Report for 2002-05-17

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

Astronomical Times
Sunrise: 6:08 am	Sunset: 8:38 pm
Astronomical Twilight Begins: 4:15 am	Astronomical Twilight Ends: 10:32 pm
Moonrise: 10:27 am	Moonset: 1:05 am

What is Life?

That's the question that will be discussed next Tuesday night May 21st in the Lecture Hall of the Main Salt Lake Library. Join NASA scientists and researchers from various Utah based research institutions in probing this most basic of questions. The series is presented by The Utah Science Council, The Hansen Planetarium, The Salt Lake Public Library and KCPW.  Click HERE for more information

Viewing Outlook

We've had some beautiful weather recently. Skies over Park City have been clear and steady offering us an opportunity to view the planetary alignment and to take advantage of dark, clear, moonless nights.

We were treated to yet another special event. The two day old crescent moon posed with Venus on the Tuesday evening. What a spectacular sight. I'd planned for several days to take pictures of the event, but was not at all prepared for the incredible beauty of the event. The tiny sliver of a moon was balanced by the small but extremely bright Venus. As the evening progressed, the two appeared suspended above the horizon. It seemed that the un-illuminated portion of the moon got brighter as the evening progressed. Details lit by Earthshine became readily apparent. Wow! I took the accompanying image towards the later stage of the event through a 600mm f/5 refractor using Fuji ASA400.

There was a beautiful planetary alignment in the western sky after sundown for the last couple of weeks. All the "classical" planets (those which have been known since antiquity) were lined up from west to east. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Speedy Mercury was the first to leave the party. It can has dimmed substantially and sunk very low in the west. Without a very low horizon to the west, you won't have a chance to find it any longer. If that is the case, you can plan on finding Mercury in the eastern, pre-sunrise sky in a couple of weeks. Venus, of course, continues to blaze in the west as it creeps higher and higher in the sky. Mars a fraction of it's former self is sinking steadily... but still well visible. Saturn has faded significantly, and is sinking rapidly as well. In fact, short of Mercury, Saturn seems to be fading fastest at this point. Look for it to make the largest moves west. And then finally we have Jupiter... the king of the planets. It shines brightly in the western sky after sunset. Jupiter is only outshined by Venus in the evening sky.  I took the accompany image of Venus and Mars as they were nearing their closest approach. The shot was taken at prime focus through a 150mm Maksutov-Cassegrain at f/12.  Charts indicate that Mars spans 4" and Venus 12". That ratio seems to be verified by this image. Also... Mars is Mag1.68 and Venus is Mag-3.95. This makes a difference of Mag5.63 which translates into Venus being over 173 time brighter.

Space Weather Update

Solar activity continues... The number of sunspots and their activity level has been on the rise lately. A faint CME was recorded on 5/10. Due to factors in the Earth's magnetosphere, we were at a higher probability of viewing aurora from this small event. Several images from around the globe are visible on Spaceweather.com. Recently (Wed) activity has begun to subside. There was another small CME on Thursday (5/16). It is expected to reach the Earth on 5/18 or 5/19. Keep an eye on the northern horizon and you just might be rewarded for your efforts.

Checkout this shot by Paul Wicklund of Mead Washington. Paul captured this image just north of Spokane on May 12th using Fuji400 film and a 30 second exposure. Paul described the aurora as a horizon hugger. I guess living that far north, he's used to much grander displays... Down here in Park City, we'd describe it as... impressive :)

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 Global View of Mars in late Northern Summer  Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) orbits around the red planet 12 times a day. Each orbit goes from pole to pole. Over the course of a single day, the wide angle cameras of the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) system take 24 pictures--12 red and 12 blue--that are assembled to create a daily global map. Such global views are used to monitor the martian weather and observe changes in the patterns of frost and dust distribution on the surface. These two pictures are examples of what Mars looks like in late northern summer, which is also late southern winter. At this time of year, the south polar cap (bottom, white feature in each image) is very large, extending from the south pole northward to 60°S. Also at this time of year, clouds of water ice crystals are common over the four largest volcanoes in Tharsis. The picture on the right shows Tharsis, with the four volcanoes forming a triangle resembling the pattern of holes on a bowling ball. The image on the left is centered on Syrtis Major, a dark, windswept volcanic plain so large that it has been known to science since the first telescopes were turned toward Mars in the 1600s. The elliptical bright feature at lower-center in the left image is the Hellas Basin, thelargest unequivocal impact basin (formed by an asteroid or comet) on the planet. Hellas is approximately 2200 km (1,370 mi) across.   Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

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 our most recent star party. It still looked pretty nice in a large scope. The tail had shrunk considerably. In fact, it was pretty much just bright, round and fuzzy. If you have any intention of viewing the comet, you'd better act quick. It'll drop beyond the range of all but the largest telescopes in the coming weeks. Checkout this awesome shot by Philip Perkins of AstroCruise.com in early April. It was created by combining 20 ten second images.

