The Northern Lights
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 John Russell
caught this amazing shot of the northern lights
Tuesday night (10/14/03) about 13 miles west of Nome Alaska.
There has been a considerable amount of geomagnetic
activity. Unfortunately, it's been mostly confined to the very high
northern regions...hence the name.. northern
lights. John used a Nikkor 28mm/f1.4 with Fuji NPZ-800, and 2 - 3 second
exposures. Sweet!
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Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks
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| The annual Orionid
Meteor Shower is rapidly approaching. Beginning in early October and
running into early November, the Orionids reach their peak this Tuesday night
(10/21/03). Skywatchers under dark skies can expect to see upwards of 20
meteors per hour. The Orionids are so named because they seem to radiate from
a point in the constellation Orion
which is currently rising in the southeast at about 11:00pm. This years event
will be aided by the fact that the moon will be several days past last quarter
and so will only be about a 20% illuminated when it rises around 3:00am. Dress
warm and make sure you've got a blanket and a reclining chair.
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| We're on a role again.
Skies have been simply spectacular of late. While weather forecasters kept
calling for an end to our clear skies, the clouds always seemed to be in
tomorrow's forecast. At this point, aside from a few passing clouds leading up
to the weekend, things are looking good. Make sure you take advantage of the
clear skies and relatively warm temperatures to do some deep sky observing.
The Moon passed last quarter this weekend... which means that it won't be
rising until after midnight... giving us several beautifully dark hours to
checkout some of the wonders of the fall sky.
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Solar System
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 How's
this for a bland star? Except for a teeny, tiny sunspot just below and to
the right of center, our star looks like an orange cue ball. I guess this is
a reminder that we are well past Solar
Maximum.
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| Rising: |
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7:15 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-1.20 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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5" |
| Distance: |
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1.37 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Virgo |
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 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.
Having just recently seen Mercury again, I'm left scratching my head as to
how they could get such an awesome shot.
Mercury is quite the illusive object for amateur astronomers. Late September
provided me with the best views of the first rock I've had in quite some
time. Mercury, as you'll recall posed
with Jupiter and the tiny crescent moon earlier this week.
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| Rising: |
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9:10 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-3.91 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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10" |
| Distance: |
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1.63 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Libra |
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 Venus is now rising little more than a half hour before the sun. You'll have an extremely tough time finding it now in the bright morning sky. It will soon disappear completely from the morning sky
and reappear in the evening sky by late summer or early fall. As it
sinks, it grows in phase (currently 98%) and shrinks in overall size and brightness. At this
point, it is considerably past its maximum on all counts. It has shrunk
from over 1' in diameter to only 10"... less than 1/6 of it's largest. It has
also dimmed from over mag-4.6 to under mag-3.9...
Checkout this cool image of Venus taken by Brian Colville of the Maple Ridge
Observatory.. Need
to no more about Venus? Checkout this article by The
Planetary Society.
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Earth, the 3rd Planet
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Lambs CanyonThis is one of nicest new hikes
I've been on in a while. Lambs
Canyon is accessible right from I-80 and climbs scenically through Utah's
beautiful Wasatch
Mountains.
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 The
moon reaches last quarter tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we'll be under a waning
gibbous moon with 58% of it's visible surface illuminated when it rises just
after 11:30pm this evening. If that's too late for you to stay up (it isn't,
is it?) you can easily view the moon tomorrow morning. Since it's rising
late, the moon will also be setting late... and should be visible until
about 3pm or so on Saturday. The accompanying shot of the moon at noon was
taken by Utah Skies own Don Brown using an Olympus OM-1 working at 205mm.
Visit our Lunar
Information Page for even more images and information
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| Rising: |
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5:00 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-1.59 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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17" |
| Distance: |
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0.54 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Aquarius |
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 Utah
Skies own Don Brown took the
accompanying image from Trailside Park last Saturday night during the star
party. As you can see...
views were pretty sweet that night. I hope you've gotten a chance to get out and
see Mars. It's really quite impressive... even without a telescope. I try to
make it a habit of at least poking my head out the window before going to
bed.
Mars continues to shrink... at a barely noticeable rate, but...... it now spans
21”... roughly 20% off it's peak. If you haven't seen it yet through a
telescope, don't fret.. but don't waste a whole lot more time. Break out your telescope and
checkout the red planet. Mars is still incredible to look at... and will
continue to provide great views well into the fall. As you might expect,
Mars will be targeted at our upcoming star party.. .Saturday night,
September 27th.
If
you'd like to get a feel for the rise and fall of Mars, checkout our own Mars
Observations Page. Utah Skies own Don
Brown has been capturing images of the Red Planet since May. The
change is simply incredible.
If
you’d like to checkout Mars for yourself, all you need to do is look high
and towards the southeast around 9pm or so.. Mars is so bright that you just
can’t miss it.
Mars is still fairly close to it's peak... when it was bigger
and brighter than at any time in over 60,000 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... and far brighter than it's been in quite some time Additionally, Mars will have an apparent
diameter of 25". That's about 50 percent larger than 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.
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| Rising: |
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4:10 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-1.79 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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32" |
| Distance: |
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6.07 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Leo |
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 Checkout this
absolutely gorgeous shot of Jupiter as imaged by former Utah
Skies Astrophotographer of the Month, Ed
Grafton. This captures much of the beauty and interest in observing
Jupiter. Look at the incredible detail visible on the surface of the planet.
