Report for 2002-08-16
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Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".
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| This Weeks Issue | The Utah Skies Website | |
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| Sunrise: 6:38 am | Sunset: 8:25 pm | ||
| Astronomical Twilight Begins: 4:54 am | Astronomical Twilight Ends: 10:09 pm | ||
| Moonrise: 3:55 pm | Moonset: 12:45 am | ||
| We've been on a roll again lately. Weekend weather forecasts are looking awesome again. With the moon reaching first quarter on Thursday we'll have to wait till after midnight for darkest skies. Nonetheless... this should be a great weekend for viewing. Get out there and observe. The moon makes an awesome target to start the evening off.. and... warm August temperatures and some of the most diverse observing of the year make this an ideal time to get out. Telescopes and binoculars are absolutely required for summer camping trips. If you've got one... you need to take it with you. The sky views to be found in Utah's mountains and deserts are among the best in the world. Why not take advantage of them? |
 Meteor activity
shot the roof this past weekend as we reached the peak of the Perseid
Meteor Shower. The Perseid's are one of the most reliable meteor
showers of the year. Meteor counts have been steadily rising all week, and
will reach their peak on Monday night August 12th. The best time to look for meteors is when Perseus is highest in the sky--between 2 a.m. and dawn.
This is when counts will be the highest. However, while the number of
meteors seen earlier in the night will be lower, they'll be hitting the
Earth's atmosphere at a lower angle. This can lead to some spectacularly
long meteors known as Earthgrazers.The Perseids, being an August event, are also undoubtedly the most accessible meteor shower. August nights are some of the warmest of the year. Viewing the Perseid's couldn't be simpler. Just go out in your yard, turn off all your lights and make yourself comfortable. I like to setup a hammock. Some people prefer blankets. The key is to be comfortable and remove any stress from your neck since you'll be gazing up at the heavens for an extended period. At it's peak, over 60+ meteors an hour are not uncommon - and there are always a few spectacular displays. Invite your family and friends to enjoy a different kind of event. Sit and relax under a beautiful sky and watch the show. Perseid meteors are part of the debris trail of comet Swift-Tuttle. They are roughly the size of a grain of sand and are traveling in excess of 130,000 mph when they hit the Earth's atmosphere. It is this incredible speed which leads us to see meteors. The friction created by the Earth's atmosphere heats these tiny particles up to over 3000° and creates the "shooting star effect". If however, the meteor is larger, we may see a huge flash or even a fireball. Checkout this awesome shot by Thad V'Soske of San Diego, California taken on the night of Aug 11. |
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Chandra Spies an Exploding Galaxy |
 Besides offering some exceptional eye candy, the enormous explosion of a
nearby galaxy provides a glimpse into the workings of massive black holes and
intergalactic relationships. Click HERE
to find out more.
Checkout this cool Chandra x-ray image of the galaxy Centaurus A. It reveals the incredible energy being unleashed in the galaxy. |
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Asteroid Watch |
 On
July 14th, astronomers
discovered asteroid 2002 NY40. While this object poses no threat to
our planet, the 800 meter space rock will pass by our planet at a distance
only 1.3 times farther than the moon. This is really, really close...
astronomically speaking.Currently, the asteroid should be visible in larger amateur telescopes... and... when it makes it's closest pass on Sunday, August 18th, it will have brightened to about mag9.0 or so. This should make it visible in a pair of binoculars. The accompanying chart shows the path the asteroid
will travel on the evening of August 18. Notice how fast this thing is
moving.. It is covering about 8° per hour. |
 Solar
activity was starting to subside until another massive sunspot appeared on
the Sun's southeastern limb. On Wednesday, August 14th a Coronal Mass
Ejection (CME) was detected leaving the Sun. While this was not squarely
Earth-directed, astronomers are indicating that a portion of this will make
contact with the Earth on either Thursday or Friday (8/15 or 8/16). If you
find yourself under clear skies, keep an eye on the northern horizon.
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 Checkout
this awesome shot of the northern lights along with some Perseid Meteors. It
was taken by Wade B. Clark Jr. from the Mt. Baker Ski Area in
northwest Washington, USA during the dark early morning hours of August 12 and 13.
