Report for 2002-06-21
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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: 5:56 am	Sunset: 9:02 pm
Astronomical Twilight Begins: 3:49 am	Astronomical Twilight Ends: 11:09 pm
Moonrise: 5:52m	Moonset: 3:34am

Viewing Outlook

Stargazing from northern Utah could not be better. Skies have been clear and generally steady. Humidity is low. Temps are comfortable. The only distraction of late has been the ever increasing phase of the moon. But even that is a beautiful sight.

Space Weather Update

Check it out. The sunspot counter has "rolled over". Astronomers use a counter which has a max of 9999. Well, that sunspot came and went and we're back to the beginning. As you can see from the accompanying image, the few sunspots in view are pretty small. Sunspot 0 for instance is only about 1/2 the size of the Earth.

Mission Update

When a meteor smacked into the surface of Mars with extremely high energy, pow! Not only did it punch an 11-mile-wide crater in the smoother terrain, it created a central peak in the middle of the crater. This peak forms kind of on the “rebound.” You can see this same effect if you drop a single drop of milk into a glass of milk. With craters, in the heat and fury of the impact, some of the land material can even liquefy Read the full story on NASA's Mars Odyssey website.

Checkout NASA's Space Flight website to find out when the Space Station or the Shuttle will be overhead. Pictured here are the recently returned Space Station Crew. During their stay at the station, Walz and Bursch broke the U.S. Record for the longest space flight at the 188-day mark. By the time they land, they will have spent at least 194 days in space. Walz also holds the record for most cumulative time in space.

Oops! Surprise asteroid nearly hits Earth

An asteroid the size of a football field passed extremely close to Earth last week but it remained undetected until days later, astronomers said Thursday. The space rock missed our planet Friday by only 75,000 miles (120,000 km), about one-third the distance to the moon, making the near collision one of the closest ever recorded.  For more info, checkout CNN/Space

Big Discovery

Portrait of an Infant Solar System  This infant solar system was discovered posing along the lonely outskirts of the Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud, a star forming region 500 light-years from Earth. Enlarged in an infrared false-color portrait from the European Southern Observatory's Antu telescope, the dark dusty disk of planet-forming material lies edge-on, neatly dividing two small nebulae which reflect light from a hidden, youthful central star. Enthusiastically nicknamed the "Flying Saucer", the circumstellar disk is about 300 astronomical units across (1 a.u. is the Earth-Sun distance) or about 5 times the diameter of Neptune's orbit. The twin reflection nebulae have clearly different colors for reasons which still remain a mystery, but the relatively isolated neighborhood of the natal solar system is a stroke of luck. Planets should be able to develop within the dusty disk free from the destructive influence of radiation and winds from any nearby massive hot stars usually found in young star clusters.   Credit: N. Grosso (MPE), et al., European Southern Observatory  For more info, checkout CNN/Space

Lunar Phase

The moon reached first quarter on Monday and will be full next Monday. At this point, you'll be hard pressed to observe without having the moon influence conditions. With the moon setting about 3:30am and astronomical twilight (the time at which the sky starts to lighten) beginning around 3:45, you really can't get away from it. So... why fight it? This is a great time to observe the moon in detail. It's high in the sky around sunset. Find a lunar atlas and learn some of the major features. See if you can find the flag left behind by the Apollo astronauts. I took the accompanying image earlier this spring. It was about a 1/60 second exposure with Fuji ASA400 film through a 150mm f/12 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope. If you own a telescope... and a camera... why don't you see what kind of luck you have in "shooting the moon"?

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.

