techniques:
One by one, we have to begin turning the tide. Together we can do it. Every little bit helps. Checkout the IDA-Utah website at www.UtahSkies.org/ida 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. |
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Next Weeks Report |
| Next week, we'll continue our journey through the cosmos and focus on the constellation Bootes. |
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Stay up to date on astronomical happenings by regularly checking the Utah Skies website at http://www.UtahSkies.org
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