|
Report for 2003-05-16 |
|
< | Index
| >
|
|
Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".
|
|
|
Contents
|
|
|
|
|
|
Astronomical Times
(Mountain Standard) |
| Sunrise: |
6:10 am |
|
Sunset: |
8:37 pm |
| Astronomical Twilight Begins: |
4:17 am |
|
Astronomical Twilight Ends: |
10:30 pm |
| Moonrise: |
9:50 pm |
|
Moonset: |
6:30 am |
|
|
|
Totality
|
 Thursday
night, 5/16 brought a Total Lunar Eclipse to the skies over Europe and the
Americas. Here in Park City, the weather was perfect (for a change). Skies
were clear and temps were warm. Hope the same was true for you.
Rijk-Jan Koppejan
of Westkapelle, The Netherlands took this beautiful sequence of the moon
approaching totality. Here in Park City, the eclipse had already started when
the moon rose... so we jumped in around image 4 or so. Regardless, it was an
awesome sight.
|
 Steve Rismiller
of Milford, Ohio took this shot of the almost totally eclipsed moon about to
cover up a background star. Total
Lunar Eclipses are about the only time you'll ever see a star this close to
a full moon. Usually the moon's intense brightness simply overwhelms any stars
in the vicinity. |
 How's
this for timing? A plane crosses the full moon in this image by John Nordlie.
John just happened to be ready with his trusty digital camera at the eyepiece
when this event occurred.
|
|
|
|
|
| Mother Nature has
definitely been keeping us on our toes. We have not had a single evening
scheduled to be clear... and yet there have been a couple. Given the flakiness
of spring weather, it's usually a good idea to just poke your head outside and
take a look for yourself. If skies are clear, jump on it. Grab your scope or
binoculars and do some observing. We've got to be extremely opportunistic
these days.
|
|
|
Solar System
|
|
|
|
|
|
What a difference a week makes, huh?
Last weekend, there were several huge sunspots visible on the face of our
star. This week, only a couple of tiny ones remain.
|
|
This beautiful shot by Lance Taylor
may be the last view of the northern lights for a little while. Decreased
sunspot activity seems to indicate a slowdown in geomagnetic activity..
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
5:50 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
3.03 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
12" |
| Distance: |
|
0.58 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Aries |
|
 The
first rock.. Mercury
Transited the Sun on Wednesday May 7th. Unfortunately, this event was ending by the time the Sun
rose here in North America. Viewers from
Asia and Europe, however, were treated to a very special event.
The accompanying sequence beautifully captures this
relatively rare event.
Click here
to see what Space.com had to say about the transit.
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
5:15 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
-3.89 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
11" |
| Distance: |
|
1.50 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Pisces |
|
 Venus is now rising
a little over an hour before the sun. It will disappear from the morning sky
during the summer months and reappear in the evening sky this fall. As it
sinks, it grows in phase and shrinks in overall size and brightness. At this
point, it is considerably past its maximum size and brightness now. It has shrunk
from over 1' in diameter to only 12"... less than 1/5 of it's largest. It has
also dimmed from over mag-4.6 to under mag-4.0... Need
to no more about Venus? Checkout this article by The
Planetary Society.
|
|
|
Earth, the 3rd Planet
|
Stars over Mt. Everest
Checkout this awesome shot of Mt. Everest... which at
29,035' above sea level is the tallest point on the planet. Photographer Matjaz
Vrecko took this long exposure shot to capture Everest at night.. under a
star-filled sky. Pretty cool, huh?
|
|
|
|
|
 The
moon was full last night. In
the meantime, we’ll be under a waning gibbous moon with a whopping 99% of the
moon’s visible surface illuminate when it rises at around 9:50am. The
full moon is tough to observe. It is so bright that it overwhelms virtually
everything. If you are going to observe the full moon... I'd definitely
recommend that you invest in a moon filter... and preferably a variable one.
This will allow you to block as much of the brightness as each phase
requires... making your lunar experience far more enjoyable.
