Report for 2002-05-10
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Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".

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Contents
	This Weeks Issue	The Utah Skies Website
	Astronomical Times Viewing Outlook Space Weather Update Mission Update Comet Watch Lunar Phase Planetary Report Hubble Vision Constellation Report Deep Sky Report IDA-Utah Light Pollution Update	Astro-photographer of the Month Deep Sky Observers Hubble Vision IDA-Utah Light Pollution Update Weekly Report

Star Party
Last Saturday nights Utah Skies star party was a wonderful success. We had over 75 people show up to view the planetary alignment as well as the wide range of deep sky treasures overhead. Thanks to all who came out and made the evening so enjoyable.
Astronomical Times
Sunrise: 6:15 am	Sunset: 8:32 pm
Astronomical Twilight Begins: 4:26 am	Astronomical Twilight Ends: 10:21 pm
Moonrise: 5:40 am	Moonset: 6:59 pm

Viewing Outlook

After a serious dose of Park City "spring weather", things appear to be getting back to ... normal :) Skies have cleared a bit finally and we even got to do some viewing. The weekend forecast sounds less than optimal with Saturday night being the best chance at viewing.. There is a beautiful planetary alignment in the western sky taking shape after sundown. All the "classical" planets (those which have been known since antiquity) will be lined up from west to east. Mercury has finally joined the lineup...low and to the west. Venus continues to blaze in the west as it creeps higher and higher in the sky. Mars a fraction of it's former self shines next to the Pleiades star cluster. Saturn has faded significantly, but still outshines most of the stars in the sky. Saturn seems to be fading fastest at this point. Look for it to make the largest moves west. This is especially pronounced given that Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter are all moving east. And then finally we have Jupiter... the king of the planets. It shines brightly just west of overhead after sunset. Jupiter is only outshined by Venus in the evening sky.  Viewing the alignment does not require any special equipment. Since the planets span such a wide section of the sky, no telescope or binoculars can see all of them simultaneously. All you need is a relatively flat horizon to the west to view the spectacle. If you've got obstructions to the west, you'll have trouble spying Mercury as it never really gets high enough to be seen in a dark sky. This event will continue for a couple more weeks. In fact, the tightest grouping of the planets will occur on May 14th when all five planets will be within a 33° span. So... don't feel rushed to get out there and see it. On the other hand... the next time this will happen is in 2040... So... don't wait too long either.  Checkout this awesome shot of the planetary alignment over Stonehenge by Philip Perkins of AstroCruise.com.

Space Weather Update

The number of sunspots visible on the Earth-facing side of the sun has risen dramatically in recent days. Sunspot 9934 now spans an area over  4 times the surface of the Earth. It also contains intense magnetic fields which have triggered minor solar activity.

Mission Update

The International Space Station will make several passes over the northern Utah this weekend. Your best shot for viewing this, the brightest object in the sky will be the next few mornings when the station takes 1-2  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. .  Shuttle Replacement Prototypes NASA is moving ahead with plans to replace the aging shuttle fleet. Prototype designs by Lockheed Martin (left) and Northrop-Grumman (right) are vying for what could be quite lucrative contracts down the road to build the next generation. NASA officials expect to spend in the neighborhood of $5 billion over the next several years. Visit CNN/Space to find out more.

Images are steadily coming back from the Mars Odyssey Spacecraft.. Image which might indicate a wet past... and maybe future for Mars. Water on Mars? Yup. That's the conclusion many are coming to as available information increases.   Checkout this recently released image from the Mars Odyssey Spacecraft. It appears that a section of the Martian surface was scratched by a giant claw. "Monument Valley" is the unofficial name for a region known as Northern Terra Meridiani. The feature captured in this image is located near the intersection of the Martian equator and the central meridian.

Comet Watch: Comet Ikeya-Zhang

Comet Ikeya-Zhang continues to fade. It is now down to mag6.1, well beyond naked eye for all but hawkeyed observers from a seriously dark site. We caught some parting views of the comet through the ObDob at the star party last weekend. It still looks pretty nice in a large scope. The tail had shrunk considerably. In fact, it was pretty much just bright, round and fuzzy.  Checkout this awesome shot by Philip Perkins of AstroCruise.com. It was created by combining 20 ten second images.

