Star Party Announcement
Moon and Venus
Look
for a small (18% illuminated) waning
crescent Moon to pose alongside the
planet Venus on Sunday morning. The two will be high in the eastern sky
before sunrise... and look much like the accompanying shot taken in May of
2005.
Great Observatories Unravel Kepler's Mystery
Astronomers combined images from 3 of the worlds most powerful telescopes (Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer) to unravel a 400 year old mystery. The mystery was the appearance of a new star in the western sky. We now know this event to have been a supernova... one of the most powerful events in the universe. For more information on Kepler's Supernova, checkout this NASA Press Release.
New Orbiting Observatory To Scan The Cosmos
NASA officials announced the approval of a mission to scan the cosmos in infrared light. Dubbed the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the orbiting observatory will be more than 500,000 times more sensitive than previous surveys. With its exceptional capabilities, astronomers hope to catalog the roughly 2/3 of all nearby stars that are too cool to see invisible light... study planet forming regions around nearby stars... and examine some of the most energetic galactic collisions in the universe. Checkout this NASA News Release for more details.
Newly Discovered Object Puzzles Astronomers
Astronomers using the the Gemini and Keck telescopes have discovered an object that is neither a star nor a planet. At one point in time, it was a star in a binary system... but gravity from its more massive companion stripped it of so much mass that it became unable to sustain nuclear fusion. It has become "a cool, dark ember about the size of Jupiter" that resembles no known star types. Click here to see what it looks like now... and here for a map to help you find it in the sky. For more information, checkout the Gemini Press Release.
SpaceShipOne Claims X-Prize
Scaled
Composites and its SpaceShipOne soared into history yesterday claiming
the $10
million X-Prize by making two manned space flights inside a two week
window. This incredible feat marks the beginning of a new era in space
travel and tourism. Find out more on CNN.com/SPACE.
Our Active Planet
In a sign that we too live on a very active planet, Mount St. Helens blows a large cloud of smoke and ash into the sky. Scientists fear that a major eruption could be imminent. Checkout CNN.com/SPACE for more details.
Blue Moon Alert
We're serious about this. With all the particulate matter being pumped into the atmosphere by Mt. St. Helens (see story above), conditions are ripe for seeing a blue moon! Volcanic particles can act as filters to red light... leaving the moon to turn blue. The proof is in this Oct. 2nd shot by Ryan Tiedeman at Bonney Lake, Washington. Skywatchers should be alert for blue moons in the weeks ahead.
Checkout Spaceweather.com for all the details.
25th Anniversary
The California-France-Hawaii Telescope is celebrating its 25th anniversary. This was once one of the largest telescopes in the world. Located at the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, CFHT is still returning incredible images as evidenced by the accompanying shot of Spiral Galaxy M101. Click here to visit their extensive image library.
Solar System
Sunspot
activity has all but ceased. Along the lower right of this SOHO image, you
can see sunspot #675... and back towards the middle #676. That's about it.
Sunspot activity is way down... though there have been some sightings of The
Northern Lights from very high latitudes. Things should start picking up
soon (we hope) since fall is generally aurora
season. Let's hope we don't break with tradition this year, right?
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: | 7:50 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | -1.29 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 5" | |
| Distance: | 1.42 AU | |
| Constellation: | Virgo |
Mercury has now vacated the morning sky. Look for Mercury in about a week low and above the western horizon just after sunset. Binoculars can be quite helpful in pulling the planet out of the glare cast by the rising Sun.
Venus, the 2nd Planet
| Rising: | 4:15 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | -4.08 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 15" | |
| Distance: | 1.09 AU | |
| Constellation: | Leo |
Venus
is now rising a little over 3 hours before the sun. This makes it an easy target
high in the eastern
sky. Those of you with any kind of view at all to the
east should be able to find the morning skies brightest planetary object..
Venus is now well passed the half-way point... and is currently 72% illuminated.
Venus is also starting to sink towards the horizon.. slowly at first.. but
it'll pick up the pace as fall progresses. Those of you who have been monitoring Venus with your telescopes will have
noticed that Venus' phase is increasing while its size is decreasing. This
is because Venus is moving away from us... and will disappear behind the Sun
in the coming months. Venus has recently moved into the constellation
Leo.
As a special treat, Venus will pose alongside the stars the Beehive Cluster. You'll (finally) be able to find the Beehive Cluster ;-). Just head outside in the pre-dawn hours... from about 3:30 until about 6:00am or so.... and look towards the east. Your eyes will instantly notice Venus because of its spectacular brilliance. If you look closely (yes... with the naked eye) you'll be able to spot the Beehive Cluster. Of course, the Beehive will look impressive in binoculars or a telescope a well. The two objects will come within about 2.5° of each other Sunday through Wednesday morning 9/12-15. This should fit within the field of view of some smaller, wide-angle telescopes... or virtually all binoculars.
Ever wonder why Venus has phases? Checkout this great animation to find out.
This beautiful image of the second rock was taken by B. Colville of the Maple Ridge Observatory
Need to no more about Venus? Checkout this article by The Planetary Society.
Earth, the 3rd Planet
Fall
is in the air.. and in the leaves. This gorgeous shot captures the fall colors
at The
Park City Mountain Resort.
Lunar Phase
The moon reached last quarter on Wednesday. In the meantime, we'll be under a waning crescent phase with 28% of the moons visible surface illuminated when it rises around 1:30am.
We're now getting into the more enjoyable lunar phases (from a deep sky perspective anyway ;). The moon rises late enough that we can seriously scratch our deep sky itch... over 5 hours worth :) And, when it does rise... it shows us some spectacular views. It also allows us the opportunity to observe it during the daylight hours. With the moon rising around 1:30am... it doesn't set until the middle of the afternoon... allowing you to sleep in (after going deep for a while the previous night) and still manage to get some nice lunar observing done.