I took the
accompanying image in January of 2000 through a 150mm Maksutov-Cassegrain
telescope operating at f/12.
Visit our Lunar
Information Page for even more images and information
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
2:15 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
-0.32 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
11" |
| Distance: |
|
0.87 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Capricornus |
|
 Mars
continues to grow in apparent size and brightness… with the Red Planet now
spanning over 11”… a full 10% larger than last week. Mars has also
brightened to mag –0.47… making it one of the brightest objects in the
sky. It will soon outshine all other objects in the sky and totally dominate
the morning sky.. At this point, surface detail is
becoming visible under excellent viewing conditions. This will grow easier
too as Mars continues to grow throughout the spring and into the summer...
culminating in August, when Mars will be bigger
and brighter than at any time in over 70,000 years! Why is this you may
be wondering... Earth and Mars both orbit the Sun on different paths and at
different distances. This summer, both planets will be on the same side of
the Sun. This type of alignment, known as Opposition,
occurs about every 26 months. No big deal, right? Well... that depends
because the separation at opposition varies considerably. On August 27th,
that distance will be about 35 million miles. At the previous opposition in
June of 2001, the distance was 41 million miles and in 1995 it was almost 70
million miles. So... what can you expect? Well.. only the best views of the Red
Planet in your lifetime! Mars will shine at mag -2.9. This is about as
bright as Jupiter ever gets! Additionally, Mars will have an apparent
diameter of 25". That's about 2.5 times its current size. Still not convinced?
Want even better views? Well, short of climbing aboard a spaceship (not
completely out of the question nowadays) you'd have to wait until 2287 for a
closer peak.
The accompanying image was taken by Ed
Grafton (a former Utah Skies
Astrophotographer of the Month) as Mars approached opposition in 2001.
Mars will be almost 25% larger this August than in 2001 when Ed captured
this image! Views should be absolutely amazing!!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
11:40 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
-2.00 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
36" |
| Distance: |
|
5.51 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Cancer |
|
 How's
this for a sweet dual transit shot? In this image, taken by Tan
Wei Leong of Singapore, we see Io on Jupiter's limb and Io's shadow
drifting through the Equatorial
Band.
Jupiter's moons have been involved in a rare dance
since the late fall. 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.
To find Jupiter look slightly west of overhead shortly after dark. Jupiter is the brightest star-like object in the night
sky. Need a bit more help? Checkout
this star chart.
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
8:20 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
0.10 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
17" |
| Distance: |
|
9.87 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Orion |
|
 Saturn's
rings are now tilted wide open to us... roughly 27° from edge-on. Over
the next 15 years, they will move from wide open.. to edge-on to wide open
revealing the other pole. This and next year will be the best time to study
Saturn's beautiful ring structure for some time, so... get out there and do
it.
Saturn is now rising before 10:00am and is already
well into the western sky by the time it's dark, making planetary observers
hurry to get in any decent views. . 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 6th planet was taken by Tan
Wei Leong of Singapore. Much of this "subtle" detail can be seen with an amateur telescope
from the convenience of your backyard. Check it out next time the skies
clear... Saturn is moving rapidly to the west. Soon it'll be setting too early to provide more than a quick
glance.
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
2:55 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
5.85 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
3" |
| Distance: |
|
20.13 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Aquarius |
|
 This
beautiful VLT image shows Uranus, it's rings and it's moons in
infrared. VLT, by the way, stands for Very
Large Telescope. And... at 8 meters a piece, I'd say it's an accurate
description. The plan is actually to combine the power of 4 of these
monsters into a single image... giving unprecedented resolution. This
technique is referred to as interferometry
and has been used for quite some time in other areas... most notably the Very
Large Array in New Mexico. The
Very Large Array consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration.
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
2:00 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
7.90 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
2" |
| Distance: |
|
29.86 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Capricornus |
|
 How's
this for an awesome view? This is certainly one you'll never see from
Earth... a crescent view of Neptune. Since Neptune is beyond Earth's orbit,
we never see it in any phase except full. This beautiful shot was taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope. Pretty cool, huh? Notice the Great
Dark Spot in the center? The GDS is thought to be a hole in the planet's
outer atmosphere.