Lunar Phase

The moon will be new Sunday morning. At this point, the moon is only 3% illuminated and is... essentially a non-issue when planning your observing schedule. This weekend (weather permitting) is the ideal time for deep sky observing.  I took the accompanying image on Wednesday morning when the moon was at 13% illumination. It's almost at the same phase as Neptune in the next image. This morning it was just a fraction of that.

Planetary Report

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.

Neptune 8th planet Rising 2:15am Visual Magnitude 7.90 Visual Diameter 2" Distance 29.93 AU Constellation Capricornus Checkout the accompanying Voyager 2 image of Neptune. Since Earth is inside of Neptune's orbit, we never get to see this kind of view. Neptune is a relatively easy target when viewed at the right time. That time, however is not now. Neptune is rising just before astronomical twilight begins. In other words, Neptune never really gets high enough in the sky for optimal viewing before the sky starts 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.

Uranus 7th planet Rising 3:05 am Visual Magnitude 5.84 Visual Diameter 3" Distance 20.13 AU Constellation Aquarius 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! 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.

Mercury 1st planet Rising 7:15 am Visual Magnitude 1.39 Visual Diameter 9" Distance 0.72 AU Constellation Taurus 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. Mercury has gotten really bright over the last several weeks. It is now rising about 55 minutes after the Sun. So... you've got about 55 minutes after sunset to spy tiny Mercury above the western horizon. Mercury will climb even higher in the next week or so making this the best time all year to spy the tiny planet. Mercury has dimmed slightly though... so your task isn't getting that much easier :)

Venus 2nd planet Rising 7:55 am Visual Magnitude -3.94 Visual Diameter 12" Distance 1.43 AU Constellation Taurus Checkout this cool shot of Venus taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The image was captured in ultra-violet light. Venus is now rising about 75 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".

Saturn 6th planet Rising 7:55 am Visual Magnitude 0.10 Visual Diameter 17" Distance 9.96 AU Constellation Taurus 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. Look for Saturn well 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.

Mars 4th planet Rising 7:55 am Visual Magnitude 1.66 Visual Diameter 4" Distance 2.4 AU Constellation Taurus Checkout this sweet image captured by Ed Grafton. At this point.. all we have left of Mars is memories. Nice ones... like this image, but... memories nonetheless. Oh, well... we'll get even nicer views of Mars in 2003 makes it makes it's closest pass in 5000+ years. 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.

Jupiter 5th planet Rising 9:45 am Visual Magnitude -1.96 Visual Diameter 34" Distance 5.77 AU Constellation Gemini Here's a beautiful image by the Hubble Space Telescope.  This is a very cool shot! It's captured the Great Red Spot in a series of images. 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. 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.  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. 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 9th planet Rising 10:05 pm Visual Magnitude 13.81 Visual Diameter <1" Distance 29.62 AU Constellation Ophiuchus 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! 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. (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.)

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. We've got a special treat for you in this weeks Hubble Vision section. These are the first shots made public from the new camera installed in the Hubble Space Telescope. I'm sure you'll agree that these shots are even more impressive than previous Hubble products. Hubble's Newest Camera Images Monstrous Star-Forming Pillar of Gas and Dust Resembling a nightmarish beast rearing its head from a crimson sea, this monstrous object is actually an innocuous pillar of gas and dust. Called the Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) — so named because, in ground-based images, it has a conical shape — this giant pillar resides in a turbulent star-forming region.   This picture, taken by the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the upper 2.5 light-years of the nebula, a height that equals 23 million roundtrips to the Moon. The entire nebula is 7 light-years long. The Cone Nebula resides 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros.   Radiation from hot, young stars [located beyond the top of the image] has slowly eroded the nebula over millions of years. Ultraviolet light heats the edges of the dark cloud, releasing gas into the relatively empty region of surrounding space. There, additional ultraviolet radiation causes the hydrogen gas to glow, which produces the red halo of light seen around the pillar. A similar process occurs on a much smaller scale to gas surrounding a single star, forming the bow-shaped arc seen near the upper left side of the Cone. This arc, seen previously with the Hubble telescope, is 65 times larger than the diameter of our solar system. The blue-white light from surrounding stars is reflected by dust. Background stars can be seen peeking through the evaporating tendrils of gas, while the turbulent base is pockmarked with stars reddened by dust.   Over time, only the densest regions of the Cone will be left. Inside these regions, stars and planets may form.   The Cone Nebula is a cousin of the M16 pillars, which the Hubble telescope imaged in 1995. Monstrous pillars of cold gas, like the Cone and M16, are common in large regions of star birth. Astronomers believe that these pillars are incubators for developing stars.   ACS made this observation on April 2, 2002. The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in blue, near-infrared, and hydrogen-alpha filters.   Credit: NASA and the ACS Science Team

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 Hydra. Hydra is the largest constellation, spanning 11 hours of Right Ascension... nearly halfway around the sky! Look at the accompanying star chart...This thing is huge! It spans from Cancer to Virgo...over two months worth of Utah Skies reports!

