Report for 2002-09-27
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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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Utah Skies Needs Your Help |
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| Utah Skies
is beginning to get some serious traction on the issue of light pollution
right here in Summit County. Recently, we met with officials from the
Summit County Planning Department to discuss the issue of light pollution.
We spoke for quite some time about the current issues and how these might
be addressed. There was a general agreement that the county had dropped
the ball in the past and that better procedures were required at all
phases of the development cycle. We left feeling pretty positive about
future prospects. Of course, without continued public support this issue
could be left to wither. To that end, we are requesting that you take a
minute out of your day to send an e-mail to some of the people listed
below. Don't feel that you have to create a major literary or political
statement. (You can if you want to of course). All that is required is
that Summit County officials realize that this is an issue that they must
deal with. This can be achieved by simply sending an e-mail requesting
that they address the growing problem of light pollution in the county.
Period. That's it. If enough people take one minute out of their day and
send an e-mail the problem will be solved. Simple as that. So... what are
you waiting for :)
We also need letters to the editor of the Park Record demanding that the county enforce and even strengthen its outdoor lighting ordinances. You might want to contact the other media sources in town. Specifically, KPCW radio and PCTV television. We get some light pollution information out through all of these sources periodically, but... if they hear from the wider community, they will make this one of the issues they monitor more closely. Any time and effort you can expend now would be quite helpful.
Below is the contact information for some key political and media figures in
the area. Please contact these individuals. Let them know your concerns.
We can achieve our goals and protect and preserve one of the unique aspects of this
beautiful area we call home... our star filled skies.
Thanks for your continued support. If you don't know what to say... why
not start with our pre-written
e-mail. It gets the point across...
or at least its a good starting point. And now... we return you to our regularly scheduled program... already in progress :) |
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| Sunrise: 7:19 am | Sunset: 7:18 pm (Today is the first day where it's dark longer than it is light :) |
| Astronomical Twilight Begins: 5:47 am | Astronomical Twilight Ends: 8:49 pm |
| Moonrise: 10:38 pm | Moonset: 1:09 am |
| Skies have been mostly
clear for quite some time now. Unfortunately, the weekend weather forecast
is not looking so positive. I'm sure everybody saw the moon at least once
in the last week or so. It was full last weekend and completely dominated
the nighttime sky. It has been shrinking in phase all week :) and should
be out of the picture long enough to allow some deep sky observing...
weather permitting of course. Fall is an awesome time to observe. You can still catch all of your favorite summer objects early in the night. They're sliding into the western sky quickly though... so you'd better visit them at the start of the evening. Then, the awesome fall objects begin to arrive... The Andromeda Galaxy... The Double Cluster... The Cats Eye Nebula....Additionally, as you can see from the chart above... it is getting dark earlier... much earlier. This allow us to get some serious viewing time and still get some sleep. . |
 The Milky Way Over Mount Blanc
Have you ever seen the band of our Milky Way Galaxy? Chances are you have never seen it like this -- nor could you. In a clear sky from a dark location at the right time, a faint band of light is visible across the sky. This band is the disk of our spiral galaxy. Since we are inside this disk, the band appears to encircle the Earth. The above spectacular picture is a bit of a digital trick, though. A first shot was taken in July 2000 with the camera counter-rotating from the Earth so that the stars appear fixed. This allowed a long exposure from which a great amount of detail could emerge from the background star field. Later, after moonrise, a much shorter image was taken from the same location catching details of Mount Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe. Reflections in the water were later enhanced digitally. |
 September
has been an impressive month for geomagnetic activity. No less than three
aurora have passed us by here in northern Utah ;)Nonetheless, autumn is typically aurora season. This past Sunday (9/22) marked the beginning of fall in the northern hemisphere. More precisely, the autumnal equinox arrived on Sept. 23rd at 0455 UT or 55 minutes past midnight EDT. |
 The
International Space Station
will make several brief passes over the area this weekend... including one
billed as a "Space
Station Supernova". The reason for this is that the ISS will come
from the dark side of the planet into the light of the soon to be rising
sun. See if you can find it. The ISS look like a bright, but slow moving
meteor. While it is traveling slower than a meteor which moves at speeds
approaching 100,000 miles per hour, the ISS is traveling a respectable
17,000 miles per hour. At this rate, it circles the Earth 16 times per
day.
