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Report for 2004-01-09 |
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Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".
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Contents
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Astronomical Times
(Mountain Standard) |
| Sunrise: |
7:51 am |
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Sunset: |
5:16 pm |
| Astronomical Twilight Begins: |
6:14 am |
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Astronomical Twilight Ends: |
6:54 pm |
| Moonrise: |
7:21 pm |
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Moonset: |
9:38 am |
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360°
View of Mars
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 ...we're on
Mars," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe after NASA's Spirit
Rover
successfully landed on the red planet last
night. The accompanying 360°
image is the first set of images returned by the spacecraft. Checkout
NASA's
Mars Rover website for the latest information.
Wow! What an amazing story..... a story
that everybody in the world wants to hear. NASA web servers handled
over 1 billion hits in the first few days of the Mars landing...
that's 4 or 5 months worth of traffic normally. NASA has over 1300
web servers running to keep up with the demand.
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 Gusev Crater
was the chosen landing site for Spirit. The crater, which measures some 90 miles
in diameter is thought to once been the site of a huge lake. Astronomers have
determined this from a system of channels which seem to drain into the area.
Checkout Science@NASA
for more information on the landing site. |
Bush to Announce Manned Missions to Moon and
Mars
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President Bush is expected to announce his "vision for
expanding the space program" next week. Included in the plan
are manned missions to the Moon and Mars. While the technical
challenges will be great, NASA has a history of pulling off the
impossible. Checkout CNN.com/SPACE
for more details.
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Catch A Comet By The Tail
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 After
traveling over 3 billion miles, NASA's Stardust
Spacecraft made history... when it pulled within 150 miles of
Comet Wild 2, reached out and snagged a bunch of passing comet
particles... and is now headed for home. The craft
will soon swing by Earth and drop its scientific cargo in the Utah
desert for further analysis. Checkout the Stardust
website for more information.
Want to see what the entire encounter
looked like from Stardust's perspective? Click
Here!
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It's Elementary
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 The
orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory snapped this incredible shot of
the interacting Antennae Galaxies. Huge amounts of complex elements
are being created as these two behemoths interact. Gas clouds are
being heated to multi-million degree temperatures... and are forging
many heavy elements. Checkout NASA's
Chandra Website for more details.
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| It continues to be tough
viewing around here... at best, it seems that we get a few hours of clearing..
then it clouds up... and stars snowing again. Only in the last couple of days
has the forecast changed to partly cloudy.. with one night. tonight. dare I say it...
clear? WooHoo! Oh, well... we've got a long
weekend coming up next weekend.... and a small, reservation only star party
the following weekend (oops!) Hopefully, the skies will clear for those?
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Snoeshow Under The Stars
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| The folks over at the Swaner
Nature Preserve will be holding a snowshoe
and stargazing event on Friday night, January 23rd. Utah
Skies will be on hand with telescopes to point out some of the spectacular
deep sky treasure to be found in the winter sky. Reservations are required for
this event, so give Swaner a call at 435.649.1SNP or send an e-mail to admin@swanernaturepreserve.org
to reserve your spot.
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Saturn At Opposition
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| Saturn reached opposition
as we began 2004. Look for the ringed planet high overhead. It'll be the
brightest star-like object in the sky. Saturn is having it's closest approach
to our planet in almost three decades so make sure you check it out every
opportunity you get. Checkout Science@NASA
for more information..
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Comet C/2002 T7 Linear
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How's this for a beautiful shot? G. Rhemann and M. Jäger captured this
gorgeous image of Comet
C/2002 T7 Linear on 12/20/03. At that point, the comet was about mag8.5 or
so. It has recently brightened to about mag8.2 and is expected to reach perihelion on April 23rd, 2004
and brighten
to between mag0 & mag1... making this an easy naked eye comet. Views
through a telescope or binoculars ought to be absolutely incredible!
Click
here for ephemeris to help you find the comet.
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Comet Encke
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G. Rhemann and M. Jäger captured this beautiful
image of Comet
Encke on 11/12/03. The comet reached perihelion on December 29th, 2003.
At that point, it was approximately mag4... making it visible to the naked
eye... and a beauty in a small telescope or binoculars. The comet can be found
in the morning sky... just above the eastern horizon in the constellation
Ophiuchus. Checkout
the Ephemeris for specific dates & locations.
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Beagle 2 Still Quiet, Mars
Express in Orbit
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Mars Express flight controllers recently
reported all systems go and on Christmas Day, 12/25/03, the Mars
Express Spacecraft was inserted into Martian
orbit. On the same day, the Beagle
2 Lander was scheduled to touch down on the surface of the red planet. Visit the Mars
Express Website for up to the minute details.
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At this time, European
Space Agency flight controllers are still trying to make contact
with the Beagle
2 Lander a week after it set down on the Martian surface.
Mission scientists have eliminated several possible outcomes as to
it's status. The current focus is a huge crater at the expected
landing site. Checkout CNN.com/SPACE
for the full story. |
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Solar System
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 Massive
sunspot #536 is on a roll. It has launched a series of Coronal Mass
Ejections in recent days.... touching of mild geomagnetic displays for those
in the far north.