Uranus 7th planet Rising 12:25 am Visual Magnitude 5.77 Visual Diameter 4" Distance 19.46 AU Constellation Aquarius The accompanying image shows the aquamarine color of Uranus along with a couple of surprises First off is it's ring system. Yup... Uranus has rings similar to Saturn's'. They're nowhere near as bright, but... they're there. Secondly, and in my opinion more interestingly, Uranus orbits on its side. While all the other planets rotate on the same plane as their orbit around the sun, Uranus rotates on it's side while orbiting. How did Uranus get knocked over? Astronomers speculate that at some point, Uranus was struck near one of its poles by a large planet-sized object. Also visible in this image are a handful of Uranus' many moons. Here is another awesome image by, Ed Grafton. 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 4:50 am Visual Magnitude 0.62 Visual Diameter 8" Distance 0.83 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 about 60 minutes before the Sun now, so.. you ought to be able to catch it in the morning sky. Saturn 6th planet Rising 5:30 am Visual Magnitude 0.04 Visual Diameter 17" Distance 10.05 AU Constellation Taurus Saturn is now rising before the Sun. You know what that means. Yup! The progression is starting again. Saturn will be found in the eastern sky shortly. Right now, it is just too close to the Sun to be pulled out by anything but a computerized telescope. Checkout this amazing mage of Saturn as captured by Thierry Legault from Paris, France. 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).  Mars 4th planet Rising 7:15 am Visual Magnitude 1.75 Visual Diameter 4" Distance 2.58 AU Constellation Gemini Checkout this sweet shot by B. Colville of the Maple Ridge Observatory . 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 235 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 7:40 am Visual Magnitude -1.83 Visual Diameter 32" Distance 6:17 AU Constellation Gemini Here's a beautiful image of Jupiter. Checkout the incredible detail. Jupiter has just recently passed Venus. It'll be gone from the western sky only to reappear in the eastern sky later this summer or early in the fall.

Venus 2nd planet Rising 9:00 am Visual Magnitude -4.01 Visual Diameter 14" Distance 1.16 AU Constellation Cancer Venus has moved into the constellation Cancer. It continues to brighten Checkout this cool shot of Venus from the Galileo Spacecraft taken as it swung past the planet a couple of years ago. Since Venus has such dense clouds, we can not see through to the surface. Nevertheless, we can learn quite a bit anyway. Astronomers have studied the winds and atmospheric composition of the planet. 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".

Pluto 9th planet Rising 7:20 pm Visual Magnitude 13.79 Visual Diameter <1" Distance 29.55 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.

Neptune 8th planet Rising 11:30pm Visual Magnitude 7.86 Visual Diameter 2" Distance 29.32 AU Constellation Capricornus Checkout the accompanying Voyager 2 image of Neptune.  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.

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.

Beauty in the Eye of Hubble A dying star, IC 4406, dubbed the "Retina Nebula" is revealed in this month's Hubble Heritage image. Like many other so-called planetary nebulae, IC 4406 exhibits a high degree of symmetry; the left and right halves of the Hubble image are nearly mirror images of the other. If we could fly around IC4406 in a starship, we would see that the gas and dust form a vast donut of material streaming outward from the dying star. From Earth, we are viewing the donut from the side. This side view allows us to see the intricate tendrils of dust that have been compared to the eye's retina. In other planetary nebulae, like the Ring Nebula (NGC 6720), we view the donut from the top. The donut of material confines the intense radiation coming from the remnant of the dying star. Gas on the inside of the donut is ionized by light from the central star and glows. Light from oxygen atoms is rendered blue in this image; hydrogen is shown as green, and nitrogen as red. The range of color in the final image shows the differences in concentration of these three gases in the nebula. Unseen in the Hubble image is a larger zone of neutral gas that is not emitting visible light, but which can be seen by radio telescopes. One of the most interesting features of IC 4406 is the irregular lattice of dark lanes that criss-cross the center of the nebula. These lanes are about 160 astronomical units wide (1 astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and Sun). They are located right at the boundary between the hot glowing gas that produces the visual light imaged here and the neutral gas seen with radio telescopes. We see the lanes in silhouette because they have a density of dust and gas that is a thousand times higher than the rest of the nebula. The dust lanes are like a rather open mesh veil that has been wrapped around the bright donut. The fate of these dense knots of material is unknown. Will they survive the nebula's expansion and become dark denizens of the space between the stars or simply dissipate? This image is a composite of data taken by Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in June 2001 by Bob O'Dell (Vanderbilt University) and collaborators and in January 2002 by The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI). Filters used to create this color image show oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen gas glowing in this object. Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University)

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 Corona Borealis The Northern Crown. This constellation sits between Bootes to the west and Hercules to the east.

