Diamond Dust Discovered in Park City
The air outside my Park City home started to shimmer and glitter Wednesday morning. I knew exactly what it was... and ran to get my camera. Diamond Dust! Diamond Dust forms when it's really cold out. Really, really cold. So cold, that ice crystals form in mid air. Any moisture that's in the air is simply squeezed out and it falls towards the ground. This was a particularly active display... almost appearing as snow in this shot. As you can see though.. the sun was out.
Weekend Aurora Watch
High latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras tonight. This is because Earth's magnetic field is being buffeted by a high-speed solar wind streaming from a large coronal hole on the sun. This could (hopefully) cause some mild geomagnetic storms. Keep your fingers crossed!
Happy Valentine's Day From Spitzer
This beautiful shot of Reflection Nebula NGC7129 was taken in infrared by NASA's newest orbiting observatory... The Spitzer Space Telescope. NGC7129 is located roughly 3,330 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. Residing within this rosebud-shaped nebula are some 130 bright, young stars. Our own Sun is believed to have grown up in a similar family setting.
Read the full story at Spitzer's Media Center.
Help Save The Hubble Space Telescope
The
amazing Hubble Space Telescope... perhaps the greatest astronomical
observatory of all times needs your help. Budgetary constraints and new NASA
objectives are threatening to leave the HST high and dry. In order to meet new
directives, NASA has decided to cancel the planned 4th HST Servicing Mission.
Without this servicing visit, Hubble will soon be rendered incapable of
acquiring and tracking the deep sky objects it is supposed to study. If you'd
like to prevent this from happening... please sign this on-line petition to Save
The Hubble Space Telescope.
Proving it's worth to the very end... astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope recently discovered oxygen and carbon in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant star. These key ingredients are some of the essential building blocks for life as we know it. While the astronomers don't believe there is life on the planet in question... their discovery on another planet helps paint a picture of the composition of our universe.
Read the full story at CNN.com/SPACE.
Comet C/2002 T7 Linear
Checkout this recent shot of the comet. Taken on January 13th, by Dennis Persyk of Hampshire, Illinois it shows of the growing tail of the comet which now stretches roughly 22 minutes... about 3/4 the diameter of the full moon. Wondering why the stars are elongated? Well, comets and stars move at different rates and in different directions across the sky. Dennis made this shot by stacking fourteen 5 minute exposures made with a Televue NP101... 4" refractor and a MX716 CCD camera. In the at least 70 minutes it took to acquire the individual components of this shot... the comet and the stars were already showing their differing motions.
The comet is now about mag7.2... making it a fairly easy target for most binoculars and small telescopes. As we've mentioned previously, the comet is expected to reach perihelion on April 23rd, 2004 and brighten to between mag0 & mag1... making this an easy naked eye comet for springtime observers. Views through a telescope or binoculars ought to be absolutely incredible by then!
The comet is currently cruising through southeastern most portion of the constellation Pegasus, which is high in the southwestern sky shortly after dark. Now would be a great time to get out and observe the brightening comet. Click here for ephemeris to help you find the comet... or here for analysis of the comets journey... or here for a sky map.
Solar System
Sunspot
activity on our star has resumed. What a big difference from last
week... when the sun was devoid of sunspots. While none of these are
very large, they are at least large enough.. and numerous enough to make the
view interesting..
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.
Planetary Report
Mercury, the 1st Planet
| Rising: | 7:00 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | -0.40 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 5" | |
| Distance: | 1.34 AU | |
| Constellation: | Capricornus |
The last couple of weeks were great for viewing the innermost planet. Mercury has now begun to rapidly dive towards the sun. It will soon reappear in the western horizon after sunset in the coming weeks.
This beautiful image of Mercury's South Pole was taken by the Mariner 10 Spacecraft in 1974.
Venus, the 2nd Planet
| Rising: | 9:10 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | -4.13 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 16" | |
| Distance: | 1.04 AU | |
| Constellation: | Pisces |
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 76% 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 shows several of the largest craters on Venus.
Need to no more about Venus? Checkout this article by The Planetary Society.
Earth, the 3rd Planet
Meteor Crater
This image shows Meteor Crater in Arizona. If this isn't proof that we are part of a very active solar system, I don't know what is. This crater is over 1 kilometer across and over 200 feet deep.