To find out when the ISS will be overhead, visit NASA's Space Flight Website.
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 To Fly Free in Space
What would it be like to fly free over the seas and clouds of Earth? The first to experience such an "untethered space walk" were NASA astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart during Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984. McCandless, pictured above, used a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) to move in and around the cargo bay of the space shuttle. The MMU works by shooting jets of nitrogen and has since been used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. On Earth, an MMU weighs over 140 kilograms, but, like everything, is weightless in space. The MMU was replaced in 2001 with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit. |
 CAT'S EYEOne of the most remarkable planetary nebula, NGC 6543 is the remnant of a dying star. Also known as the Cat's Eye Nebula, its eerie halo and filaments are material that the central star cast off thousands of years ago, according to astronomers. This color-enhanced image, which depicts nitrogen in reds and oxygen as greens and blues, comes from data from the Nordic Optical Telescope in the Canary Islands. We'll be visiting Aquarius, home of the Cat's Eye, in a few weeks. Stay tuned. |
 The moon
will reach last quarter Sunday morning at 11:03am. In the meantime, you can expect to
see a 69% illuminated moon in the sky tonight.
During the Astro-1 astronomy mission of December, 1990,
Space Shuttle astronauts photographed this stunning view of the setting full moon poised above the Earth's limb. In the foreground, |
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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Checkout this beautiful image of Jupiter
taken by Marc Sylvestre. He's a new
"find" for me. Checkout his site... you'll be impressed. To
the left of Jupiter is it's moon Io.
Would you be happy with views like this? You might be
surprised at what a half-way decent telescope could do for you. Jupiter is
fairly well positioned for viewing in the mornings now. Perhaps you should
dust off your telescope and see what it's capable of doing? |
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| Checkout this sweet image captured by Marc Sylvestre. It shows an incredible amount of 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 is slowly begining 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 1.81 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 image series was taken by Juan Carlos Cansado in Spain. It depicts the path that Mercury's orbit takes it through the sky. Notice that even at its highest... Mercury is never far above the horizon. The reason for this... Mercury is the innermost planet. It has the tightest orbit and never gets too far away from the Sun. | |||||||||||||
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| Venus
reached it's greatest brilliancy on Thursday. At mag-4.6, it outshines
Sirius (the brightest star in the sky) by a factor of 18. Venus will achieve its
largest apparent diameter in the latter part of October. Venus continues its journey
through the constellations and is now in Libra. Checkout
this cool shot by B. Colville of the Maple
Ridge Observatory. These were taken using a special Bessel U Filter which allows the transmission of ultra-violet light. Note the detail captured in the clouds of Venus' upper atmosphere. Venus is
now rising about 3.5 hours after the sun. Many of
you have no doubt seen it blazing away low in the western sky after sunset.
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 25% illuminated. |
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Occasionally, a planet in our Solar System will pass in front of a bright star. Since stars and planets take up so little space on the sky, such events are quite rare. Two months ago, however, Pluto and its large moon Charon passed in front of a comparatively bright triple star system known as P126. By noting how P126 A dimmed, the event was useful for studying Pluto's relatively unknown atmosphere. A Very Large Telescope in Chile using a deformable mirror to counter the blurring effect of Earth's atmosphere captured the above image.
Pluto is currently over 2.8 billion miles from Earth. Located in the southwestern sky before sunset, Pluto is also not very well placed at this point for viewing. If you haven't viewed it recently, you'll have to catch it on the next go round. |
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Two hours before closest approach to Neptune in 1989, the Voyager 2 robot spacecraft snapped this picture. Clearly visible for the first time were long light-colored
cirrus-type clouds floating high in Neptune's atmosphere. Shadows of these clouds can even be seen on lower cloud decks. Most of Neptune's atmosphere is made
of hydrogen and helium, which is invisible. Neptune's blue color therefore comes from smaller amounts of atmospheric methane, which preferentially absorbs red
light. Neptune has the fastest winds in the Solar System, with gusts reaching 2000 kilometers per hour.
