 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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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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 The
moon reached first quarter on Thursday at 8:49am. In the meantime, we'll
be under a waxing gibbous moon with 70% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated in the sky tonight.
I took the accompanying image in March of 2002
from my home in Park City, UT.
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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4:10 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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1.65 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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4" |
| Distance: |
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2.20 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Libra |
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 Mars
continues to brighten. While small, each week marks the
second 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.
In case you're following along, Mars has recently
drifted into western Libra.
The accompanying image was taken by Ed
Grafton a former Utah Skies Astrophotographer
of the Month.
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Venus, the 2nd Planet
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| Rising: |
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4:10 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-4.64 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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36" |
| Distance: |
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0.46 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Libra |
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 Venus
has made the shift... It is now rising over 3 hours 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!
Venus is also in western Libra, but... it is moving
west... and will soon be in Virgo.
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Pluto, the 9th Planet
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| Rising: |
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7:00 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 Hubble Space Telescope and shows the relative sizes of Pluto and it's
moon Charon.
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Mercury, the 1st Planet
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| Rising: |
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9:15 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-0.55 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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5" |
| Distance: |
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1.26
AU |
| Constellation: |
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Sagittariius |
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 The accompanying image
shows the
planet Mercury cruising in front of the Sun. This event happened November
15, 1999. I can remember the event well.
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
Ophiuchus.
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Neptune, the 8th Planet
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| Rising: |
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10:50 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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7.96 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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2" |
| Distance: |
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30.74 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.
The accompanying Voyager 2 image zooms in on
Neptune's Great
Dark Spot.
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Uranus, the 7th Planet
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| Rising: |
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11:40 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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5.87 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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3" |
| Distance: |
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20.43 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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5:20 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-0.46 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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21" |
| Distance: |
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8.05 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 image of Saturn was taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope and clearly shows the changing seasons of the
planet..
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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9:25 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-2.38 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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42" |
| Distance: |
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4.68 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Leo |
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The sun casts eerie evening shadows on a world almost 500 million miles (800 million km) away, located on the most volcanic body in the solar system. The newly released image of Jupiter's moon Io, taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft, captures a mountain ridge named Mongibello, which at an elevation of 23,000 feet (7,000 meters) is three-fourths as tall as Mount Everest.
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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Star Birth in the Trifid Nebula
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Trifid Nebula reveals a stellar nursery being torn apart by radiation from a nearby, massive star. The
picture also provides a peek at embryonic stars that are forming within an ill-fated cloud of dust and gas that is destined to be eaten away by the glare
from the massive neighbor. This stellar activity is a beautiful example of how
the life cycle of stars like our Sun is intimately connected with their more
powerful siblings.
The Hubble image shows a small part of a dense cloud of dust and gas, a stellar nursery full of embryonic stars. This cloud is about 8 light-years away
from the nebula's central star, which is beyond the top of this picture. Located about 9,000 light-years from Earth, the Trifid resides in the
constellation Sagittarius.
A stellar jet [the thin, wispy object pointing to the upper left] protrudes from
the head of a dense cloud and extends three-quarters of a light-year into the
nebula. The jet's source is a very young stellar object that lies buried within
the cloud. Jets such as this are the exhaust gases of star formation. Radiation from the massive star at the center of the nebula is making the
gas in the jet glow, just as it causes the rest of the nebula to glow.
The jet in the Trifid is a "ticker tape," telling the history of one particular
young stellar object that is continuing to grow as its gravity draws in gas from
its surroundings. But this particular ticker tape will not run for much longer.
Within the next 10,000 years the glare of the central, massive star will continue to erode the nebula, overrunning the forming star, and bringing its
growth to an abrupt and possibly premature end.
Another nearby star may have already faced this fate. The Hubble picture shows a "stalk" [the finger-like object] pointing from the head of the dense
cloud directly toward the star that powers the Trifid. This stalk is a prominent
example of the evaporating gaseous globules, or "EGGs," that were seen previously in the Eagle Nebula, another star-forming region photographed
by Hubble. The stalk has survived because at its tip there is a knot of gas that is dense enough to resist being eaten away by the powerful radiation.
Reflected starlight at the tip of the EGG may be due to light from the Trifid's
central star or from a young stellar object buried within the EGG. Similarly, a
tiny spike of emission pointing outward from the EGG looks like a small stellar jet. Hubble astronomers are tentatively interpreting this jet as the last
gasp from a star that was cut off from its supply lines 100,000 years ago.
The images were taken Sept. 8, 1997 through filters that isolate emission from hydrogen atoms, ionized sulfur atoms, and doubly ionized oxygen atoms. The images
were combined in a single color composite picture. While the resulting picture is not true color, it is suggestive of what a human eye might see.
Credits: NASA and Jeff Hester (Arizona State University)
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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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The
annual Geminid meteor shower, so named since it appears to radiate from the
constellation Gemini,
peaks this Saturday morning 12/14. Meteor activity has been on the rise since
last weekend. For more info be sure to checkout Utah Skies meteor
page as well as NASA's Meteors from the Twilight Zone
Sunspot
activity on our star remains on the quite side... with only a small cluster
that are small and
pose little threat of CME type activity.
