 This
awesome series of images from the June 21, 2001 solar eclipse was taken by
Mr. Eclipse, Fred
Espenak near Chisamba, Zambia.
On Wednesday, Dec 4th there was another full solar
eclipse... again visible from Africa.
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 On
Wednesday, skywatchers from around the world converged on a few, key
locations in the southern hemisphere to watch one of astronomy's premier
spectacles... a total eclipse of the sun. For those fortunate enough to be
living in the right location... or to have made the long journey... the
event was quite memorable. Unfortunately, this event was visible in southern
Africa and Australia. The accompanying image was taken in Ceduna Australia.
Find out more by visiting CNN.com/Space.
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 A
Sun pillar at dawn. Nov. 26, 2002. Credit: Lauri Kangas
These are pretty neat. I'm sure many of you have
seen these for yourself... even if you didn't know what you were seeing.
They happen often as the weather gets cold. Ice crystals in the air cause
the reflection of the setting sun to appear to shoot up into the sky.
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Mission Update
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 The
International Space Station
will make numerous passes over our area this weekend. To find out when it will
make its next pass,
visit NASA's
Space Flight Website. The ISS is orbits the Earth at about 17,000 miles per hour. At this rate, it circles the Earth 16 times per
day.
Spacewalkers hook up $390 million beam:
Astronauts used cranes to attach another expensive piece of latticework to the international space station Tuesday, and then a team of spacewalkers went out and wired it up.
For more info, checkout CNN.com/SPACE
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Lunar
Phase
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 We
had a new moon on Wednesday at 12:35am. In the meantime, we'll
be under a waxing crescent moon with 8% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated in the sky tonight.
I took the accompanying image in August of 2002
from a campsite at 9400' in the Uinta Mountains of northern Utah. The moon
was only 32 hours old at this point!
Visit our Lunar
Information Page for even more images and information.
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Planetary Report
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In this section, we visit the planets in the order in
which they are currently rising. Of course, we do our best to track down the finest images
available.
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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Mars, the 4th Planet
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| Rising: |
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4:15 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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1.68 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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4" |
| Distance: |
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225 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Virgo |
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 Mars has begun to brighten. While only a small step, this week marks the
second small step in Mars return to grandeur. By the summer of 2003, Mars will be bigger
and brighter than at any time in the last 5000 years. Get your telescopes
ready, we are in for a treat!
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 is in the morning sky. We should
begin picking it up in the east in the coming weeks. Checkout this sweet image.
With Mars beginning to grow and brighten on its way to it's nearest fly by
in 5000 years... it's time to start paying attention to Mars again.
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Venus, the 2nd Planet
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| Rising: |
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4:20 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-4.66 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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40" |
| Distance: |
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0.41 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Virgo |
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 Venus
has made the shift... It is now rising about 1 hour and 45 minutes before the sun.
It has taken up the role as the " morning star". Look for it
shining brightly low in the eastern sky just before dawn. Given it's
incredible brightness, it an easy target for observers. Now that Venus is in
the morning sky, you can see four planets before sunrise:
Venus and Mars and
Jupiter and
Saturn.
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 about 20% illuminated. When the planet is near the Sun (as it is now) it looks like a thin crescent. Javier Ruiz Fernández of
Santander, Spain, captured this image of Venus through an 8" telescope on Nov. 5th.
At this point, Venus is pretty cool to look at in a telescope. So... get
out there and check it out!
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Pluto, the 9th Planet
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| Rising: |
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7:25 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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13.93 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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<1" |
| Distance: |
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31.56 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Ophiuchus |
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 Take
this bit of planetary information either as an interesting side note, or an
observing challenge. Pluto is in the constellation Ophiuchus, about 15
degrees north of Mars. At magnitude 13.9, Pluto is basically out of reach
of smaller telescopes. One way to verify that you have found Pluto is to
sketch the star patterns over several nights. If you have actually found
Pluto, one of the the faint star-like objects will have moved over the
course of a few nights. This is Pluto.
Pluto orbits the Sun at about 30 times the distance of the Earth - nearly
2.75 billion miles away. The image at right is one of the best ground based
images I have ever seen so don't expect to see any surface detail. Merely
seeing Pluto is an accomplishment.
The accompanying image was taken by
the Nordic
Optical Telescope.
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Mercury, the 1st Planet
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| Rising: |
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8:50 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-0.56 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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5" |
| Distance: |
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1.35
AU |
| Constellation: |
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Sagittariius |
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 The accompanying image of the
planet Mercury is one of the highest resolution images every taken from
Earth. Taken by the Imaging
Science Team at Boston
University, this images seriously pushes the envelope. Anybody who's
ever viewed Mercury through a telescope knows what I mean.
Mercury is quite the illusive object for amateur
astronomers. Since it is the innermost planet, it never gets far enough away
from the Sun to be seen in dark skies. Additionally, views along the horizon
are typically the most turbulent. So... simply seeing Mercury is about the
best you can hope for.
Mercury is currently in the constellation
Sagittarius and can now be seen above the south western horizon shortly
after sunset. Best views of the fleet footed planet will be had towards the
end of the month.
