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 mag5.7... 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.
|
|
|
Northern Lights
|
The northern lights had been quite for a while...
that silence ended on March 9th when Jim
Henderson of Aberdeenshire, Scotland captured this beautiful image.
|
|
|
The Long and Winding Road
|
|
NASA's
Spirit Rover used it's rear navigation camera to take this shot
documenting its travels. To date, the rover has traveled some 240
meters through Gusev Crater. Checkout
The Mars Rover Website for the latest details.
|
|
|
|
|
 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.
|
|
|
Giant Sunspot 570
|
 Sunspot #570,
was just coming into view over our stars eastern limb, when this shot was
taken by Utah Skies own Anthony
Arrigo. It was already several times larger than our planet Earth. Could this giant bring us some northern lights? Could be. Stay tuned for more details!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
7:15 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
-1.42 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
5" |
| Distance: |
|
1.28 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Pisces |
|
Mercury has moved back into the evening sky. It continues to distance itself
from our star and is very close to reappearing above the western horizon
shortly after sunset in the coming days.
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: |
|
8:30 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
-4.26 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
20" |
| Distance: |
|
0.84 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.
This image of the 2nd Rock was taken by Utah Skies
own Anthony Arrigo.
Need
to no more about Venus? Checkout this article by The
Planetary Society.
|
|
|
Earth, the 3rd Planet
|
 Within
minutes of California's Pacific Coast, regular doses of rainfall keep the vegetation
lush... almost rainforest like. This is one such example. Taken at Van Damm
State Park, this shot by Utah Skies own Anthony
Arrigo, shows some of that lushness. Look at the moss covered trees and the
thick heavy growth.
|
|
|
|
|
 The
moon will reach last quarter tomorrow evening. In the meantime, we'll be under a
waning gibbous phase with 62% of the visible lunar surface illuminated when it
rises shortly after midnight. This is one of my favorite phases... since the
moon is rising late enough to get in my deep sky fix... yet early enough
that I'll actually be coaxed into getting some sleep :-)
Interested in how and why we see the lunar
phases we do? Checkout
this animation.
The accompanying image was taken by Utah Skies own
Don Brown using an Olympus OM-1 with
a 205mm lens.
Visit our Lunar
Information Page for even more great images and information
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
9:20 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
1.23 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
5" |
| Distance: |
|
1.76 AU |
| Constellation: |
|
Aries |
|
|
More news from the Martian
rovers... this time from Spirit.
It seem that Spirit's landing site in Gusev
Crater also had a watery past. The crater, which spans some
90 miles was formed some 3 to 4 billion years ago, contained clear
evidence that it too was once under water. Crystallization on the
rocks surface and inside cracks typically occurs when water passes
through volcanic rock.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
5:35 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
-2.49 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
44" |
| Distance: |
|
4.44 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: |
|
12:10 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
-0.03 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
19" |
| Distance: |
|
8.75 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. 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.
The accompanying shot of the ringed planet was
taken on Wednesday night,
March 10th, 2004 by Utah Skies own Anthony
Arrigo using a Sony DSC-F717 digital camera shooting through a
25" Obsession Dobsonian. Click
here for a sky chart to help you find Saturn..
|
|
|
|
|
| Rising: |
|
6:10 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
5.93 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
3" |
| Distance: |
|
20.98 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: |
|
5:15 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
7.97 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
2" |
| Distance: |
|
30.85 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: |
|
1:30 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
|
13.95 |
| Visual Diameter: |
|
<1" |
| Distance: |
|
30.75 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.
|
 Hubble Sees Galaxies Galore
Galaxies, galaxies everywhere - as far as NASA's Hubble Space Telescope can see. This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is the deepest visible-light image of the cosmos. Called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, this galaxy-studded view represents a "deep" core sample of the universe, cutting across billions of light-years.
The snapshot includes galaxies of various ages, sizes, shapes, and colors. The smallest, reddest galaxies, about 100, may be among the most distant known, existing when the universe was just 800 million years old. The nearest galaxies - the larger, brighter, well-defined spirals and ellipticals - thrived about 1 billion years ago, when the cosmos was 13 billion years old.
In vibrant contrast to the rich harvest of classic spiral and elliptical galaxies, there is a zoo of oddball galaxies littering the field. Some look like toothpicks; others like links on a bracelet. A few appear to be interacting. These oddball galaxies chronicle a period when the universe was younger and more chaotic. Order and structure were just beginning to emerge.
The Ultra Deep Field observations, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys, represent a narrow, deep view of the cosmos. Peering into the Ultra Deep Field is like looking through an eight-foot-long soda straw.
In ground-based photographs, the patch of sky in which the galaxies reside (just one-tenth the diameter of the full Moon) is largely empty. Located in the constellation Fornax, the region is so empty that only a handful of stars within the Milky Way galaxy can be seen in the image.
In this image, blue and green correspond to colors that can be seen by the human eye, such as hot, young, blue stars and the glow of Sun-like stars in the disks of galaxies. Red represents near-infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, such as the red glow of dust-enshrouded galaxies.
The image required 800 exposures taken over the course of 400 Hubble orbits around Earth. The total amount of exposure time was 11.3 days, taken between Sept. 24, 2003 and Jan. 16, 2004.
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team
|
| |
|
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
| >
|
|
|
