Aurora Watch
A series of X-Class solar flares have erupted from giant sunspot #649. At least one of these was Earth-directed. Skywatchers should be alert for Northern Lights all weekend. Keep an eye on Spaceweather.com for the latest developments.
This beautiful shot of the culprit... Sunspot #649 was taken by Luca Bardelli of Pisa, Italy.
Is Information Preserved in Black Holes?
It just might be, according to work recently published by world famous physicist, Steven Hawking. Hawking's most recent work answers questions left unanswered by his earlier ground-breaking studies. Besides teaching at Cambridge, Hawking is the author of numerous books... including the multi-million selling "A Brief History of Time"
NASA Urged to Study Hubble Repair Options
A panel of experts recently have
asked NASA to look into using space shuttle crews to repair the Hubble Space
Telescope. Given the instruments incredible contributions to
science, we wholeheartedly support this suggestion.
Scaled Composites to Fly in September
Scaled Composites, which recently
made history by launching the first private manned spacecraft, is
planning to launch a series of flights starting in September and
claim a $10 million X-Prize. SpaceShipOne pilot Mike Melvill told
MSNBC that detailed announcement will be made shortly.
Cassini Images The Cassini Division
Shortly after successfully entering orbit around Saturn,
The Cassini Spacecraft took this shot of a region of Saturn's rings
known as The
Cassini Division. Checkout the
Cassini website for the latest.
Solar System
Sunspot
activity on our star continues its on-again, off-again behavior. Right
now... as you can see... it is clearly on-again. The largest sunspot #649 on
the eastern limb (left) is just rolling into view. Last week, this sunspot
blasted a large CME out into space. More recently, it's managed to send one
our way. Hopefully, its got even more in store for us :-) If
it does launch some this weekend, they'll most likely be Earth-directed.
Keep your fingers crossed... and keep an eye on Spaceweather.com
for the latest updates.
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: | 8:20 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 0.10 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 7" | |
| Distance: | 1.03 AU | |
| Constellation: | Leo |
Mercury is back in the evening sky. Look for Mercury above the western horizon shortly after sunset. This is about as good a viewing opportunity as you can expect. Binoculars can be quite helpful in pulling the planet out of the glare cast by the setting Sun.
The accompanying image is perhaps the best ground based image of Mercury there is. Taken by the Imaging Science Team over at Boston University.
Venus, the 2nd Planet
| Rising: | 3:40 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | -4.48 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 36" | |
| Distance: | 0.46 AU | |
| Constellation: | Taurus |
Venus
is now rising about 2.5 hours BEFORE the sun. This means be an easy target in the eastern
sky. Those of you with a good view to the
east should be able to spy a tiny sliver of a planet in the next few days.
Venus has grown significantly over the last several weeks and is currently
28% illuminated. This should be obvious in binoculars
or a telescope. Check it out!
Ever wonder why Venus has phases? Checkout this great animation to find out.
This image of Venus was taken by The Galileo Spacecraft.
Need to no more about Venus? Checkout this article by The Planetary Society.
Earth, the 3rd Planet
A
beautiful summer/fall day in Sundance,
Utah. Sundance is home to the Sundance
Film Festival.
Lunar Phase
The
moon will be new tomorrow morning... meaning that it was pretty small this
morning... only about 2% illuminated. At this point, the moon is rising
shortly before sunrise... and setting shortly before sunset :-) This
(weather permitting) should be a great weekend for deep sky observing.
The accompanying image of an old moon (23 hours
before new) was taken on October 24th, 2004 by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies using
Sony DSC-F717 digital camera through a 150mm
Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope using a Scopetronix adapter to achieve an eyepiece projection of 45x.
If you were able to find the moon this morning... this is pretty close to
what it would have looked like.
Visit our Lunar
Information Page for even more great images and information
Mars, the 4th Planet
| Rising: | 7:55 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 1.84 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 4" | |
| Distance: | 2.58 AU | |
| Constellation: | Cancer |
Mars continues to move away from us now. In fact, it is just about as far away as it ever gets. Mars will soon begin to get closer... for another nice rendezvous early next summer. While this next approach won't be as close as the last one was, it will be much further north... and therefore better positioned for viewers at mid-northern latitudes... like us here in Park City :-).
Here's a shot of the red planet taken by Utah Skies own Anthony Arrigo just before it peaked last summer.