Deep Sky Report
The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Corona Borealis. To find Corona Borealis, simply return to the bright star Arcturus in Bootes. Remember to follow the arc of the Big Dipper to Arcturus. Bootes extends north of Arcturus. Next, move slightly east to "U" shaped Corona Borealis. Corona Borealis is not exactly a deep sky observers dream. It has no noteworthy deep sky objects. The few that I was able to dig up are quite small and faint. Probably your best bet for observing the area would be with a pair of binoculars. The constellation and the stars which surround it make a nice rich-field view. Scan through the area and examine the star patterns that it contains. Otherwise... any and all of the deep sky objects listed below could easily be challenge objects. 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 Irregular Galaxy NGC5958(mag13). You'll need at least 6" of aperture and dark skies to find this guy. Forget about spectacular views... even this exposure is...well... unimpressive.
Next we'll hit another Irregular Galaxy NGC5961(mag14). Ditto for this galaxy. Simply finding it... and a couple of it's fainter neighbors is an accomplishment.
Continuing along we come to Irregular Galaxy IC4569(mag15)
Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge  Object, Irregular Galaxy IC4574(mag16). Except for the fact that there are some bright stars nearby, this just may be the toughest Utah Skies Challenge Object we've ever had. Factor in the nearly full moon this weekend... and... well, you get the picture. If you're really obsessed with finding these objects, you might want to try again next weekend :) 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

Light Pollution: The nighttime equivalent of Ridge-line Violations? Recently, in Summit County, lots of attention has been paid to to development practices. Of these, probably none have received more attention than ridge-line violations. Approved projects have been stopped in mid-stream to preserve our ridge-line views. All involved have suffered serious financial hardship. Why is the county working so hard to enforce an unwritten ordinance? In a word... aesthetics. The county is working very hard to protect the natural beauty of Summit County. It is the combination of champagne powder and spectacular views that draws many tourists... and residents to this area. Development which interferes with these amazing views damages that which makes Summit County special. It is the same with light pollution. It is also an aesthetic issue. But, it is much more. Misdirected or excessive exterior lighting destroys the beauty of the night sky. Just as our mountains provide a spectacular backdrop by day, it is the stars above that form the backdrop at night. Summit County is one of the few inhabited areas left in the country where star-filled skies can still be found! It would be a shame to squander such a treasure.  Ok, so... There are many similarities between these two elements. But, there are also many differences as well. Ridge-line violations are simply aesthetics. The destruction of our star-filled skies through light pollution is far worse. To produce all the errant light and destroy the views overhead requires the wasting of vast sums of money. Additionally, it requires the wasting of vast quantities of our limited natural resources. This waste is compounded by the fact that Utah Power generates a large portion of its energy by burning coal. So not only does light pollution spoil our nighttime views, but it also fouls the air we breathe. Another difference. And possibly a more significant one is that Summit County has enacted ordinances specifically designed to control the spread of Light Pollution. It is only due to lack of enforcement by the county itself that the problem even exists. Over five years ago the county enacted ordinances which clearly spelled out the requirements for exterior lighting fixtures. Yet, to this day, contractors continue to get away with installing non-compliant lights and merchants continue to sell non-compliant exterior lights. The solution to controlling light pollution is simple. We need the county to step up and meet its obligations. Ordinances must be enforced... without exception. Forcing a contractor to replace a light is far less drastic than bringing a development project to a halt. It is also far cheaper... and it brings much the same benefits. Preventing ridge-line violations keeps our mountain views in a more pristine state. Preventing the installation of non-compliant exterior lighting fixtures keeps our celestial views in a more pristine state. 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 Ophiuchus.

 

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