Speculation holds that diamonds may be created in the dense hot conditions that exist under the clouds-tops of Uranus and Neptune. Neptune is a relatively easy target when viewed at the right time... and that time is now! It is best viewed now and through the fall, when it will high in the sky for hours late at night and into the 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, Neptune 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. I saw Uranus recently. While sweeping for it using low powers
Uranus looked like a strange star. The reason for this is that Uranus
resolves to a disk... not just a point source of light like a star. As I
increased the power I was able to determine without a doubt that I was
observing the 7th planet. It appeared as a very pale blue disk. As it was
less than an ideal night for observing, none of its faint moons were
visible. I suspect that on a better night... from darker skies that I
would have been able to spy at least the brightest moon Miranda... though
at mag 16.5 it would certainly be a stretch. Checkout this shot of Uranus taken by Astrophotographer Ed Grafton. 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 to find though. However, this is another tiny planet at only 4". 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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Saturn is now rising about six hours before the Sun and can be found
high almost overhead just 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 awesome shot of Saturn by Marc Sylvestre. |
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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. |
 Space Movie Reveals Shocking Secrets of the Crab Pulsar Just when it seemed like the summer movie season had ended, two of NASA's Great Observatories have produced their own action movie. Multiple observations made over several months with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope captured the spectacle of matter and antimatter propelled to near the speed of light by the Crab pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star the size of Manhattan. Credits for X-ray Image: NASA/CXC/ASU/J. Hester et al. Credits for Optical Image: NASA/HST/ASU/J. Hester et al. Click HERE for more information... then... Ok... let's add a slight editorial. This movie was made from images capture over the past year by two of the most amazing telescopes mankind has ever assembled. The Hubble Space Telescope captured images at optical wavelength while the Chandra X-Ray Observatory captured images at X-Ray wavelengths. The images were then assembled to produce the accompanying... absolutely spectacular series The movie shows dynamic rings, wisps and jets of matter and antimatter around the pulsar in the Crab Nebula as observed in X-ray light by Chandra (left, blue) and optical light by Hubble (right, red). . |
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Also
in Cepheus and right next to our previous object is Open Star
Cluster NGC6939(mag8) This sparse cluster looks especially nice
after spending time trying to coax details out of NGC6946.
Let's
take another quick step back for this beautiful wide angle shot from
Next
up is Open Star Cluster NGC188(mag8.25). Located only 4° from
Polaris, this cluster is visible year round. It's also pretty
large... spanning roughly 15'. Home to over 150 stars, it appears as
a soft glow in a 6" telescope. To resolve its mag13+ stars will
require a bit more aperture and dark skies. NGC188 is the oldest
known galactic cluster.
Continuing
along, we come to an Open Star Cluster with considerable Nebulosity,
NGC7023(mag7). Older star catalogs not surprisingly missed the
cluster altogether and labeled it a Diffuse Nebula. In fact, the
nebulous structure is the most interesting anyway.
Continuing
along, we come to Emission Nebula Sh2-155 also known as the Cave Nebula. This beautiful image
by Astrophotographer 
Continuing
along, we come to vdB-142. This awesome shot was taken by 
We'll wrap up our journey
through Cepheus with a visit to this weeks Utah Skies Challenge
Object, Planetary Nebula NGC40(mag11). This interesting little
object displays a considerable amount of detail. It appears
star-like at low powers, but begins to show its nebulous detail at
higher powers in telescopes of about 8" or larger. Nebula
filters can help you on this one.
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Next Weeks Report |
| Next week, we'll continue our journey through the cosmos and focus on the constellation Cassiopeia. |
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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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