Jupiter, the 5th Planet
| Rising: | 10:35 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | -1.78 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 33" | |
| Distance: | 6.01 AU | |
| Constellation: | Leo |
Jupiter is now rising
just before sunset
and setting just before sunrise, making it visible virtually 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 awesome shot. It was taken former Utah Skies Astrophotographer of the Month, Ed Grafton. As you can see... Ed's still at it. Still creating spectacular astronomical images. In this gorgeous shot are Jupiter's moon Io & Ganymede... as well as their shadows. That's Io... to the right of Jupiter. Can you find Ganymede?
Saturn, the 6th Planet
| Rising: | 5:45 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 0.09 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 17" | |
| Distance: | 10.05 AU | |
| Constellation: | Gemini |
Saturn
is now rising early in the morning... placing it just above the western horizon as soon as it gets dark out.
Any views that you plan to get will probably be on the web. And, why not.
With the Cassini Spacecraft
about ready to begin orbiting the giant
planet... what better time can there be?
Need we say more? Cassini is now in so close to Saturn that it can not even image the entire planet in a single shot. Judging by the quality of the accompanying image... that doesn't seem to be causing much of a problem.
Cassini was inserted into orbit around the ringed planet on June 30th.
Uranus, the 7th Planet
| Rising: | 11:00 pm | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 5.75 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 4" | |
| Distance: | 19.28 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 shot of Uranus was taken by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and clearly shows the planets beautiful aquamarine color.
Neptune, the 8th Planet
| Rising: | 9:55 pm | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 7.84 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 2" | |
| Distance: | 29.11 AU | |
| Constellation: | Capricornus |
Astronomers
captured this beautiful image with the Voyager II spacecraft. Checkout
this beautiful profile of the planet and its moon Triton.
Pluto, the 9th Planet
| Rising: | 6:00 pm | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 13.86 | |
| Visual Diameter: | <1" | |
| Distance: | 29.99 AU | |
| Constellation: | Serpens |
With
an early evening rising, Pluto should be visible all night long. Can you
find it?
This image was taken by The
Hubble Space Telescope.
Need more information? Checkout the Pluto
Home Page.
Deep Sky
Hubble Vision
Hubble Studies Generations of Star Formation in Neighboring GalaxyNASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures this iridescent tapestry of star birth in a neighboring galaxy in this panoramic view of glowing gas, dark dust clouds, and young, hot stars. The star-forming region, catalogued as N11B, lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), located only 160,000 light-years from Earth. With its high resolution, the Hubble Space Telescope is able to view details of star formation in the LMC as easily as ground-based telescopes are able to observe stellar formation within our own Milky Way galaxy. This new Hubble image zooms in on N11B, which is a small subsection within an area of star formation cataloged as N11. N11 is the second largest star-forming region in the LMC. Within the LMC, N11 is surpassed in size and activity only by the immense Tarantula nebula (also known as 30 Doradus.)
The image illustrates a perfect case of sequential star formation in a nearby galaxy where new star birth is being triggered by previous-generation massive stars. A collection of blue- and white-colored stars near the left of the image are among the most massive stars known anywhere in the universe. The region around the cluster of hot stars in the image is relatively clear of gas, because the stellar winds and radiation from the stars have pushed the gas away. When this gas collides with and compresses surrounding dense clouds, the clouds can collapse under their own gravity and start to form new stars. The cluster of new stars in N11B may have been formed this way, as it is located on the rim of the large, central interstellar bubble of the N11 complex. The stars in N11B are now beginning to clear away their natal cloud, and are carving new bubbles in turn. Yet another new generation of stars is now being born in N11B, inside the dark dust clouds in the center and right-hand side of the Hubble image. This chain of consecutive star birth episodes has been seen in more distant galaxies, but it is shown very clearly in this new Hubble image.
Farther to the right of the image, along the top edge, are several smaller dark clouds of interstellar dust with odd and intriguing shapes. They are seen silhouetted against the glowing interstellar gas. Several of these dark clouds are bright-rimmed because they are illuminated and are being evaporated by radiation from neighboring hot stars.
This image was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 using filters that isolate light emitted by hydrogen and oxygen gas. The science team, led by astronomers You-Hua Chu (University of Illinois) and Yäel Nazé (Universite de Liège, Belgium) are comparing these images of N11B, taken in 1999, with similar regions elsewhere in the LMC. This color composite image was co-produced and is being co-released by the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI) and the Hubble European Space Agency Information Center (HEIC).
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)
Acknowledgment: Y.-H. Chu (U. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) and Y. Nazé (U. Liège, Belgium)
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