Lunar Phase

The moon will reach first quarter on Sunday. Currently, the moon is 28% illuminated and is... beginning to become an issue when planning your observing schedule. For totally, non-lunar impacted viewing, you'll have to wait till the moon sets... around 1:00am.  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 evening it'll be almost double the size... with the right side illuminated.

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 1:45am Visual Magnitude 7.89 Visual Diameter 2" Distance 29.81 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 2:40 am Visual Magnitude 5.83 Visual Diameter 3" Distance 20.02 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 6:55 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 is rising 20 minutes earlier than it did last weekend. This means that we'll lose it that much sooner in the evening. My guess is that you'll be lucky to find it this weekend. Let me know if you did. Mercury moves so fast that within two weeks, it'll go from the evening sky to the morning sky. Saturn 6th planet Rising 7:30 am Visual Magnitude 0.08 Visual Diameter 17" Distance 10.00 AU Constellation Taurus Checkout this absolutely stunning mage of Saturn as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. What an awesome shot. This is the natural color of Saturn. Notice the amount of detail visible in the image. You can easily see the Cassini Division as well as the Crepe ring (the faint line nearest to the edge of the ring).  Saturn has sped past Venus in the last week or so. It is sinking rapidly, while Venus climbs. So... Saturn will be gone shortly.. while Venus is moving to take a more dominant position in the evening sky. Mars 4th planet Rising 7:45 am Visual Magnitude 1.68 Visual Diameter 4" Distance 2.43 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. Mars too has moved past Venus and should be gone from the western sky shortly.

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.

Venus 2nd planet Rising 8:00 am Visual Magnitude -3.95 Visual Diameter 12" Distance 1.39 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 one hour and fifty 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 currently around 85% illuminated. 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".

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 shot of the solar systems most remote planet. It was taken by... the Hubble Space Telescope... of course 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 Eyes Hotbed of Star Formation A watercolor fantasyland? No. It's actually an image of the center of the Omega Nebula, a hotbed of newly born stars wrapped in colorful blankets of glowing gas and cradled in an enormous cold, dark hydrogen cloud. This stunning picture was taken by the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.   The region of the nebula shown in this photograph is about 3,500 times wider than our solar system. The area represents about 60 percent of the total view captured by ACS. The nebula, also called M17 and the Swan Nebula, resides 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.   Like its famous cousin in Orion, the Swan Nebula is illuminated by ultraviolet radiation from young, massive stars, located just beyond the upper right corner of the image. Each star is about six times hotter and 30 times more massive than the Sun. The powerful radiation from these stars evaporates and erodes the dense cloud of cold gas within which the stars formed. The blistered walls of the hollow cloud shine primarily in the blue, green, and red light emitted by excited atoms of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. Particularly striking is the rose-like feature, seen to the right of center, which glows in the red light emitted by hydrogen and sulfur.   As the infant stars evaporate the surrounding cloud, they expose dense pockets of gas that may contain developing stars. Because these dense pockets are more resistant to the withering radiation than the surrounding cloud, they appear as sculptures in the walls of the cloud or as isolated islands in a sea of glowing gas. One isolated pocket is seen at the center of the brightest region of the nebula and is about 10 times larger than our solar system. Other dense pockets of gas have formed the remarkable feature jutting inward from the left edge of the image, which resembles the famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion.   ACS made this observation on April 1 and 2, 2002. The color image is constructed from four separate images taken in these filters: blue, near infrared, hydrogen alpha, and doubly ionized oxygen.   Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (USCS/LO), M.Clampin  (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA

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 Corvus the Crow.

Deep Sky Report
The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Corvus. 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 very interesting Interacting Galaxy Pair.. NGC4038 & NGC4039(mag10.7). Also known as the Antennae Galaxy, this pair is locked in a gravitational tug-o-war. They'll probably end up merged into one larger galaxy in a few hundred million years. Stay tuned :)  Anyway... locating this object shouldn't be all that difficult as you can use the top two stars in Corvus to point the way. I was looking at this last weekend. They handle magnification well. At low power, they were hard to separate. This was simplified by cranking the power up to about 200x.  How's this for a cool shot? Taken by astro-imager Al Kelly, the pair look like a heart rolled on it's side.
Next we'll hit Planetary Nebula NGC4361, (mag10). Checkout this shot by Gordon Waite.
Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge  Object, Spiral Galaxy NGC4462 (mag12) 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.IDAUtah.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 Libra.

 

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