Rosetta Begins 10 Year
Journey
|
 The
European
Space Agency yesterday launched its Rosetta
cometary probe. The craft's 10 year journey will take it around the Sun 3
times before rendezvousing with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. For
more information, checkout the ESA
Press Release.
|
|
|
Comet C/2002 T7 Linear
|
 Checkout this recent shot of comet C/2002 T7
Linear... taken on February 16th, by Michael Jäger and Gerald Rheman.
The comet is now about mag6.1... making it a fairly
easy target for most binoculars and small telescopes. The primary difficulty
in coming weeks will be the comets sinking location in the western sky. Your
best bet for spotting the comet will be from a dark site with an unobstructed
western horizon.
As we've mentioned
previously, the comet is expected to make its closest approach to Earth on May
19th, 2004 when it passes only 0.27AU from Earth. AU or Astronomical
Units are the approximate average distance between the Earth and the Sun.
The comet is expected to brighten
to between mag0 & mag1... making this an easy naked eye comet for
springtime observers. Needless to say... 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.
|
|
|
|
|
 Sunspot
activity on our star waxes and wanes. Gone are the huge sunspots of last
week... replaced by a single, small sunspot complex. Don't think this means
there's no solar activity though. Earth entered a high speed solar
wind flowing from a coronal
hole and aurora
were triggered for high latitude observers.
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
7:10 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
-1.66 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
5" |
| Distance: |
|
1.38 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Aquarius |
|
Mercury has moved back into the evening sky. It will soon distance itself
from the sun and reappear in the western horizon after sunset in the coming weeks.
Even better... when it does so... all
5 of the naked eye planets will be visible in the night sky at once.
This type of alignment happens periodically... and is always interesting to
see.
This beautiful image of Mercury's South Pole was taken by the Mariner
10 Spacecraft in 1974.
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
8:40 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
-4.22 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
19" |
| Distance: |
|
0.89 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Aries |
|
 Venus
is now rising about 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 63% illuminated... making its phase
quite apparent 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 early spring Venus will only be 1/2 illuminated, but will be almost
half again as bright. See if you notice the change.
Need
to no more about Venus? Checkout this article by The
Planetary Society.
|
|
|
Earth, the 3rd Planet
|
 One
of the differentiating attributes of our planet is the existence of liquid
water. This shot, taken by Utah Skies own Anthony
Arrigo, captures the interaction of land and water along California's
Pacific Coastline..
|
|
|
|
|
 The
moon will be full tomorrow evening. In the meantime, we'll be under a waxing
gibbous phase with 98% of the visible lunar surface illuminated when it
rises about 5:10pm. At this point, the moon is with us all night. So.. why
fight it? Get that moon filter out and checkout our nearest celestial
neighbor.
Interested in how and why we see the lunar
phases we do? Checkout
this animation.
The accompanying image was taken on January 27th,
2000 by Anthony Arrigo
of Utah Skies. Anthony took the shot with an Olympus OM-1 shooting at prime focus through a 6" f/12
Maksutov-Cassegrain.
Visit our Lunar
Information Page for even more great images and information
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
9:35 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
1.16 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
6" |
| Distance: |
|
1.70 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Aries |
|
|
How's this for an interesting
shot of the Martian surface? Sure, there's a nice outcropping of
rock near the top, but... the really interesting feature is the
"bunny ears" near the bottom. What is it? Good question.
:-) NASA scientists plan to take a closer look. Even more
interestingly, the
ears appear to move in this series of exposures taken over
several minutes... as if swaying in a gentle Martian breeze.
Hmmm..... very interesting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
6:10 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
-2.50 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
44" |
| Distance: |
|
4.43 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Leo |
|
 Jupiter
reached opposition the other day. Opposition
occurs when Jupiter and the Sun
are on opposite sides of the sky. Jupiter is now rising at sunset
and setting at sunrise, making it visible all night long. Jupiter is
also at its peak of apparent diameter and brightness.
Look for Jupiter in the eastern sky shortly after sunset. Jupiter
sits at the foot of the
constellation Leo the Lion. An
annotated map of Jupiter in Leo is now available.
Checkout this sweet animation. It's a 2.5 hour
sequence and was taken by Brett Taylor & Steve Faulkner
on March 1st, 2004 using a 5" telescope. Pretty cool, huh? If you think
so... This is typical of what Jupiter looks like through a telescope.
Anyway.... notice the details visible in
Jupiter's cloud bands and the motion of 2 of Jupiter's moons.
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
12:35 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
-0.07 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
19" |
| Distance: |
|
8.64 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Gemini |
|
 Saturn
is now rising in the early afternoon. This has it well placed for
observation as soon as it gets dark out. The ringed planet can be found
currently cruising through the southern portion of the constellation Gemini.
As you can see in the accompanying shot, Saturn is brighter than any of the
surrounding stars... making it an easy target to the aided and unaided eye.
With a small telescope, the beautiful ring system can be seen and enjoyed.
I took this shot of the ringed planet on Thursday
night, February 19th, 2004 using my Sony DSC-F717 digital camera shooting at
f/2.0 for 15 seconds. Click
here for the un-annotated version..
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
6:35 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
5.93 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
3" |
| Distance: |
|
21.01 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.
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
5:40 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
7.97 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
2" |
| Distance: |
|
30.92 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.
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
1:55 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
13.95 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
<1" |
| Distance: |
|
30.87 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 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.
|
|
|
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.
|
 Fading Supernova Is Producing a Spectacular New Light Show
Seventeen years ago, astronomers spotted the brightest stellar explosion ever seen since the one observed by Johannes Kepler 400 years ago. Called SN 1987A, the titanic supernova explosion blazed with the power of 100,000,000 suns for several months following its discovery on Feb. 23, 1987. Although the supernova itself is now a million times fainter than 17 years ago, a new light show in the space surrounding it is just beginning.
This image, taken Nov. 28, 2003 by the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows many bright spots along a ring of gas, like pearls on a necklace. These cosmic "pearls" are being produced as a supersonic shock wave unleashed during the explosion slams into the ring at more than a million miles per hour. The collision is heating the gas ring, causing its innermost regions to glow.
Astronomers detected the first "hot spot" in 1996, but now they see dozens of them all around the ring. The temperature of the flares surges from a few thousand degrees to a million degrees Fahrenheit. Individual hot spots cannot be seen from ground-based telescopes. Only Hubble can resolve them.
And, more hot spots are coming. In the next few years, the entire ring will be ablaze as it absorbs the full force of the crash. The glowing ring is expected to become bright enough to illuminate the star's surroundings, thus providing astronomers with new information on how the star ejected material before the explosion.
The elongated and expanding object in the middle of the ring is debris from the supernova blast. The glowing debris is being heated by radioactive elements, principally titanium 44, that were created in the supernova explosion. The debris will continue to glow for many decades.
The ring, about a light-year across, already existed when the star exploded. Astronomers believe the star shed the ring about 20,000 years before the supernova blast.
The violent death of a star 20 times more massive than the Sun, called a supernova, created this stellar drama. The star actually exploded about 160,000 years ago, but it has taken that long for its light to reach Earth. The supernova resides in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby small galaxy that is a satellite or our Milky Way galaxy.
Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble telescope has watched the supernova drama unfold, taking periodic snapshots of the gradually fading ring. Now, the orbiting observatory will continue to monitor the ring as it brightens from this collision.
Credit: NASA, P. Challis, R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and B. Sugerman
(STScI)
|
| |
|
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
| >
|
|
|
