Report for 2003-02-07

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

Contents

Astronomical Times (Mountain Standard)

Comet Watch

Comet C/2002 X5 Kudo-Fujikawa:

Comet Kudo-Fujikawa reached Perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on January 29th. It is now too close to the Sun to be seen from Earth. Fortunately, we have eyes in the sky as well :) The orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has the ability to block out the intense brightness of the Sun. 

The accompanying image shows the comet cruising past the Sun. The circular object in the center of the image is an artifact of the imaging system. It is designed to block out the bright light of the Sun so that it can image objects otherwise too close to the Sun. 

Comet Kudo-Fujikawa will soon be visible to southern hemisphere observers in February's evening skies. It will return for northern hemisphere observers later in February and March, but it will be significantly decreased in brightness by then.

Viewing Outlook

Mission Update

The Space Shuttle Columbia is no more. A tragic accident took the lives of it's 7 person crew. The contributions of these individuals can not be overestimated.

For more information, checkout CNN.com/SPACE

Solar System

Space Weather Update

Checkout this cool sun pillar. I took this picture Thursday morning (2/6/03) from my home in Park City. I was just peeking outside to check the weather when I saw this sun pillar. What an awesome sight to wake up to.  Sun pillars are caused by the refraction of light off of tiny airborne ice crystals. Thursdays morning was the perfect conditions to see such an event. Icy cold temperatures combined with clear skies. Sun pillars are typically seen just before sunrise... or just after sunset.

Space Weather Update

Sunspot activity on our star continues... Here you can see a couple of large grouping, with more seemingly ready to appear over the horizon. The Sun can be a very interesting subject to view... and why not? The Sun is THE ONLY STAR in the sky that reveals any surface detail. Additionally, solar viewing is the warmest type of viewing you can do... and in the winter, that's not a bad thing :)

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

Northern Lights

Robert Sicilians captured this image over the Knik River near Palmer, Alaska on February 2nd. As is typically the case, skies over Park City were cloudy when the aurora occurred. Fortunately, it was snowing. This is generally speaking, a trade we are willing to make.

 Want to see more cool shots? Checkout FarNorthImages.com

Planetary Report

Mercury  passed inferior conjunction on January 11th. Inferior Conjunction occurs when a planet passes between the Earth and the Sun. Mercury will reach it's Greatest Elongation from the Sun on 2/4 and is now visible in the southeast just before dawn. To spot the planet, you'll need an unobstructed view towards the southeastern horizon. Head out as it is scheduled to rise and scan the east-southeastern horizon. Mercury can be found to the lower left of Venus... about the same distance away from Venus as Mars... but in the opposite direction.

The accompanying Boston University image is one of the finest I have ever seen of Mercury. It shows surface detail typically only seen in images taken from space.

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. I did just that on Wednesday when  Mercury was just east of the crescent Moon. To find it for yourself, use the planets Mars and Venus as guides. Draw a line from Mars through Venus and continue for about the same distance along that same line and you should come to Mercury. The next few days will provide you with your best views of Mercury for several weeks. 

Mercury is currently in the constellation Sagittarius.

Venus reached greatest western elongation at 10pm on January  10th. Greatest Elongation marks that point in a planets orbit where it reaches the greatest angular distance from the Sun. Also at that point, it was exactly 50% illuminated. Venus is now rising a little over 3 hours before the sun. It is considerably past its maximum size and brightness now. It has shrunk from over 1' in diameter to only .20'... less than 1/3 of it's largest. It has also dimmed from over mag-4.6 to about mag-4.3... 

This gorgeous image was taken by the Galileo Spacecraft.

Venus is in Sagittarius.

 
This image shows one of the key elements enabling life on our beautiful planet... water. Without water we could not survive.

This shot was taken by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies along the Upper Provo River in the Uinta Mountains of northern Utah.

Lunar Phase

The moon will reach first quarter on Sunday morning. So... this evening... we'll be under a waxing crescent moon with 34% of the lunar surface illuminated. 

The moon reached perigee on Thursday 1/23. Perigee marks the smallest distance between the Earth and the Moon. Apogee marks the greatest distance. This proximity made this past weekends full moon just a little bit larger than usual. Did you notice the difference?

The accompanying image was taken by the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

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

Mars continues to brighten. While still small, Mars is giving hints of things to come. I viewed Mars last weekend through the big scope... the views were interesting, but... more of a tease than anything. Mars is currently 5" in diameter. While no surface detail is yet visible, there are subtle hints that that will be changing soon. Colors visible on the planet suggest that details will soon be appearing. 

So... Get your telescopes ready, we are in for a treat!

In the meantime, here's an awesome shot of the Red Planet taken by the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor. This picture clearly shows a spring dust storm in the northern regions of Mars. Do you see it? It's along the lower right portion of the ice cap. Temperature changes and moisture picked up from the melting ice cap pick up dust and swirl around in giant storms. Checkout the Mars Global Surveyor Website for more details.

Mars is in the constellation Ophiuchus.

Jupiter, the 5th Planet

 

Rising:		5:15 pm
Visual Magnitude:		-2.58
Visual Diameter:		45"
Distance:		4.33 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.

And speaking of Jupiter's moons... an astronomer using an observatory on top of a Hawaiian mountain peak, has detected a small moon orbiting Jupiter, bringing the number of known satellites around the king of planets to 40. How many can you see? Well, it depends mostly on aperture.  For more info, checkout CNN.com/SPACE.

Jupiter reached opposition last Saturday  night (2/1/03). Opposition, as you might have guessed, means that Jupiter will be opposite the Sun in the sky. So, as the Sun is setting in the west, Jupiter will be rising in the east. Jupiter will be almost directly overhead by midnight. Jupiter is at it's biggest and brightest at opposition... so get your telescope and checkout Jupiter. 

Jupiter is currently in Cancer.

Saturn is now rising before 1:30pm and is well positioned for observing as soon as it's dark, 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.

This beautiful image of the ringed planet was taken by The Hubble Space Telescope. It shows the rings at edge-on and then slightly tipped towards the southern hemisphere. Galileo Galilei was the first person to see Saturn's rings back in 1610. Galileo was surprised when a few years later, the rings were gone. It turns out that he was also the first person to see a "ring-plane" crossing. The next such event will occur in September of 2009.

This image of Uranus was taken by The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). 2MASS has scanned the entire sky in three near-infrared bands. 

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.

For more information, checkout the Astronomy Picture of the Day.

How's this for a cool image? It was created by Walter Meyers of Computergraphic Vistas.

Neptune is a relatively easy target when viewed at the right time... and that time has passed! Neptune had been at its best throughout the fall. It was high in the western sky at dark, so... you could 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. 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.

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.

Need more information? Checkout the Pluto Home Page.

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  

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