The sun is a fascinating subject. It's appearance
changes from day to day. In fact, it is the only star in the sky that we can
see any details on at all! If you'd like to observe our star, make sure you
do so safely. Checkout these Safe
Viewing Techniques.
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Northern Lights
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 Troy
Birdsall of Fairbanks, Alaska snagged this incredible shot on Tuesday
(1/6/04). To make this and other beautiful shots, Troy used an Olympus E-1 digital
camera operating at F/2.8 and set at ASA 800. Exposures were about 1 or 2 sec.
If you'd like to see more of Troy's work, checkout his website which can be
found at www.AuroraWebCam.com.
Given the activity generated by the big sunspots in
the above picture... it's not surprising that we're under an aurora watch
this weekend. Skywatchers should keep an eye on the northern horizon for the
northern lights. Who knows... you just might be rewarded for your efforts.
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| Rising: |
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6:20 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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0.17 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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8" |
| Distance: |
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0.86 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Sagittarius |
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This beautiful shot shows how quickly Mercury moves through the sky. In a
matter of only a few weeks, Mercury appears above the horizon... climbs to
it's highest point... and then sinks below the horizon. Mercury is currently
visible in the eastern sky before sunrise. But, don't waste any time... or
you'll miss out. Mercury reaches greatest elongation on the morning of
1/17/04. So.. you've got 2 weeks (centered on 1/17) at best to view the
first rock.Mercury can be found rising in
the southeast about an hour and a half before the sun.
This beautiful series was created by Juan Carlos Casado of Spain
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| Rising: |
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9:55 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-4.01 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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13" |
| Distance: |
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1.26 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Capricornus |
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 Venus
is now rising little more than two hours after the sun. You should now be able
to find it easily in the evening sky shortly after sundown. In fact, now would be a
good time to start watching Venus. Why? Well, because Venus is getting ready
for some major changes. It is currently 79% illuminated. As it climbs higher
in the sky over the coming months, it will grow considerably in size and
brightness... while shrinking just as considerably in phase. By late
winter / early spring Venus will only be 1/2 illuminated, but will be almost
half again as bright.
I've been catching Venus above the western horizon about
30-45 minutes after sunset for the last couple of months. It is now high
enough that you can actually view it at a leisurely pace. It'll only get easier at
this point. Slowly but surely, Venus will come to dominate the night sky. If
you have a nice wide sky horizon to horizon, compare Venus with Saturn.
They're both about the same height above the horizon shortly after dark...
Venus in the west... and Saturn in the east.
This beautiful Hubble Space Telescope image shows
us some fine detail in Venus' dense cloudtop.
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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Earth from MarsThis beautiful picture was captured by the orbiting
Mars Global Surveyor
Spacecraft. It is the first-ever image of Earth taken from another planet. At this point, Mars is some 70 million miles away. Wow! What a beautiful shot. In case you're wondering, that little guy in the upper right is our Moon.
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 The
moon was full on Wednesday. In the meantime, we'll be
under waning gibbous phase with 95% of the moon's visible surface
illuminated when it rises around 7:20pm. At this point, you'll get slightly
more than an hour of unobstructed observing... before the moon lights up the
sky. So... make the most of that time!
The accompanying image was taken with an Olympus
OM-1 at prime focus through a 150mm Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope.
Visit our Lunar
Information Page for even more great images and information
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| Rising: |
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11:50 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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0.38 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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8" |
| Distance: |
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1.19 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Pisces |
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Mars is in the news lately...
a fleet of spacecraft are arriving to study the red planet. This
image (billed as the most detailed image of the planet ever) was
taken by one of them... The
Mars Spirit Rover.
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| Rising: |
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10:15 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-2.27 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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41" |
| Distance: |
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4.84 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Leo |
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 Jupiter
can now be seen rising late at night... or high in the morning sky... just before first light is approaches.
Jupiter and it's moons are involved in a continuous dance. Views will
only be improving for the next several months, so... get out and take a peak
at the giant planet.
The accompanying image was taken last spring by
Utah Skies own Don Brown through a Takahashi
FS102 refractor.
Look for the Moon
and Jupiter to pose together Sunday night and into Monday morning. The
two will be just over 2° apart.
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| Rising: |
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4:30 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-0.41 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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21" |
| Distance: |
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8.06 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Gemini |
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 Saturn
reaches opposition on New Years Eve. Opposition occurs when the Sun and Saturn appear in opposite directions
as viewed from Earth. So, on December 31st, as the Sun is setting, Saturn
will be rising. This opposition should provide us with some of the best
views of Saturn in quite some time. Saturn always looks great, right? What
makes this year so special? Well... first off, Saturn recently reached
perihelion... it's nearest distance to the Sun. This makes it seem just a
little brighter than usual. Second, Saturn's rings are tipped about as much
as they can be... roughly
26° from edge-on. This gives us a great view of
the solar systems most incredible ring system. Third, Saturn is cruising
much further north than usual. This puts Saturn in a favorable position for
northerners. Saturn spend much of the night in the clearest, steadiest
portion of the sky.
