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Report for 2004-07-30 |
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Brought to you from beautiful Park City, "View-tah".
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Contents
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Astronomical Times
(Mountain Standard) |
| Sunrise: |
6:22 am |
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Sunset: |
8:45 pm |
| Astronomical Twilight Begins: |
4:30 am |
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Astronomical Twilight Ends: |
10:37 pm |
| Moonrise: |
8:38 pm |
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Moonset: |
4:36 am |
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| Wow, what a cranky stretch
of weather we've been having lately. Definitely atypical for northern Utah. We
generally don't even see clouds after about the middle part of June... never
mind rain in July. But... we've had plenty of both. Hopefully, this
means our drought is over. Let's get some rain and then have skies clear
quickly... ahead of the upcoming weekend :-)
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Last Saturday Night's Star Party
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| Thanks to all who turned
out for last Saturday nights event. I was certainly lots of fun. Along with
the expected subjects of The
Moon, Jupiter,
Hercules
and Andromeda...
we had a special treat. The
Northern Lights appeared mildly several times throughout the evening.
Their arrival basically stopped the event in its tracks. People just stood...
and stared at the northern horizon. It was a pretty sweet event!
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Aurora Borealis / Aurora
Watch
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 Sunspot
#652 was responsible for putting on quite a light show. Coronal Mass Ejections
(CME's) launched from the giant sunspot buffeted our planet for several days
last weekend. These were responsible for keeping geomagnetic activity in the
red zone. The result of all of this activity? Several wonderful nights of the
northern lights. Aurora Borealis made it as far south as Arizona. Thankfully,
they were seen right here in Park City, too :-)
As if to say goodbye, sunspot #652 launched a final Coronal
Mass Ejection (CME) in our direction. It should arrive on Friday 7/30.
This may trigger a display of the northern lights... currently estimated at 5%
- 10% likelihood for us mid-northerners. The full moon will wash out all but
the most impressive aurora :(
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 The
northern lights appeared several times over Park City on Saturday night and
into Sunday morning. The ones captured here came as we were cleaning up after
the Star Party.
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 The
northern lights also appeared over Burns, Oregon... Dick in Burns Oregon snapped
this shot. |
 And
over Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in Borrego Springs, CA. This shot was taken
by Dennis Mammana of SkyScapes.com. |
 And
over the lakes of Wisconsin as captured in this shot by Chris
VenHaus. |
 And
west of Edmonton, Alberta Canada as captured by Dave
Hughes. |
 And
over Cap-Rouge Québec Canada as captured in this
shot by Philippe Moussette. |
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Checkout the Spaceweather.com
Aurora Gallery to see more of the spectacular shots taken around the world. |
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Featured Astrophotographer
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Since we've been unable to update our "Astrophotographer of the
Month" on a monthly basis... we've renamed the section
"Featured Astrophotographer". This should take the
pressure off :-)
Special thanks to longtime Utah Skies member Brian Jolley for
preparing a wonderful spread for our most recent Featured
Astrophotographer, Stefan Seip.
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Blue Moon
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You've heard the expression... "once in a blue moon". Well, this
coming Saturday night we'll be under one. A
blue moon is the second full moon of the month. Will it actually be
blue? We'll just have to wait and see.
This shot of a blue moon as imaged by Kostian Iftica.
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Messenger To Launch Monday
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 NASA's Messenger Spacecraft
is set for a Monday morning launch. Messenger will be the first spacecraft in
30 years targeting the innermost planet, Mercury.
Mercury... a land of extremes is one of the most challenging environments
known to man. A place with 1100° temperature swings... between a blistering
800° during daylight hours and a frigid -300° at night. Messenger
will take 7 years to reach Mercury... and then spend a year orbiting the tiny,
rocky world.
Pictured here is the Mercury Dual Imaging System... a
wide-angle and a narrow-angle camera... designed to image the entire surface
of Mercury.
Checkout
the Messenger Website for more information.
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Live Spacewalk Coverage
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| The next spacewalk made by
astronauts aboard the International Space Station will be broadcast live on
NASA TV. Checkout
NASA's website for details.
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|
 Sunspot
activity on our star continues its on-again, off-again behavior. Right
now... as you can see... it seems to be shutting down again after some
frantic activity last week. The large sunspot #652 which threw fits last
week... has now rounded the corner and is headed for the suns backside. It
did send us a parting gift... which should hopefully cause some aurora
tonight!
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.
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| Rising: |
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8:50 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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0.66 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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8" |
| Distance: |
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0.82 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Leo |
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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.
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| Rising: |
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3:20 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-4.42 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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30" |
| Distance: |
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0.56 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Taurus |
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 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
39% 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.
