Mission To Mercury Announced
After a 30 year hiatus, NASA officials announced plans to return to the innermost planet, Mercury. The Messenger Spacecraft will take 7 years to complete its journey. Checkout The Messenger Website for more info.
First Lunar Landing's 35th Anniversary
35 years ago this week, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step foot on the surface of the moon. Now, NASA is working on plans to pay a return visit. Checkout CNN.com/SPACE for more info.
Differences Between Jupiter and Saturn
Considerable differences exist between the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn... the solar systems two largest planets. Whereas Saturn has a heavy metal core, Jupiter has virtually no core. What could have caused such a disparity? Checkout Space.com to find out.
Aurora Watch
Charles Tilley of Stateville, North Carolina snapped this gorgeous shot of sunspot #652 erupting on Tuesday (7/20). The eruption sparked an M8 class Solar Flare and launched a CME in the general direction of earth. Aurora from this event were seen on Thursday evening. Keep an eye on Spaceweather.com for the latest developments.
Jack Newton of Arizona snapped this gorgeous shot of the giant sunspot erupting on Thursday, 7/22.
Recently,
northern skywatchers were rewarded for their efforts when aurora appeared
above the horizon. This beautiful shot was taken by Chris
VenHaus, from Michigan's upper peninsula.
Saturn's Two-Faced Moon
Iapetus, one of Saturn's 31 moons is a perplexing object. It's northern and southern hemispheres are very different. Here we see one dark hemisphere... and one bright one. This difference is real... not caused by shadows. Scientists hope that Cassini will provide them with data to unravel this mystery. Checkout The Cassini-Huygens Website for more info.
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 #652 is
pretty well centered in the view. Recently, this sunspot
blasted a large CME out into space. It was expected to deliver a glancing
blow to Earth on 7/22. It's also still charged up to deliver even more. If
it does launch some in the coming days, 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: | 8:40 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 0.37 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 7" | |
| Distance: | 0.92 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: | 3:30 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | -4.45 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 33" | |
| Distance: | 0.51 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
Water
is one of the key ingredients shaping our planet. Its hard at work in this shot
of the falls along Granite Creek... just southwest of Jackson, Wy.
Lunar Phase
The
moon reaches first quarter tomorrow evening... meaning that it rises around
midday... is high overhead by nightfall... and sets around midnight. In the
meantime, we'll be under a waning crescent moon with about 35% of the
visible surface illuminated. At this point, the moon is beginning to
get in the way of deep sky observing.
The accompanying image of a waxing crescent moon was taken on
May 19th, 2002 by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies using a Canon Rebel 2000 with
Fuji ASA200 operating at prime focus through a 600mm f/5 refractor. If you
view the moon through a telescope this evening... this is pretty close to
what you'll see.
Visit our Lunar
Information Page for even more great images and information
Mars, the 4th Planet
| Rising: | 7:50 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 1.84 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 4" | |
| Distance: | 2.60 AU | |
| Constellation: | Leo |
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: | 10:15 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | -1.76 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 32" | |
| Distance: | 6.10 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: | 5:25 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 0.12 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 17" | |
| Distance: | 10.03 AU | |
| Constellation: | Gemini |
Saturn
is now rising early in the morning... placing it just above the eastern horizon
before sunrise. Saturn will begin to distance itself from the Sun in the
coming weeks... providing early risers an improving view of its incredible
ring structure throughout the remainder of the summer and into the fall and
winter.
This gorgeous shot of Saturn's ring system... including the extremely elusive F-Ring includes one of its smaller moons, Epimetheus. As you may have guessed, this is not a view we could ever get from Earth. Why not? Because we're seeing the backside of Saturn. It was taken recently by the Cassini Spacecraft which recently began orbiting the giant planet.?
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: | 10:30 pm | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 5.74 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 4" | |
| Distance: | 19.20 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: | 9:30 pm | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 7.84 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 2" | |
| Distance: | 29.08 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: | 5:30 pm | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 13.88 | |
| Visual Diameter: | <1" | |
| Distance: | 30.06 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
Magnificent Details in a Dusty Spiral GalaxyIn 1995, the majestic spiral galaxy NGC 4414 was imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of the HST Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale. An international team of astronomers, led by Dr. Wendy Freedman of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, observed this galaxy on 13 different occasions over the course of two months.
Images were obtained with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) through three different color filters. Based on their discovery and careful brightness measurements of variable stars in NGC 4414, the Key Project astronomers were able to make an accurate determination of the distance to the galaxy.
The resulting distance to NGC 4414, 19.1 megaparsecs or about 60 million light-years, along with similarly determined distances to other nearby galaxies, contributes to astronomers' overall knowledge of the rate of expansion of the universe. The Hubble constant (H0) is the ratio of how fast galaxies are moving away from us to their distance from us. This astronomical value is used to determine distances, sizes, and the intrinsic luminosities for many objects in our universe, and the age of the universe itself.
Due to the large size of the galaxy compared to the WFPC2 detectors, only half of the galaxy observed was visible in the datasets collected by the Key Project astronomers in 1995. In 1999, the Hubble Heritage Team revisited NGC 4414 and completed its portrait by observing the other half with the same filters as were used in 1995. The end result is a stunning full-color look at the entire dusty spiral galaxy. The new Hubble picture shows that the central regions of this galaxy, as is typical of most spirals, contain primarily older, yellow and red stars. The outer spiral arms are considerably bluer due to ongoing formation of young, blue stars, the brightest of which can be seen individually at the high resolution provided by the Hubble camera. The arms are also very rich in clouds of interstellar dust, seen as dark patches and streaks silhouetted against the starlight.
Image Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)
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