The accompanying shot of a waning crescent Moon was taken in May of 2002 using a Canon Rebel 2000.
Mars, the 4th Planet
| Rising: | 7:00 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 1.74 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 4" | |
| Distance: | 2.63 AU | |
| Constellation: | Leo |
Mars has finally turned the corner... it is no longer moving away
from us. Mars has reached its faintest... and will begin to steadily
grow in apparent size and brighten. Next summer it will be well
placed for viewing again :-) 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 :-).
This beautiful image of the red planet was taken by B. Colville of the Maple Ridge Observatory.
Jupiter, the 5th Planet
| Rising: | 6:35 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | -1.67 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 31" | |
| Distance: | 6.42 AU | |
| Constellation: | Virgo |
Jupiter
has quietly slid into the
constellation Virgo after many, many months cruising through Leo.
Jupiter is now rising
early in the morning... about 1 hour before the sun. Jupiter can be found
low above the eastern horizon just before sunrise. You'll need Jupiter's
incredible brightness to be able to pull it out of the glare of the sun.
Jupiter will start providing nice morning views in the coming weeks.
Checkout this awesome shot of the solar system's largest planet, Jupiter. It was taken by former Utah Skies Featured Astrophotographer, Ed Grafton.
Saturn, the 6th Planet
| Rising: | 1:00 am | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 0.20 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 18" | |
| Distance: | 9.19 AU | |
| Constellation: | Gemini |
How's this for an awesome family portrait? The orbiting Cassini Spacecraft captured Saturn along with 5 of its moons using its wide angle camera. The image was taken on August 1st, 2004 from a distance of just over 4 million miles.
Moons visible in the image are (clockwise from upper left): Dione, Enceladus, Tethys,
Mimas and Rhea.
Click on the image for a larger view.
Uranus, the 7th Planet
| Rising: | 5:20 pm | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 5.76 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 4" | |
| Distance: | 19.31 AU | |
| Constellation: | Aquarius |
Interested
in viewing the 7th planet? Now would be a great time to try. The planet
reaches opposition
tonight. Opposition is the point where the Earth sits exactly between the
planet and the sun. This is also the time that our two planets will be at
their very closest... roughly 1.7 billion miles away. Uranus
is rising as the sun is setting... putting it in
view all night long. This shot of Uranus was taken by former Utah Skies Featured Astrophotographer, Ed Grafton.
Neptune, the 8th Planet
| Rising: | 4:20 pm | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 7.88 | |
| Visual Diameter: | 2" | |
| Distance: | 29.61 AU | |
| Constellation: | Capricornus |
This
beautiful trio of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope captures some
of the intricate detail within Neptune's clouds. From these images,
astronomers have gained insight into the composition and structure of
Neptune's upper atmosphere.
Pluto, the 9th Planet
| Rising: | 12:30 pm | |
| Visual Magnitude: | 13.98 | |
| Visual Diameter: | <1" | |
| Distance: | 31.27 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
NASA's Great Observatories Provide a Detailed View of Kepler's Supernova RemnantNASA's three Great Observatories — the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory - joined forces to probe the expanding remains of a supernova, called Kepler's supernova remnant, first seen 400 years ago by sky watchers, including famous astronomer Johannes Kepler.
The combined image unveils a bubble-shaped shroud of gas and dust that is 14 light-years wide and is expanding at 4 million miles per hour (2,000 kilometers per second). Observations from each telescope highlight distinct features of the supernova remnant, a fast-moving shell of iron-rich material from the exploded star, surrounded by an expanding shock wave that is sweeping up interstellar gas and dust.
Each color in this image represents a different region of the electromagnetic spectrum, from X-rays to infrared light. These diverse colors are shown in the panel of photographs below the composite image. The X-ray and infrared data cannot be seen with the human eye. By color-coding those data and combining them with Hubble's visible-light view, astronomers are presenting a more complete picture of the supernova remnant.
Visible-light images from the Hubble telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys [colored yellow] reveal where the supernova shock wave is slamming into the densest regions of surrounding gas.
The bright glowing knots are dense clumps from instabilities that form behind the shock wave. The Hubble data also show thin filaments of gas that look like rippled sheets seen edge-on. These filaments reveal where the shock wave is encountering lower-density, more uniform interstellar material.
The Spitzer telescope shows microscopic dust particles [colored red] that have been heated by the supernova shock wave. The dust re-radiates the shock wave's energy as infrared light. The Spitzer data are brightest in the regions surrounding those seen in detail by the Hubble telescope.
The Chandra X-ray data show regions of very hot gas, and extremely high-energy particles. The hottest gas (higher-energy X-rays, colored blue) is located primarily in the regions directly behind the shock front. These regions also show up in the Hubble observations, and also align with the faint rim of glowing material seen in the Spitzer data. The X-rays from the region on the lower left (colored blue) may be dominated by extremely high-energy electrons that were produced by the shock wave and are radiating at radio through X-ray wavelengths as they spiral in the intensified magnetic field behind the shock front. Cooler X-ray gas (lower-energy X-rays, colored green) resides in a thick interior shell and marks the location of heated material expelled from the exploded star.
Kepler's supernova, the last such object seen to explode in our Milky Way galaxy, resides about 13,000 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus.
The Chandra observations were taken in June 2000, the Hubble in August 2003; and the Spitzer in August 2004.
Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Sankrit and W. Blair (Johns Hopkins University)
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