Report for 2002-08-23
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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: 6:45 am | Sunset: 8:15 pm | ||
| Astronomical Twilight Begins: 5:04 am | Astronomical Twilight Ends: 9:55 pm | ||
| Moonrise: 9:07 pm | Moonset: 7:15 am | ||
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Utah Skies Star Party |
| We'd like to invite you to join us for an evening under the stars at Park City's Trailside Park on Saturday night, August 31st. The event will run from 9:00pm until 1:00am. Keep an eye on the site for the evenings viewing guide. Click HERE for directions. |
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Support The KPCW Auction |
| Join us in supporting Park City's KPCW radio by tuning in to 91.9fm next Saturday morning, August 24th at 9:00am and placing your bid on a special celestial weekend. Utah Skies will be placing on the auction block a private weekend star party at one of my favorite deep sky observing sites… The Eagles Nest Bed and Breakfast in Glendale, UT. Located just off highway 89 between Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, this site offers some of the darkest skies on the continent. This will be a private star party for the lucky winner and a guest. We’ll show you all the visible deep sky show piece objects, plus a wide range of lesser known, but equally impressive, treasures. Then, when you’ve had your fill… you can relax under the stars in their beautiful hot tub…sleep in one of their big comfortable beds… and wake to an amazing breakfast. This weekend will offer you the opportunity to hike red rock canyons by day and cruise the heavens by night using some of the finest astronomical equipment available. Click here to checkout the viewing itinerary. |
| Weekend weather
forecasts are looking pretty good at this point... and with the moon just
slightly past full you'll have to get our fix early for darkest skies.
Nonetheless... this should be a great weekend for viewing. Get out there and observe.
The moon makes an awesome target.. and... warm
August temperatures 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?
The Giant Planets Are Coming: First Saturn... and then Jupiter.... The two biggest and brightest planets are rising well before sunrise and can be found high in the east in the pre-dawn sky. Since sunrise isn't until almost 7:00, you don't even have to get up that early to view them. Just have your telescope ready to roll the night before... then head out and checkout these awesome targets. The views of Jupiter and Saturn will simply blow you away! |
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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. |
 Solar
activity has been pretty busy lately. Checkout sunspot #69 (currently
nearing the sun's western limb). It is many times larger than the Earth and
has launched a couple CME's our way.
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 Checkout
this awesome shot of the sun through the clouds. You can easily see the size
of sunspot #69. Remember though... only view the sun using safe
solar viewing techniques.
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 Checkout
this awesome shot of the northern lights along with some Perseid Meteors. Photographer
Juha Kinnunen spotted these auroras over Jyväskylä, Finland, on August 18th.
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 Lyndon
Anderson took this shot on August 16th from just north of Bismarck North
Dakota.
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 And
finally, Einar Jonskaas took
this shot on August 18th from Hamar Norway. Wow! The sky looks like it's on
fire!!
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Bigger Rockets |
 One of the most powerful rockets since the Saturn 5, which took the Apollo astronauts to the moon, debuted Wednesday, blasting into space from a Florida launch
pad. The Atlas 5, intended to carry twice the capacity of previous Atlases, lifted off in the evening sky from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying a
European-built telecommunications satellite.
Developed at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion, the rocket was built at the behest of the U.S. Air Force, which sought a
more powerful launch vehicle to send payloads into space.
Want to find out more? Click HERE.
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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.
On Friday night at 9:12pm, you can spot the ISS low in the southwestern sky. It is far brighter than any stars in the area, so... you should have no trouble finding it. |
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'N Sync 'N Space |
 'N Sync singer
Lance Bass
is headed for space. Or is he??? The Russian space agency has given
him five days to come up with payment for a trip to the international space station this fall.
Hmmm... Seems like maybe his free spending backers are having second
thoughts????
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 The moon
was full on Thursday. It is now totally
dominating the night time sky. While this all but destroys your deep sky
views, the moon itself is one of the most impressive celestial objects to
view, offering an incredible amount of 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 astronaut 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?
I took this shot of a "slightly past full moon" in January of 2000. This is basically the view we'll have this weekend. By the way... the Moon will be at apogee on Monday (8/26). Apogee is the farthest point from the Earth in the Moon's orbit.
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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 a good 4 hours before the Sun and can be found
high 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. Did you know that the rings are visible in binoculars?
It's true. You'll have to hold it extremely steady... or maybe even mount
it on a tripod, but.. they are visible.
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 two hours before the Sun. It should be easy to spot above the eastern horizon before sunrise. Hey... did you know that you can see up to four of Jupiter's moons with a simple pair of binoculars? It's true. Check it out. |
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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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Neptune passed 4° north of the moon on Tuesday
(8/20) making it another easy find. 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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Uranus reached opposition on Monday 8/19. This means
that the planet is opposite the sun in the sky. Opposition brings Uranus closest to us for this year at 2.6 light-hours away.
That's right... Light hours... the distance light travels in 2.6 hours.