Mercury has recently moved into the constellation
Ophichus.
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Neptune, the 8th Planet
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| Rising: |
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11:20 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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7.95 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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2" |
| Distance: |
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30.65 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Capricornus |
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 How's
this for a cool shot of Neptune? Clearly visible is Neptune's Great Dark
Spot..
Neptune
is a relatively easy target when viewed at the right time... and that time
is winding down! Neptune has been at its best throughout the fall. It is
high in the western sky at dark, so... get on it early. 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, the 7th Planet
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| Rising: |
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12:10 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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5.86 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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3" |
| Distance: |
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20.31 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Capricornus |
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 The
recent discovery of Uranus' 21st moon solidified its number three position
in the moon count behind Saturn with 30 and Jupiter with 39. Uranus is
currently about 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. It was taken by the Hubble Space
Telescope. It clearly shows the rings of Uranus as well as a handful of
Uranus' moons. Uranus is another
relatively easy target to find. It is just about at its highest as
darkness falls. So... checkout Neptune and then move on the Uranus. Uranus is another tiny
planet at only 4"... and 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, the 6th Planet
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| Rising: |
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5:50 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-0.42 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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21" |
| Distance: |
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8.07 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Taurus |
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 Saturn is now rising
before 7:00pm and is well positioned by about 10:00pm,
giving planetary viewers a nice bedtime treat. It can be found
high, almost overhead just before dawn. Given that it's dark until almost
6:30am, you should have no problem getting out to view the ringed planet
when you wake up. You'll find it fairly high in the western sky... though
best views are now had in the evening. Saturn can be found about 15° north of Betelgeuse... the
alpha star in Orion.
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.
The accompanying picture of Saturn was taken by Calvin J. Hamilton
and the Voyager spacecraft imaging team.
Saturn is now cruising through the constellation Taurus.
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Jupiter, the 5th Planet
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| Rising: |
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9:50 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-2.34 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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41" |
| Distance: |
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4.78 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Leo |
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 WOW!!!!!
This
incredibly detailed image shows the beautiful cloud top of Jupiter. Many of
these features are visible in amateur telescopes on nights of good seeing.
Also visible in the shot is Jupiter's most obvious feature... the Great Red
Spot, which can be seen slightly to the right of center.
Jupiter is currently in western Leo.
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Hubble Vision
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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.
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Hubble Photographs 'Double Bubble' in Neighboring Galaxy
A unique peanut-shaped cocoon of dust, called a reflection nebula, surrounds a cluster of young, hot stars in this view from NASA's Hubble
Space Telescope. The "double bubble," called N30B, is inside a larger nebula. The larger nebula, called DEM L 106, is embedded in the Large
Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way lying 160,000 light-years away. The wispy filaments of DEM L 106 fill much of the image.
Hubble captures the glow of fluorescing hydrogen and sulfur, as well as the brilliant blue-white colors of the hot stars.
The very bright star at the top of the picture, called Henize S22, illuminates
the dusty cocoon like a flashlight shining on smoke particles. This searing supergiant star is only 25 light-years from the N30B nebula. Viewed from
N30B, the brilliant star would appear 250 times as bright as the planet Venus does in Earth's sky.
Lowell Observatory astronomer M.S. Oey and University of Illinois astronomer Y.-H. Chu are members of a science team studying DEM L 106.
Along with their collaborators, Oey and Chu have made a clever use of the reflection nebula around N30B. By obtaining spectroscopic observations at
various points across the nebula, they can study the spectrum of S22 from different angles. Remarkably, they have found that the star's spectrum
changes with the viewing angle, suggesting that the star is surrounded by a flattened disk of gas expelled from its equator.
Astronomers R. Davies, K. Elliot, and J. Meaburn, who created the "DEM" catalogs of both the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, originally
cataloged DEM L 106 in the 1970's. N30B was discovered in the 1950s by astronomer K. Henize, who later became a NASA astronaut.
DEM L 106 was imaged with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Hubble data taken in 1998 were combined with data taken by the
Hubble Heritage Team in late 2001.
Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team
(STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: M.S. Oey (Lowell Observatory) and Y.-H. Chu (U. of Illinois)
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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.
E-mail your findings to DeepSkyObservations@UtahSkies.org.
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IDA-Utah Light Pollution Update
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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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< | Index
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Skies have been
hit or miss at best lately. Here in Park City, we're getting neither the big
snow storms needed on the ski slopes nor the clear skies we'd like for
stargazing. Basically, this is an unacceptable condition which will have to be
changed :) Hopefully you've gotten out on those few clear nights and mornings
we have had. I got out briefly Monday morning to take some pictures of a tiny
waning crescent moon. At that point, only 3% of the moons surface was
illuminated. It was a beautiful sight. Switching to a wider angle lens, I got
pictures of the Moon along with the planets Venus and Mars.
Sunspot
activity on our star is on the increase. While most of these are small and
pose little threat of CME type activity, we'll be keeping an eye out for
"the big one".