Much of this is visible in modest amateur telescopes from your own
backyards. Additionally, there's lots of activity in the image as well.
Jupiter's moon Io is transiting (crossing in front of) Jupiter. It's shadow
is visible towards the left edge (can you find Io). Also, Ganymede is just
starting to slip behind the giant planet. It's disk appears partially
eclipsed along the lower right edge of the plet. Jupiter
has moved solidly into the morning sky... and can be seen high above the eastern
horizon just before first light approaches.
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| Rising: |
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11:20 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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0.02 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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19" |
| Distance: |
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8.78 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Gemini |
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 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 about 1:30am and should make a
good target in the hour or two before the Sun puts it to sleep. Saturn will continue to
improve through the fall and into the winter.
This beautiful image of the 6th planet was taken by former Utah
Skies Astrophotographer of the Month, Ed Grafton. We've used may of Ed's
images here at Utah Skies for the simple reason that his work is phenomenal.
If you haven't checked out Ed's
site, you owe it to yourself.
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| Rising: |
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4:35 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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5.77 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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4" |
| Distance: |
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19.45 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Aquarius |
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 Interested
in viewing the 7th planet? Now would be a great time to begin trying. Uranus
is rising before sunset... putting it high in the sky for most of the night. It's also
currently spanning 4" in apparent
diameter. This is just about as big and bright as Uranus gets... As if that
wasn't enough... Uranus is only a couple of degrees to the northwest of
bright Mars. (You have been checkout out Mars, haven't you?) Well, if so
Uranus can be seen... with the naked eye about 2 finger widths to the
northeast. So... take
advantage of it. In binoculars or a small telescope, you'll immediately see
the aquamarine or bluish color of the 7th planet. Check it out!
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| Rising: |
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3:40 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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7.89 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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2" |
| Distance: |
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29.78 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Capricornus |
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 Springtime
on Neptune? Yup... that's what the latest observations seem to indicate. The
southern portion of the 8th planet is having some spring like
conditions. Spring is always a fun time of year.. and that's a good
thing, because spring last for over 40 Earth years on Neptune. 40 years?
Yup... Because it takes Neptune 165 years to orbit the Sun, seasons last
just a smidge over 40 earth years.
How's this for a cool shot of Neptune? You can clearly
see some of the activity going on in Neptune's cloud top.
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| Rising: |
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11:45 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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13.96 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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<1" |
| Distance: |
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31.28 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Ophiuchus |
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 Astronomers made a surprising discovery about Pluto recently. As Pluto begins to move away from the Sun... towards the beginning of it's winter... things are actually heating up on the distant planet instead of cooling down. Checkout CNN.com/SPACE for more details
Take
this bit of planetary information either as an interesting side note, or an
observing challenge. Pluto is in the constellation Ophiuchus, less than °1
southwest of NGC6309 aka The Bug Nebula. I viewed The Bug this past weekend, so... photons from Pluto must have hit my retina :-) At magnitude 13.9, Pluto is basically out of reach
of smaller telescopes... Even in the big scope... it's difficult to be sure that you've seen Pluto. 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 image was taken by the Nordic
Optical Telescope.
Need more information? Checkout the Pluto
Home Page.
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Deep Sky
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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.
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 Oxygen-Rich Supernova Remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud
This is a NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the tattered debris of a star that exploded 3,000 years ago as a supernova. This supernova remnant, called N132D, lies 169,000 light-years away in the satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud.
A Hubble Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 image of the inner regions of the supernova remnant shows the complex collisions that take place as fast moving ejecta slam into cool, dense interstellar clouds. This level of detail in the expanding filaments could only be seen previously in much closer supernova remnants. Now, Hubble's capabilities extend the detailed study of supernovae out to the distance of a neighboring galaxy.
Material thrown out from the interior of the exploded star at velocities of more than four million miles per hour (2,000 kilometers per second) plows into neighboring clouds to create luminescent shock fronts. The blue-green filaments in the image correspond to oxygen-rich gas ejected from the core of the star. The oxygen-rich filaments glow as they pass through a network of shock fronts reflected off dense interstellar clouds that surrounded the exploded star. These dense clouds, which appear as reddish filaments, also glow as the shock wave from the supernova crushes and heats the clouds.
Supernova remnants provide a rare opportunity to observe directly the interiors of stars far more massive than our Sun. The precursor star to this remnant, which was located slightly below and left of center in the image, is estimated to have been 25 times the mass of our Sun. These stars "cook" heavier elements through nuclear fusion, including oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, iron etc., and the titanic supernova explosions scatter this material back into space where it is used to create new generations of stars. This is the mechanism by which the gas and dust that formed our solar system became enriched with the elements that sustain life on this planet. Hubble spectroscopic observations will be used to determine the exact chemical composition of this nuclear- processed material, and thereby test theories of stellar evolution.
The image shows a region of the remnant 50 light-years across. The supernova explosion should have been visible from Earth's southern hemisphere around 1,000 B.C., but there are no known historical records that chronicle what would have appeared as a "new star" in the heavens.
This "true color" picture was made by superposing images taken on 9-10 August 1994 in three of the strongest optical emission lines: singly ionized sulfur (red), doubly ionized oxygen (green), and singly ionized oxygen (blue).
Photo credit: Jon A. Morse (STScI) and
NASA
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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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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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