Report for 2002-05-24

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 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: 6:03 am	Sunset: 8:45 pm
Astronomical Twilight Begins: 4:05 am	Astronomical Twilight Ends: 10:43 pm
Moonrise: 6:56 pm	Moonset: 5:02 am

Viewing Outlook

After a beautiful stretch of weather leading into and including last weekend, the weather has turned a bit unsettled. The forecast is calling for some clear skies this weekend, so... let's get out and enjoy it. With the moon almost full, it's just about begging to be studied. Time to pull the telescope out of the closet and put it to use. The moon is absolutely the easiest object to start or restart your astronomical studies. No need for star charts... No need to search obscure corners of the sky. It's right out there in the open. You just can't miss it.

The two day old crescent moon posed with Venus last week. 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.

Space Weather Update

Solar activity continues... The number and size of sunspots has been on the rise lately. A faint CME triggered aurora for parts of Europe and eastern North America last weekend. Additionally, there were a pair of CMEs on Wednesday. At least one of these was aimed our way. It was, what astronomers refer to as a full-halo CME and the first impact was in the wee hours on Thursday. The remainder is expected to arrive shortly which will add to the charge in the Earth's magnetic field. If all goes well, we'll have a nice burst of aurora at mid-northern latitudes... Just in time for the clear skies forecast over our area.

I took the accompanying shot on Saturday through a 150mm f/12 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope with a sun filter. The recent series of CMEs mentioned above came from the large sunspot complex at the bottom of the image at right. This sunspot complex covers an area over five times the size of the Earth.

Checkout this shot of the northern lights as captured by Chris Haws of Mounds View, Minnesota. Cool, huh? To capture this beauty, Chris used a Minolta X-370 with a 28mm lens at F2.8 exposed for 30 seconds on Kodak Max 200.

Mission Update

The International Space Station will make several EXTENDED passes over the northern Utah this weekend. Starting Saturday night and continuing each night through Tuesday night, the ISS will fly almost directly overhead taking 5 to 6 minutes to cross the sky. This is the best opportunity we've had to view the space station in quite some time so you should try to make it a point to check it out. You can easily spot the ISS without any optical aid because it is one of the brightest objects in the sky. Additionally, given the amount of time it'll spend overhead, you should have plenty of opportunity to point your binoculars or telescope at it as well.  Checkout NASA's Human Spaceflight website for times when the ISS will be visible in your area. T 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, the largest 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

Lunar Phase

The moon will be full on Sunday. Currently, it is 96% illuminated and completely dominating the sky  I took the accompanying image earlier this spring when the moon was 87% illuminated. The moon looked like this on Thursday night.