Lunar Phase
The
moon reached last quarter this morning. At this point, the moon is 1/2
illuminated... rising shortly after midnight... climbing high by daybreak...
and setting around noon. This is a perfect phase from my point of view. The
moon gives us plenty of time to go deep... then provides some nice views for
those that are still around... or for those who rise early. In fact... some
of the best views can be had during daylight hours.
Interested in how and why we see the lunar phases we do? Checkout this animation.
The accompanying image was taken yesterday morning
February 12th, 2004 by Anthony Arrigo
of Utah Skies with a Sony DSC-F717 digital camera shooting eyepiece
projection to 45x.
Visit our Lunar
Information Page for even more great images and information
The Apennine Mountains are the most prominent mountain range visible on the lunar surface. They are capture on this image taken on Thursday morning, Feb 12, 2004 by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies.
Mars, the 4th Planet
| Rising: | 10:25 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 0.91 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 6" | |
| Distance: | 1.51 AU | |
| Constellation: | Aries |
This beautiful sequence takes us back to Mars' close up visit in the summer of 2003. Taken by Utah Skies own Don Brown it catalogs the red planet's incredible growth.
Jupiter, the 5th Planet
| Rising: | 7:45 pm | |
| Visual Magnitude: | -2.46 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 44" | |
| Distance: | 4.48 AU | |
| Constellation: | Leo |
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 by former Utah Skies Astrophotographer of the Month, Ed Grafton. Ed took this shot from his home in suburban Houston. Sweet, huh? Ed is continually adding to his website, so.. .go check it out!
Look for the Moon and Jupiter to pose together Sunday night and into Monday morning. The two will be just over 2° apart.
Saturn, the 6th Planet
| Rising: | 2:00 pm | |
| Visual Magnitude: | -0.19 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 20" | |
| Distance: | 8.34 AU | |
| Constellation: | Gemini |
Saturn
reached 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.
This gorgeous shot of the ringed planet was taken by The Hubble Space Telescope.
Ok... here's an interesting note... Saturn's shadow... visible recent images on the rings... are now hidden... they were on the left side of the planet... and will soon switch and reappear on the opposite side in the coming months. Make a mental note next time you're out viewing.
Uranus, the 7th Planet
| Rising: | 7:55 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 5.93 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 3" | |
| Distance: | 21.02 AU | |
| Constellation: | Aquarius |
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 2MASS image shows a few of Uranus' moons.
Neptune, the 8th Planet
| Rising: | 7:00 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 7.98 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 2" | |
| Distance: | 31.04 AU | |
| Constellation: | Capricornus |
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.
Pluto, the 9th Planet
| Rising: | 3:20 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 13.97 | |
| Visual Diameter: | <1" | |
| Distance: | 31.20 AU | |
| Constellation: | Serpens |
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 detailsTake 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.
Deep Sky
Hubble Vision
An Abrasive Collision Gives One Galaxy a "Black Eye"A collision of two galaxies has left a merged star system with an unusual appearance as well as bizarre internal motions. Messier 64 (M64) has a spectacular dark band of absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus, giving rise to its nicknames of the "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy.
Fine details of the dark band are revealed in this image of the central portion of M64 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. M64 is well known among amateur astronomers because of its appearance in small telescopes. It was first cataloged in the 18th century by the French astronomer Messier. Located in the northern constellation Coma Berenices, M64 resides roughly 17 million light-years from Earth.
At first glance, M64 appears to be a fairly normal pinwheel-shaped spiral galaxy. As in the majority of galaxies, all of the stars in M64 are rotating in the same direction, clockwise as seen in the Hubble image. However, detailed studies in the 1990's led to the remarkable discovery that the interstellar gas in the outer regions of M64 rotates in the opposite direction from the gas and stars in the inner regions.
Active formation of new stars is occurring in the shear region where the oppositely rotating gases collide, are compressed, and contract. Particularly noticeable in the image are hot, blue young stars that have just formed, along with pink clouds of glowing hydrogen gas that fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet light from newly formed stars.
Astronomers believe that the oppositely rotating gas arose when M64 absorbed a satellite galaxy that collided with it, perhaps more than one billion years ago. This small galaxy has now been almost completely destroyed, but signs of the collision persist in the backward motion of gas at the outer edge of M64.
This image of M64 was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). The color image is a composite prepared by the Hubble Heritage Team from pictures taken through four different color filters. These filters isolate blue and near-infrared light, along with red light emitted by hydrogen atoms and green light from Strömgren y.
Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)
Acknowledgment: S. Smartt (Institute of Astronomy) and D. Richstone (U. Michigan)
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