Report for 2002-12-27

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Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".

Contents

Astronomical Times (Mountain Standard)

Aurora Watch

Just received this from the folks at Spaceweather.com: A large coronal hole on the Sun is spewing a solar wind stream toward Earth. Sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights on Dec. 27th or (more likely) the 28th when solar wind gusts will likely buffet our planet's magnetosphere.

If you find yourself under clear skies... you're obviously not in northern Utah :)... no... if you find yourself under clear skies, keep an eye towards the northern horizon. You never know...  you just might be in for a treat. 

This awesome shot was taken by Andre Clay near Harding Lake, Alaska on Dec. 21^st using a Sony DSC-F707 digital camera and an 8 second exposure at ISO 200. 

Want to see more? Pay a visit to the aurora gallery at Spaceweather.com 

Comet Watch

Introducing Comet C/2002 X5 Kudo-Fujikawa:
On December 13th, Japanese astronomer T. Kudo discovered a new comet cruising through the constellation Bootes. The comet was independently discovered on December 14th by Shigehisa Fujikawa, also of Japan. Named C/2002 X5 Kudo-Fujikawa, the comet is the 6th to carry the Fujikawa name. Currently visible at about mag 8, the comet is expected to brighten to approximately mag - 3 at perihelion on Jan 25th. Unfortunately, the comet will reach it's brightest when it is too close to the Sun to be visible from Earth. Checkout the daily ephemeris page and NASA's sky map, then visit the Gary W. Kronk's Cometography Website for more details.

This image was obtained by high school students at Amtsgymnasiet and EUC Syd (Sonderborg, Denmark) on 2002 December 18th. It is a composite of 36 100-second exposures obtained with a telescope and an Apogee AP6E CCD camera. Other images of the comet obtained by this class are located on their webpage

Viewing Outlook

Big Discovery

YOUNG STAR CLUSTER FOUND AGLOW WITH MYSTERIOUS CLOUD

Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered a mysterious cloud of high-energy electrons enveloping a young cluster of stars. The extremely high-energy particles could cause dramatic changes in the chemistry of the disks that will eventually form planets around stars in the cluster. See either NASA's or Harvard's Chandra site for more info.

Mission Update

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.

The International Space Station continues to grow. In late November, a new truss system was installed. Visit the Astronomy Picture of the Day to find out more. 

Solar System

Space Weather Update

Sunspot activity on our star has dropped off again... Sunspot cluster 226 which was dominating the scene last weekend has moved out of view... with no replacement in sight. The surface of our star is pretty bland at this point. 

Want to view the sun for yourself? Follow these Safe Viewing Techniques.

Planetary Report

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.

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 37% 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.

Lunar Phase

The moon reached last quarter last night. In the meantime, we'll be under a waning crescent moon with 41% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated in the sky tonight.

Checkout this cool shot of the far side of the moon as imaged by the crew of Apollo 16. Notice the amount of destruction caused by billions of years of bombardment.

Visit our Lunar Information Page for even more images and information.

As on the Earth, many severe storms brew in the Martian polar regions. Here, temperature contrasts between the cold carbon dioxide ("dry ice") seasonal frost cap and the warm ground adjacent to it--combined with a flow of cool polar air evaporating off the cap--sweeps up dust and funnels it into swirling dust storms along the cap edge. The dust storms shown here were observed during the recent northern spring by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) in May 2002. The picture is a mosaic of daily global images from the MOC wide angle cameras. The north polar cap is the bright, frosty surface at the top.
Checkout the Mars Global Surveyor Website for more details.

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 50000 years... it's time to start paying attention to Mars again.

Mars is currently in Libra.

Jupiter, the 5th Planet

 

Rising:		8:25 pm
Visual Magnitude:		-2.47
Visual Diameter:		44"
Distance:		4.52 AU
Constellation:		Cancer

 

Jupiter's moons are currently involved in a rare dance. I'm sure you know that the moons routinely drift in front and in back of Jupiter. However, due to a chance alignment between Earth and Jupiter, for the next few months the moons will actually be eclipsing each other. For times when these events may be viewed, visit the Astronomy Magazine website.

Jupiter is currently in eastern Cancer.

Thirty years ago, the ringed planet Saturn was only 1.2 billion km from Earth--about as close as it can get--and its rings were tipped toward us. The view through a telescope was simply breathtaking. Well… It's happening again. On Tuesday, Dec17th Saturn reached what astronomers refer to as opposition.  Opposition refers to that point in its orbit where Saturn is opposite the sun in the sky. So, Saturn is rising in the east as the sun is setting in the west. Finding Saturn is relatively easy. Just look east after sunset. Saturn will be there, among the bright stars of the constellation Taurus. Saturn is yellow in hue and doesn't twinkle like a star. Due to its proximity to Earth (a mere 750 million miles) and the wide open tilt of its rings, Saturn is about as bright as it can get. Shining at visual magnitude of -0.5, it's brighter than virtually any object in the winter evening sky. At midnight, Saturn will be almost directly overhead. 

Saturn is now rising before 4:30pm and is well positioned for observing by about 8:30pm, giving planetary viewers a nice bedtime treat. 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.

On Dec. 23, 2002, Don Brown of Utah Skies captured this beautiful image of the ringed planet from his home in Park City, Utah. The shot was made using a Takahashi FS-102 and an SBIG STV operating at f/16. The exposure time was 1/2 second and post processed was done with a high-pass filter using MaximDL. Though conditions were pretty bad, Don managed to snag a really nice shot. I can't wait to see what good conditions will produce.

Saturn is currently cruising through the constellation Taurus.

Is this image labeled incorrectly? Nope! The planet Uranus has rings just like Saturn. Well.. maybe not exactly like Saturn, but... it does indeed have rings. The rings were not detected until 1977, when they were observed during a stellar occultation event. Just before and after the planet moved in front of the (occulted) star, the surrounding rings caused the starlight to dim for short intervals of time. Photos obtained from the Voyager-2 spacecraft in 1986 showed a multitude of very tenuous rings. These rings are almost undetectable from the Earth in visible light. And that's the key... this image shows a near-infrared view of the giant planet Uranus with rings and some of its moons, obtained on November 19, 2002, with the ISAAC multi-mode instrument on the 8.2-m VLT ANTU telescope at the ESO Paranal Observatory (Chile).

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.

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.

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.

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.

Deep Sky

Hubble Vision

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.

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.

IDA-Utah Light Pollution Update

Stay up to date on astronomical happenings by regularly checking the Utah Skies website at http://www.UtahSkies.org