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 1:20am Visual Magnitude 7.89 Visual Diameter 2" Distance 29.70 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 2:15 am Visual Magnitude 5.82 Visual Diameter 4" Distance 19.90 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 6:30 am Visual Magnitude 5.13 Visual Diameter 12" Distance 0.56 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 7:05 am Visual Magnitude 0.06 Visual Diameter 17" Distance 10.03 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 7:40 am Visual Magnitude 1.70 Visual Diameter 4" Distance 2.47 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 8:10 am Visual Magnitude -3.96 Visual Diameter 12" Distance 1.35 AU Constellation Gemini 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 two hours 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 9:05 am Visual Magnitude -1.91 Visual Diameter 33" Distance 5.93 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 9:10 pm Visual Magnitude 13.79 Visual Diameter <1" Distance 29.54 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. Faraway Galaxies Provide a Stunning "Wallpaper" Backdrop for a Runaway Galaxy Against a stunning backdrop of thousands of galaxies, this odd-looking galaxy with the long streamer of stars appears to be racing through space, like a runaway pinwheel firework.   This picture of the galaxy UGC 10214 was taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which was installed aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in March during Servicing Mission 3B. Dubbed the "Tadpole," this spiral galaxy is unlike the textbook images of stately galaxies. Its distorted shape was caused by a small interloper, a very blue, compact galaxy visible in the upper left corner of the more massive Tadpole. The Tadpole resides about 420 million light-years away in the constellation Draco.   Seen shining through the Tadpole's disk, the tiny intruder is likely a hit-and-run galaxy that is now leaving the scene of the accident. Strong gravitational forces from the interaction created the long tail of debris, consisting of stars and gas that stretch out more than 280,000 light-years.   Numerous young blue stars and star clusters, spawned by the galaxy collision, are seen in the spiral arms, as well as in the long "tidal" tail of stars. Each of these clusters represents the formation of up to about a million stars. Their color is blue because they contain very massive stars, which are 10 times hotter and 1 million times brighter than our Sun. Once formed, the star clusters become redder with age as the most massive and bluest stars exhaust their fuel and burn out. These clusters will eventually become old globular clusters similar to those found in essentially all halos of galaxies, including our own Milky Way.   Two prominent clumps of young bright blue stars in the long tail are separated by a "gap" — a section that is fainter than the rest of the tail. These clumps of stars will likely become dwarf galaxies that orbit in the Tadpole's halo.   The galactic carnage and torrent of star birth are playing out against a spectacular backdrop: a "wallpaper pattern" of 6,000 galaxies. These galaxies represent twice the number of those discovered in the legendary Hubble Deep Field, the orbiting observatory's "deepest" view of the heavens, taken in 1995 by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The ACS picture, however, was taken in one-twelfth the time it took to observe the original Hubble Deep Field. In blue light, ACS sees even fainter objects than were seen in the "deep field." The galaxies in the ACS picture, like those in the deep field, stretch back to nearly the beginning of time. They are a myriad of shapes and represent fossil samples of the universe's 13-billion-year evolution.   The ACS image is so sharp that astronomers can identify distant colliding galaxies, the "building blocks" of galaxies, an exquisite "Whitman's Sampler" of galaxies, and many extremely faraway galaxies.    ACS made this observation on April 1 and 9, 2002. The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in near-infrared, orange, a blue filters.  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 Libra The Scales. Libra is one of the 12 zodiac signs, but... it was the last to be "officially" recognized. Going back to the very earliest astronomical writings, the stars of Libra were actually considered to be a part of neighboring Scorpius. Interestingly, its two brightest stars are referred to as the northern and the southern claw... a definite reference to its scorpion past.

Deep Sky Report
The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Libra. Libra is not known for its deep sky wonders. It contains no Messier objects. Those objects that are here are generally pretty faint. This was the main reason that we are visiting Libra during the full moon :) Anyway... there are a few objects of interest here, so.. let's get started. 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 Spiral Galaxy NGC5915(mag12) . This is the compact, odd shaped galaxy at the center of the accompanying image. While not exactly bursting with detail, it is part of an interesting galaxy cluster. All three galaxies should easily fit in a low power field of view.
Next we'll hit Spiral Galaxy NGC5878(mag11.5) . This is a more classically shaped spiral galaxy. It is tilted about 30° from edge-on, giving us a nice view of it's spiral arms.
Continuing along we come (somewhat unexpectedly) to a sweet Globular Cluster NGC5897(mag8.5) . I say unexpectedly because I had no idea that such a beauty was to be found in Libra. Anyway... while this object is a bit too far south for optimum viewing, you'll no doubt enjoy this cluster. Spanning almost 1/4°, you should have no trouble tracking this object down. Once you lock in on it, crank up the magnification a notch.
Continuing along we come to Spiral Galaxy NGC5756(mag13) . This rather small galaxy won't give you a whole bunch of detail. Suffice it to say that you'll need 8-10" of aperture just to find this. Oh, well....Were it not for the fact that the first 3 of our 4 deep sky objects were grouped in the middle of the constellation, this probably would have been this weeks challenge object.
Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge  Object, Spiral Galaxy NGC5792(mag12) This object is brighter, but much bigger than our previous object. As such, it has a lower surface brightness. While it is on the outskirts of Libra, it is close enough to a couple stars in eastern Virgo that you should find it fairly easily.  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 Serpens.

 

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