Uranus is just about visible to the naked eye... depending on how dark
your skies are of course. This means its an easy target for binoculars or
a telescope. 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. |
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| 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. |
 A Change of Seasons on Saturn Looming like a giant flying saucer in our outer solar system, Saturn puts on a show as the planet and its magnificent ring system nod majestically over the course of its 29-year journey around the Sun. These Hubble Space Telescope images, captured from 1996 to 2000, show Saturn's rings open up from just past edge-on to nearly fully open as it moves from autumn towards winter in its Northern Hemisphere. Saturn's equator is tilted relative to its orbit by 27 degrees, very similar to the 23-degree tilt of the Earth. As Saturn moves along its orbit, first one hemisphere, then the other is tilted towards the Sun. This cyclical change causes seasons on Saturn, just as the changing orientation of Earth's tilt causes seasons on our planet. The first image in this sequence, on the lower left, was taken soon after the autumnal equinox in Saturn's Northern Hemisphere (which is the same as the spring equinox in its Southern Hemisphere). By the final image in the sequence, on the upper right, the tilt is nearing its extreme, or winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere (summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere). Astronomers are studying this set of images to investigate the detailed variations in the color and brightness of the rings. They hope to learn more about the rings' composition, how they were formed, and how long they might last. Saturn's rings are incredibly thin, with a thickness of only about 30 feet (10 meters). The rings are made of dusty water ice, in the form of boulder-sized and smaller chunks that gently collide with each other as they orbit around Saturn. Saturn's gravitational field constantly disrupts these ice chunks, keeping them spread out and preventing them from combining to form a moon. The rings, as shown here, have a slight pale reddish color due to the presence of organic material mixed with the water ice. Saturn is about 75,000 miles (120,000 km) across, and is flattened at the poles because of its very rapid rotation. A day is only 10 hours long on Saturn. Strong winds account for the horizontal bands in the atmosphere of this giant gas planet. The delicate color variations in the clouds are due to smog in the upper atmosphere, produced when ultraviolet radiation from the Sun shines on methane gas. Deeper in the atmosphere, the visible clouds and gases merge gradually into hotter and denser gases, with no solid surface for visiting spacecraft to land on. The Cassini/Huygens spacecraft, launched from Earth in 1997, is well on its way to the Saturn system. It will arrive in 2004 to land a probe on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and to orbit the planet for four years for a detailed study of the entire Saturn system. These images of Saturn, taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 onboard Hubble, were collected by Richard French (Wellesley College), Jeff Cuzzi (NASA/Ames), Luke Dones (SwRI), and Jack Lissauer (NASA/Ames), and have been prepared for presentation by the Hubble Heritage Team. Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: R.G. French (Wellesley College), J. Cuzzi (NASA/Ames), L. Dones (SwRI), and J. Lissauer (NASA/Ames) |
| 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 Scutum the Shield. |
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The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Scutum.
Scutum is located due north of the constellation Sagittarius, which we covered last week.
To find Scutum, simply face towards the southeast after dark and look about 40 degrees above the horizon. Scutum is one of the smaller constellations. It is also
relatively inconspicuous - it's brightest star shining at a meager mag 3.85.
Scutum is home to 2 Messier objects plus a handful of NGC objects. |
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 Out
first stop in Scutum is one of my favorite open star clusters The Wild Duck
Cluster M11(mag5.8). Look for M11 about 2 degrees to the southeast of Beta
Scutii. At mag 4.2, this star won't exactly jump out at you unless you've
got relatively dark skies overhead. Suffice it to say that Beta Scutii is
the northern most star in the constellation. See this weeks star chart for
further details. Burnham noted that M11 was "One of the richest and most compact of the galactic clusters." As you can see from the image at right, M11 looks a lot like a globular cluster. Made up of almost 500 stars brighter than mag 14, this cluster looks beautiful in telescopes of moderate aperture. It's estimated to be about 6200 light years distant. M11 is located along the northern edge of the Scutum Star Cloud - itself one of the densest stellar regions in the galaxy. After you've found M11, take some time and sweep through this star cloud. It is a beautiful region, filled with a wide assortment of star patterns and nebulosity. There are even several dark nebula in the area. Dark nebula are regions of light obscuring gas and dust. |
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 Next up is open cluster M26(mag8.0).
This small cluster pales in comparison to it's dominant neighbor to the
north - it's position in such a rich area of the sky only adds to it's
seeming obscurity. Nevertheless, there are approximately 50 stars down to
mag 15 which a small to medium aperture telescope will reveal.
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 Moving on, we're going to take a slight detour and jump ever so slightly out of
Scutum and into Serpens Cauda to our next object, a beautiful cluster with
intense nebulosity, The Eagle Nebula - M16(6.0). Don't expect to see the
eagle shape in anything but a large telescope fitted with a nebula filter.
You will, of course, be able to see some nebulosity. The Hubble Space
Telescope image of The Eagle Nebula has been published in many sources. It
has been termed the "Pillars of Creation". This refers to the
fact that large-scale star formation is occurring deep within the nebula.
The stars formed within this nebula will ultimately lead to it's demise.
As they begin to shine brightly, they'll burn all the gas which surrounds
them. Additionally, a strong stellar wind will disperse the remaining gas.
Aren't we lucky to view this object in it's current state :)
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 Let's wrap things up
by moving back into Scutum
for this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Globular Cluster NGC6712 mag(8.25). Located
some 21,000 light years away, NGC6712 is thought to be very near the galactic center. To find this illusive cluster, return to M11 which we found
earlier and move slightly more than 2 degrees to the south. NGC6712 stands out well against the dense stellar background of the Scutum Star
Cloud.
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 Vulpecula. |
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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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