Report for 2002-05-31
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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 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: 5:59 am	Sunset: 8:51 pm
Astronomical Twilight Begins: 3:57 am	Astronomical Twilight Ends: 10:52 pm
Moonrise: 1:06 am	10:47 5:02 am

Big Discovery

A team of scientists from NASA and UCLA have detected atmospheric conditions on a planet orbiting another star. The planet is what astronomers refer to as a "brown dwarf". Hold the jokes please :) A brown dwarf is an object that, were it a bit larger would have been a star. Due to a lack of sufficient mass to sustain the nuclear fusion reactions in its core, these objects never ignite. Instead, they radiate most of their light in infrared.  Astronomers have identified nearly 100 planets in other star systems, most of these are significantly larger than Saturn the second largest planet in our solar system. In fact, gas-giant Jupiter can be considered a small brown dwarf. Not exactly a flattering description for the "King of the Planets". The accompanying image shows the brown dwarf next to it's star. The accompanying image is one of the first ever of a planet orbiting a distant star. Find out more by checking CNN.com/SPACE.

Bigger Discovery???

Data returned from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft indicates huge quantities of underground water ice. This is the piece astronomers have been searching for for a long, long time. Many features on the Martian surface indicate the existence and movement of large quantities of water. However, none could be found... anywhere... until now that is. The accompanying false-color image shows the chemical makeup of Mars. Soil enriched in hydrogen is indicated by deep blue.  Find out more by visiting Science@NASA.

Viewing Outlook

What a beautiful stretch of weather we've had lately. Clear skies and warming temperatures have made it a pleasure to be out late viewing. The weekend forecast however is calling for storms... hope you got your viewing fix earlier in the week.

Space Weather Update

Solar activity continues... A new sunspot spanning nearly six times the total surface area of Earth has emerged near the Sun's southeast limb. You can see it yourself using safe solar projection techniques. The active region, numbered 9973, poses a threat for M-class solar flares. These are not as large as X-class flares, but... still pack a punch. Ok... we mentioned safe solar viewing techniques. Another reason that you might be interested in learning about these is that on Monday June 10th there will be a solar eclipse. From northern Utah, you'll be able to see about 1/2 of the sun covered by the moon. To check the times and the amount of the Sun which will be obscured, checkout the Eclipse Table created on the Astronomy Magazine website.

Mission Update

This artist’s rendering portrays ice-rich layers in the soils of Mars being detected by instruments aboard NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Measurements by the gamma ray spectrometer suite of instruments indicate that the upper meter (three feet) of soil contains an ice-rich zone with an ice abundance of 20 to 50 percent by mass. The ice-rich areas surround the polar regions of Mars, down to latitudes of about 60 degrees, in both the north and the south. The instruments detect the signature of hydrogen, indicating water ice, to a depth of about one meter (three feet). It is not known whether or how deep the ice-rich zone continues below that depth. The view of the spacecraft in this artist’s rendering is not to scale, as the observations are obtained from an orbital altitude of 400 kilometers (250 miles). NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Investigators at Arizona State University in Tempe, the University of Arizona in Tucson, and NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, operate the science instruments. The gamma- ray spectrometer was provided by the University of Arizona in collaboration with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, which provided the high-energy neutron detector, and the Los Alamos National Laboratories, New Mexico, which provided the neutron spectrometer. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Los Alamos National Laboratories

Lunar Phase

The moon will reach last quarter on Sunday. Currently, it is 71% illuminated and completely dominating the sky  I took the accompanying image with the moon approaching last quarter. It was about 55% 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 12:50 am Visual Magnitude 7.88 Visual Diameter 2" Distance 29.59 AU Constellation Capricornus Checkout the accompanying Hubble Space Telescope image of Neptune. It nicely shows the planets rotation. 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 1:45 am Visual Magnitude 5.80 Visual Diameter 4" Distance 19.78 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 6:00 am Visual Magnitude 5.51 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 6:40 am Visual Magnitude 0.03 Visual Diameter 17" Distance 10.05 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 7:30 am Visual Magnitude 1.72 Visual Diameter 4" Distance 2.50 AU Constellation Gemini 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 8:20 am Visual Magnitude -3.97 Visual Diameter 13" Distance 1.30 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 8:40 am Visual Magnitude -1.88 Visual Diameter 33" Distance 6:01 AU Constellation Gemini Here's a beautiful image of Jupiter. Checkout the incredible detail. 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 8:40 pm Visual Magnitude 13.78 Visual Diameter <1" Distance 29.52 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.

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 Takes a Deep Look at Two Merging Galaxies The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), the newest camera on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, has captured a spectacular pair of galaxies engaged in a celestial dance of cat and mouse or, in this case, mouse and mouse.   Located 300 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, the colliding galaxies have been nicknamed "The Mice" because of the long tails of stars and gas emanating from each galaxy. Otherwise known as NGC 4676, the pair will eventually merge into a single giant galaxy.   The image shows the most detail and the most stars that have ever been seen in these galaxies. In the galaxy at left, the bright blue patch is resolved into a vigorous cascade of clusters and associations of young, hot blue stars, whose formation has been triggered by the tidal forces of the gravitational interaction. Streams of material can also be seen flowing between the two galaxies.   The clumps of young stars in the long, straight tidal tail [upper right] are separated by fainter regions of material. These dim regions suggest that the clumps of stars have formed from the gravitational collapse of the gas and dust that once occupied those areas. Some of the clumps have luminous masses comparable to dwarf galaxies that orbit in the halo of our own Milky Way Galaxy.    Computer simulations by astronomers Josh Barnes (University of Hawaii) and John Hibbard (National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, Va.) show that we are seeing two nearly identical spiral galaxies approximately 160 million years after their closest encounter. The long, straight arm is actually curved, but appears straight because we see it edge-on. The simulations also show that the pair will eventually merge, forming a large, nearly spherical galaxy (known as an elliptical galaxy). The stars, gas, and luminous clumps of stars in the tidal tails will either fall back into the merged galaxies or orbit in the halo of the newly formed elliptical galaxy.  The Mice presage what may happen to our own Milky Way several billion years from now when it collides with our nearest large neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31).  This picture is assembled from three sets of images taken on April 7, 2002, in blue, orange, and near-infrared 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 Serpens.

Deep Sky Report
The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Serpens. 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 summer nebula, M16/IC4703(mag6.0). Also known as the Eagle Nebula, this beauty is actually cataloged as two objects in one. Although the nebula is commonly referred to as M16, the nebula itself is cataloged as IC4703. The star cluster found within the nebula is M16. Many people are familiar with this object from the now famous Hubble Space Telescope image of the "Pillars of Creation".   Checkout this awesome shot by Robert Gendler. Wow!
Next we'll hit one of my favorite Globular Clusters, M5(mag5.75). Look at the incredible resolution of this cluster obtained by Al Kelly. You can see individual stars deep into the center of the cluster.  This is one of my favorite objects to view... in any telescope. It is big and bright and handles magnification well. Each increase in aperture will yield an exponential growth in the number of stars resolved. In a large telescope under dark skies, it is truly a awe inspiring view. The stars appear as diamonds strewn across a black velvet background. This is definitely an object you should try to find. It is visible even in a typical pair of binoculars.
Continuing along we come to barred Spiral Galaxy NGC5921(10.8). This shot was taken by Astronomer Adam Block of the Kitt Peak National Observatory.
Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge  Object, Spiral Galaxy NGC5984(mag13).  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 Draco.

 

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