So, what are you waiting for? Get
out there and checkout the ringed planet. This winter will be the best
absolute time to study
Saturn's beautiful ring structure for some time, so... get out there and do
it. If you find yourself under incredibly good skies... with incredibly good
optics... see what kind of detail you can tease from the eyepiece.
Check
this shot out!!! Taken just last month (11/03) by the approaching Cassini
Spacecraft, this is one of the
sweetest shots of Saturn I've ever seen. Look at the incredible detail
within the ring system... and throughout the body of the giant planet. You
can even see a few of Saturn's moon. Sweet!
Ok... here's an interesting note... Saturn's
shadow... visible in these images on the rings... to the upper left of the
planet... will switch to the opposite side in the coming months. Make a
mental note next time you're out viewing. In the coming weeks, the shadow
will get smaller and smaller... until it disappears and then slowly
reappears on the opposite side of the planet.
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| Rising: |
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10:10 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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5.91 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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3" |
| Distance: |
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20.76 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Aquarius |
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 Interested
in viewing the 7th planet? You'd better get on it quick. Uranus
is rising in the early afternoon... putting it high in the sky by the time
it gets dark If you wait too far after dark, you'll have trouble viewing the
planet in the turbulent skies above the western horizon. Uranus has recently dropped back to
3" in apparent
diameter. 1" smaller than it's peak this fall. Ok.. it's only a 1"
decline, right... Well... there wasn't a whole lot to work with originally.
1" marks a 25% decline... So... don't waste any time..
This beautiful HST image shows a newly discovered moon as well as
Uranus' delicate ring system.
Interested in seeing Uranus... but don't know where
to look? The bright planet Venus will be less than 1° from Uranus on
Wednesday evening (1/14/04)
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| Rising: |
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9:15 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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7.98 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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2" |
| Distance: |
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30.98 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Capricornus |
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 Astronomers
pointed the sharp eyed Hubble Telescope at Neptune and discovered that
Neptune's Great Dark Spot (discovered by Voyager 2) had disappeared... and
then reappeared... this time in the northern hemisphere! Current thinking is
that the spot might be a hole in Neptune's methane cloud tops... potentially
allowing us to get a view lower in Neptune's atmosphere.
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| Rising: |
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5:30 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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13.96 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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<1" |
| Distance: |
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31.60 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Serpens |
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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
Hubble Space 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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 A Tale of Two Record-Breaking Galaxy Clusters
Looking back in time to when the universe was in its formative youth, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured these revealing images of two galaxy clusters.
The image at left shows mature galaxies in a massive cluster that existed when the cosmos was 5 billion years old. The cluster, called RDCS 1252.9-2927, is as massive as 300 trillion suns and is the most massive known cluster for its epoch. The Hubble image reveals the core of the cluster and is part of a much larger mosaic of the entire cluster. Dominating the core are a pair of large, reddish elliptical galaxies [near center of image]. Their red color indicates an older population of stars. Most of the stars are at least 1 billion years old. The two galaxies appear to be interacting and may eventually merge to form a larger galaxy that is comparable to the brightest galaxies seen in present-day clusters.
The red galaxies surrounding the central pair are also cluster members. The cluster probably contains many thousands of galaxies, but only about 50 can be seen in this image. The full Hubble mosaic reveals several hundred cluster members. Many of the other galaxies in the image, including several of the blue galaxies, are foreground galaxies. The color-composite image was assembled from observations taken between May and June 2002 by the ACS Wide Field Camera.
In the image at right, astronomers are seeing an embryonic cluster as it was when the universe was 1.5 billion years old. The young system, called TN J1338-1942, is the most distant known developing cluster, or proto-cluster. It is dominated by a massive "baby galaxy," the green object in the center with the blue circle around it. The galaxy is producing powerful radio emissions, and is the brightest galaxy in the proto-cluster. The green color indicates that the galaxy is emitting glowing hydrogen gas. Its clumpy appearance suggests that it is still in the process of forming. Smaller developing galaxies, marked by the blue circles, are scattered around the massive galaxy. The galaxy on the left of the massive galaxy is a foreground galaxy. The bright object in the upper half of the image is a foreground star. This color-composite image was assembled from observations taken between July 8 and 12, 2002 by the ACS Wide Field Camera
Credits for RDCS 1252: NASA,
ESA, J. Blakeslee (Johns Hopkins University), M. Postman
(Space Telescope Science
Institute), and P. Rosati (European Southern Observatory)
Credits for TN J1338: NASA,
ESA, G. Miley (Leiden Observatory), and R. Overzier (Leiden Observatory)
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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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After
traveling over 3 billion miles, NASA's Stardust
Spacecraft made history... when it pulled within 150 miles of
Comet Wild 2, reached out and snagged a bunch of passing comet
particles... and is now headed for home. The craft
will soon swing by Earth and drop its scientific cargo in the Utah
desert for further analysis. Checkout the Stardust
website for more information. 