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 The
International Space Station
will make several brief passes over the area this weekend. To find out when, visit
NASA's
Space Flight Website.
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'N Sync 'N Space |
 'N Sync singer
Lance Bass
is headed for space. He's currently training in Russia for a trip to the ISS
in October. After a bit of negotiating, he's managed to get sponsors to foot
the entire bill estimated to be in the neighborhood of $20 million. Pretty slick maneuvering for a kid, huh???
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 The moon reached first quarter on Thursday. It is again
dominating the night time sky. While this can make deep sky observing a bit
challenging, the moon is the celestial object offering the absolute most
surface detail. On the moon, you can see craters and mountains and lava
flows. You can see boulder fields and shadows. And... if you look really
carefully... you can even see the American flag planted by Neil Armstrong
(ok... so I'm exaggerating a bit). Regardless, awesome views of the moon can
be had in virtually any telescope or binoculars. Even naked eye views of the
moon are beautiful. So... when was the last time you observed the moon?
How's this for a baby moon? I took this shot last weekend of a 32 hour old moon early Friday night from my campsite in the Uinta Mountains of northern Utah.
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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. |
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Saturn is now rising about 4 hours before the Sun. Saturn
can now be found in the
eastern sky before dawn. If you're an early riser, you should have now
trouble finding the ringed planet as it is brighter than any of the
surrounding stars.
Checkout this absolutely amazing mage of Saturn as captured by Ed Grafton. This is a very cool shot. Notice the innermost ring. It's called the Crepe ring and it's almost transparent. |
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Checkout this beautiful image of Jupiter and it's Great Red Spot taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The Great Red Spot is currently in the news. It turns out that a large "white oval" nearly the size of Earth is colliding with the famous Great Red Spot. These two huge "hurricane-like" storms have been around for quite some time. The white oval has been viewed for almost 70 years, and the Great Red Spot was viewed by Galileo! To find out more about the Great Red Spot or the White Oval, follow the links! Jupiter is now rising about 70 minutes before the Sun. It should be easy to spot above the eastern horizon before sunrise. |
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| Checkout this sweet image captured by
Ed Grafton.
It shows some serious detail on the surface of the Red Planet. Mars has now reached its greatest separation from Earth at this point .The distance between the two planets will slowly begin to shrink. Visually, Mars has shrunk down to a measly 4".. a tiny fraction of it's peak of 21" in June 2001. 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. But... don't you worry. Mars will return for an even better pass in the summer of 2003. At that time, Mars will make it makes it's closest pass in over 5000+ years. Get your telescopes ready! In the mean time, we can live vicariously through the works of some of the finest astrophotographers on the planet... and even beyond the planet. In case you didn't notice, Mars has now moved into the morning sky. We should begin picking it up in the east in the coming weeks. |
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| The accompanying Mariner 10 image of Mercury was taken as the spacecraft passed the planet. This, essentially, was it's "over the shoulder" view. It reveals the incredible amount of destruction brought upon the planet by comets and meteors through the years. Since Mercury has no atmosphere, every object coming its way is able to score a direct hit. | |||||||||||||
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| Venus continues its journey
through the constellation Leo. It
continues to brighten.
Venus is now rising about four 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 50% illuminated. As it climbs higher in the sky (larger angular separation from the Sun) the illuminated portion shrinks. By the time Venus is only 1/4 illuminated towards the end of September, it will have brightened to mag -4.6. 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 have grown to over 44"... almost twice it's current size. |
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Checkout this awesome image from the Hubble Space
Telescope.
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. |
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Checkout the sweet "passing" shot of
Neptune and it's moon Triton.