Deep Sky Report
The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Hydra. New, 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.
Ok, let's start things off with a beautiful Open Star Cluster, M48(mag5.8)
Next we'll hit Globular Star Cluster, M68(mag8.2)
Next we'll hit a Spiral Galaxy, M83(mag8.0). Also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy because of it's beautiful shape, this galaxy is an easy find, but just a bit too low for optimal viewing from mid-northern latitudes. If you're going to look for M83, hit it between 11:00pm and 1:00am when it is closest to the meridian.
Continuing, we come to a beautiful Planetary Nebula NGC3242(mag8.6).  Also known as the Ghost of Jupiter or Caldwell59. The object is about the same as Jupiter but no where near as bright. It is plenty bright enough to view though. Instruments in the 4-6" range should have no trouble spotting it. It's blueish color is unmistakable.  Observers with larger apertures should be able to pull lots of detail out... and may even spy the mag11 central star. To find The Ghost, simply look 2° south of Mu Hydrae. Nebula filters do not seem to add much to the view, though increased magnification will tend to pull out some extra detail and structure.
Next we'll hit Globular Cluster, NGC5694(mag10.2) - Caldwell66. While not the most amazing view in the eyepiece, It is located on the far side of the galaxy and therefore is one of the most distant Milky Way Globular Star clusters.
Next up is Spiral Galaxy NGC2784(mag10.1) As you can see in the accompanying image, the spiral arms don't stand out too well. This gives the galaxy the appearance of an elliptical.
Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, Elliptical Galaxy NGC3309(mag11.9). Don't get too excited about the almost mag12 value. This would be a tough find if it were on its own. However, this galaxy is at the center of the Hydra Galaxy Cluster aka Abell 1060. NGC3309 is the bright galaxy on the right in the central pairing. NGC3311 is to the left. 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.

IDA-Utah Light Pollution Update

Checkout the recent CNN article on Light Pollution.  Non-Compliant Merchants What would we do if we discovered a local merchant that sold cigarettes to minors? I'll bet there would be a huge outcry from the public and a quick visit from the sheriff. Would there be prison time or fines levied? Possibly. Would the merchant be forced to close shop? Possibly. What about a merchant that sold alcohol after hours? You can be sure that the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control would fine them and shut them down immediately. Well, what about merchants who sell products which conflict with county ordinances? More specifically, what about a merchant which sells exterior lighting fixtures which did not comply with the county's exterior lighting ordinances? You think that would never happen? Guess again. It happens every single day of the week! And, (probably) more surprisingly... it happens at virtually every retailer that sells outdoor lighting products. Really! I went and paid a visit to several retailers who carry exterior lights. Across the board, the lights on display at each of these merchants did not comply with county lighting ordinances. I'm not talking a couple of lights here.... not even a few... but most. By my estimate, over 95% of the lights on display at these very well known retailers could NOT legally be installed in Summit County! That's right. If you the home or business owner went to one of these stores and bought exterior lights from them and installed them on your home or business.... you just made you property non-compliant. To give you an example of how blatant a violation this is, I went into a vendor looking for good, compliant lights for my home. Not seeing any lights which complied with county codes, I questioned the sales person. He told me that "nobody pays attention to those ordinances anyway". I kid you not. Not that there aren't a wide range of compliant lights available. These merchants simply chose to ignore the law and sell these other styles. So... what are we going to do about this? Should the Sheriff go and close those vendors down or force them to immediately remove all non-compliant fixtures? Should they be fined or jailed? What exactly are we to do when merchants who deliberately choose to ignore the law? Mind you... these are not recent ordinance changes that they haven't yet had time to deal with. These are county ordinances which have been on the books for over five years. Clearly, this is a complete disregard for the law and can not be tolerated. 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.

Next Weeks Report

Next week, we'll continue our journey through the cosmos and focus on the constellation Corvus.

 

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