Similar to Jupiter, Neptune is
categorized as a gas giant. Neptune is
roughly 17 times more massive than the Earth. Neptune was first
observed by Galle
and d'Arrest
on 1846 Sept 23 very near to the locations independently predicted by Adams
and Le
Verrier. Special thanks to Don Higgins for pointing our some
inaccuracies which had crept into some of our previous reports on Neptune.
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
9:55 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
13.82 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
<1" |
| Distance: |
|
29.73 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Ophiuchus |
|
 Take
this bit of planetary information either as an interesting side note, or an
observing challenge. Pluto is in the constellation Serpens, 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.
This high resolution image was created
from images taken by The Hubble Space Telescope.
(Just in case you're having trouble, you should see Pluto dancing towards the lower left corner of the image. If you don't, hit your browsers "Reload" button.)
Need more information? Checkout the Pluto
Home Page.
|
|
|
Deep Sky
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
 Deepest View of Space Yields Young Stars in Andromeda Halo
Relying on the deepest visible-light images ever taken in space, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have reliably measured the age of the spherical halo of stars surrounding the neighboring Andromeda galaxy (M31).
To their surprise, they have discovered that approximately one-third of the stars in Andromeda's halo formed only 6 to 8 billion years ago. That's a far cry from the 11-to-13 billion-year age of the stars in the Milky Way's halo.
Why the difference in halo ages? You might call it a tale of rich galaxy/poor galaxy. Apparently, M31 must have gone through a major "corporate merger" with another large galaxy, or a series of mergers with smaller galaxies, billions of years ago. Astronomers cannot yet tell whether this was one tumultuous event or a more continual acquisition of smaller galaxies. The newly discovered younger stars in Andromeda's halo are richer in heavier elements than the stars in our Milky Way's halo, or in most of the small dwarf galaxies that surround the Milky Way. Indeed the level of chemical enrichment seen in these younger stars is characteristic of relatively massive galaxies, containing at least a billion stars.
This suggests three possibilities: (1) Collisions destroyed the young disk of M31 and dispersed many of its stars into the halo; (2) a single collision destroyed a relatively massive invading galaxy and dispersed its stars and some of Andromeda's disk stars into the halo; and/or (3) many stars formed during the collision itself.
Astronomers say it will take more detailed observations to unravel the acquisition history of these early cataclysmic events. Located only 2.5 million light-years away, the magnificent Andromeda galaxy, visible as a naked-eye spindle of light in the autumn sky has long been considered a near twin to our Milky Way in terms of size, shape, and age. This new finding promises to offer new clues on how giant galaxies like M31 and our Milky Way formed by gravitationally shredding galaxies, like a cosmic Cuisinart, and then devouring them.
Dr. Tom Brown of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is reporting the findings today in Baltimore at the STScI May Symposium, "The Local Group as an Astrophysical Laboratory." His team used Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) to peer into a small sample of the Andromeda halo for 120 Hubble orbits. This allowed for a study of the entire demographics of the halo population, down to its extremely faint stars.
Previously, telescopes could only see the bright giant stars in the halo population, but the population of "normal" stars like our own Sun was beyond our grasp, because such stars in M31 are so faint. The ACS is the first astronomical camera to combine ultra-sharp vision and sensitivity to ferret out M31's faint halo population.
An estimated 300,000 of these never-before-seen halo stars can be resolved, peppering Hubble's narrow sample of the halo population. Looking far beyond the halo stars, Hubble reveals thousands of background galaxies (down to 31st magnitude) billions of light-years away.
A large fraction of the background galaxies in the image also have peculiar shapes due to collisions. This reinforces the fact: we live in a vibrant and dynamic universe undergoing constant change.
|
| |
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stay up to date on astronomical happenings by regularly
checking the Utah Skies website at http://www.UtahSkies.org
|
|
< | Index
| >
|
|
|