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. |
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| 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. | |||||||||||||
| 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 VIEWS ANCIENT STORM IN THE ATMOSPHERE OF JUPITERWhen 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the southern hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the Solar System. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. The long lifetime of the Red Spot may be due to the fact that Jupiter is mainly a gaseous planet. It possibly has liquid layers but lacks a solid surface, which would dissipate the storm's energy, much as happens when a hurricane makes landfall on the Earth. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in high-resolution Wide Field and Planetary Cameras 1 & 2 images of Jupiter obtained by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and presented here by the Hubble Heritage Project team. The mosaic presents a series of pictures of the Red Spot obtained by Hubble between 1992 and 1999. Astronomers study weather phenomena on other planets in order to gain a greater understanding of our own Earth's climate. Lacking a solid surface, Jupiter provides us with a laboratory experiment for observing weather phenomena under very different conditions than those prevailing on Earth. This knowledge can also be applied to places in the Earth's atmosphere that are over deep oceans, making them more similar to Jupiter's deep atmosphere. The Hubble images were originally collected by Amy Simon (Cornell U.), Reta Beebe (NMSU), Heidi Hammel (Space Science Institute, MIT), and their collaborators, and have been prepared for presentation by the Hubble Heritage Team. Image Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: A. Simon (Cornell U.) |
| 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 Lyra the Harp. |
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The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Lyra. Lyra is
located on the western edge of the Milky Way due east of the constellation Hercules, which we covered a couple of weeks ago. To find Lyra, simply face towards the east after dark and look overhead. Lyra resembles a parallelogram of stars.
To be certain that you've found Lyra, simply verify that you've found it's most prominent member star, Vega. With a magnitude of 0.0 Vega is the 5th brightest star in the entire sky and by far the brightest star in this region. You can't miss it. Estimates place Vega's distance at about 27 light years and it's
actual luminosity about 58 times greater than that of our Sun. Vega is actually
an optical double star as well. It's companion star is quite faint and can only
be seen with a telescope. While we're checking out double stars, lets visit
the famous "Double-Double". Located about 1.5 degrees to the northeast of Vega, this multiple star system looks like a single star when viewed with the
naked eye. Binoculars will reveal this star to be a pair of stars and a telescope will further split each of the stars into another beautiful pair. |
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 Let's
start things off with with one of the night skies showpiece objects, The Ring Nebula M57(mag8.8). The Ring, as it is affectionately known, is undoubtedly the best
known example of a planetary nebula. Virtually any telescope will be able
to spot the Ring, but... as you might expect... larger apertures under
dark skies will give the most amazing views. I've recently managed to spy the central
star.. and almost convince myself that I saw the second off-center star.
Needless to say, these are quite faint and require a considerable amount of magnification.
Checkout this awesome shot by Al Kelly. This image was created from a series taken using a 32" f4 Newtonian from Danciger, Texas |
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 Next up is a fine globular cluster M56(mag8.4) This cluster seems to lack the dense central core typical of many globulars. Located between Albireo (Beta Cygni) and
Gamma Lyrae, this cluster stands out beautifully amongst the multitude of stars which make up the summer Milky Way. I
have to admit that I don't give this cluster anywhere near as much
attention as it deserves. Given the number of globulars in the summer
sky... and the fact that the Ring is just a few degrees away... M56 always
seems to get short changed. Don't you fall into the same trap. This is a
nice cluster. Given its placement almost directly overhead, you'll get
much nicer views of this than it's mag8 might lead you to believe. Smaller
scopes will resolve stars around the perimeter of the cluster, while
larger scopes will reveal stars right into the core.
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 Moving on, we come to a beautiful open cluster NGC6791(mag9.5). Smaller telescopes will show a handful of sparkling stars amidst the splendor of the summer
Milky Way. Larger scopes will dive in and reveal a treasure trove of gems. Note the wide range of colors in this cluster.
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 Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah
Skies Challenge Object, Spiral Galaxy NGC6703(mag11.5). This small, round Spiral Galaxy has a fairly bright core. No
sign of the spiral arms can be found even in photos. Why is this called a spiral galaxy then? Actually, Burnham's which is based on older data, lists NGC6703 as an
E0/S0 galaxy. Essentially a cross between an elliptical and a spiral. Recent data suggests that this is simply an S0 - a spiral without arms.
Good Luck! |
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If you are able to find all of these objects, you may be one of the
few, the proud, the Deep Sky Obsessed. |
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Next Weeks Report |
| Next week, we'll continue our journey through the cosmos and focus on the constellation Scutum. |
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Stay up to date on astronomical happenings by regularly checking the Utah Skies website at http://www.UtahSkies.org
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