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Earth, the 3rd Planet
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 Water
is one of the key ingredients shaping our planet. Its hard at work in this shot
of Granite Creek... just southwest of Jackson, Wyoming.
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 The
moon will be full tomorrow morning. This will be the second full moon of the
month... making it a Blue
Moon.
Today, we'll have a waxing gibbous moon with 99% of
the visible surface illuminated when it rises around 8:30pm.
Visit our Lunar
Information Page for even more great images and information
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| Rising: |
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7:50 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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1.84 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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4" |
| Distance: |
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2.60 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Leo |
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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.
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| Rising: |
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10:15 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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-1.76 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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32" |
| Distance: |
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6.10 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Leo |
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 Jupiter is now rising
early in the morning... and setting early in the evening. If you're going to
see Jupiter... at all.. you'd better have an unobstructed view towards the
west. Look for Jupiter low in the western 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 true color shot. It was taken
by the
passing Cassini Spacecraft on December 7th, 2000. .
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| Rising: |
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5:25 am |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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0.12 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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17" |
| Distance: |
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10.03 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Gemini |
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 Saturn
is now rising early in the morning... placing it just above the eastern horizon
before sunrise. You'll probably have trouble pulling it from the increasing
glare of the Sun. Saturn will begin to distance itself from our star in the
coming weeks... providing early risers an ever 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 southern
hemisphere...
including its moon
Mimas was taken by the Cassini Spacecraft
on May 20th, 2004 from a distance of 22 million kilometers.
Cassini was inserted into orbit around the
ringed planet on June 30th.
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| Rising: |
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10:30 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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5.74 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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4" |
| Distance: |
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19.20 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Aquarius |
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 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.
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| Rising: |
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9:30 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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7.84 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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2" |
| Distance: |
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29.08 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Capricornus |
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 Astronomers
captured this beautiful image with the Voyager II spacecraft. Checkout
this beautiful profile of the planet and its moon Triton.
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| Rising: |
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5:30 pm |
| Visual Magnitude: |
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13.88 |
| Visual Diameter: |
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<1" |
| Distance: |
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30.06 AU |
| Constellation: |
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Serpens |
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 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.
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Deep Sky
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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.
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 A Day in the Lives of Galaxies
Like a photographer clicking random snapshots of a crowd of people, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken a view of an eclectic mix of galaxies. In taking this picture, Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys was not looking at any particular target. The camera was taking a picture of a typical patch of sky, while Hubble's infrared camera was viewing a target in an adjacent galaxy-rich region.
The jumble of galaxies in this image, taken in September 2003, includes a yellow spiral whose arms have been stretched by a possible collision [lower right]; a young, blue galaxy [top] bursting with star birth; and several smaller, red galaxies.
But the most peculiar-looking galaxy of the bunch – the dramatic blue arc in the center of the photo — is actually an optical illusion. The blue arc is an image of a distant galaxy that has been smeared into the odd shape by a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. This "funhouse- mirror effect" occurs when light from a distant object is bent and stretched by the mass of an intervening object. In this case the gravitational lens, or intervening object, is a red elliptical galaxy nearly 6 billion light-years from Earth. The red color suggests that the galaxy contains older, cooler stars.
The distant object whose image is smeared into the long blue arc is about 10 billion light-years away. This ancient galaxy existed just a few billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe was about a quarter of its present age. The blue color indicates that the galaxy contains hot, young stars.
Gravitational lenses can be seen throughout the sky because the cosmos is crowded with galaxies. Light from distant galaxies, therefore, cannot always travel through space without another galaxy getting in the way. It is like walking through a crowded airport. In space, a faraway galaxy's light will travel through a galaxy that is in the way. But if the galaxy is massive enough, its gravity will bend and distort the light.
Long arcs, such as the one in this image, are commonly seen in large clusters of galaxies because of their huge concentrations of mass. But they are not as common in isolated galaxies such as this one. For the gravitational lens to occur, the galaxies must be almost perfectly aligned with each other.
Gravitational lenses yield important information about galaxies. They are a unique and extremely useful way of directly determining the amount of mass, including dark matter, in a galaxy. Galaxies are not just made up of stars, gas, and dust. An invisible form of matter, called dark matter, makes up most of a galaxy's mass. A study of this newly discovered system, dubbed J033238-275653, was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. This study, together with similar observations, may allow astronomers to make the first direct measurements of the masses of bright, nearby galaxies.
Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Blakeslee and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University)
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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.
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Stay up to date on astronomical happenings by regularly
checking the Utah Skies website at http://www.UtahSkies.org
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