Skywatchers were treated to a string of beautiful clear nights... with a
few more forecast to follow over the next several evenings. This coincides
nicely (not really) with the growing phase of the moon.
The Moon was full on Thursday... and we can look forward to its
retreat from the night sky as the weekend progresses. I'd say Saturday or
more likely Sunday night and beyond should offer up some nice (if somewhat
brief) deep sky opportunities. Night time lows might even climb into the
double digit range by then :-)
As the moon is going to be dominating the night
sky... we'll keep our weekend focus on some of the bright solar system
objects that are currently visible. We'll start this list off with a look
towards the west and brilliant Venus.
The planet Venus is at its absolute brightest now.... a blistering mag-4.7 This is
so intensely bright that many people mistake Venus for an airplane. Look for Venus high and towards the southwest as sunset is
approaching. Its so bright, you really don't even need to wait for it to
get dark. Of course, once it starts to get dark, Venus' brightness becomes
incredibly obvious. Those of you with telescopes will notice that Venus is
currently a sporting a waning crescent phase... with about 19% of the
visible surface illuminated. Over the coming weeks, its phase will
continue to shrink.. while its apparent size continues to grow. The reason
for this is that Venus is rapidly approaching Earth... hence its growth in
size. At the same time, the sunlit portion of the planet revealed to us
here on Earth is declining. Venus is currently about 46" in diameter... on
its way to just over 60" or 1' in January.
Moving eastward, we come to
the
planet Mars. Well off its recent peak of 20", Mars is currently 14" in
diameter. If you haven't gotten any nice views of Mars, don't waste much
more time. The red planet is beginning to fade fast. It'll drop below the
magic threshold of 10" in mid-January. Past this point, details of the
planets surface are beyond the reach of typical amateur telescopes.
Moving further to the east, the ringed planet
Saturn is now rising around 8:30pm. This puts it into a fairly steady
portion of the sky by around 10:30pm or so. Skywatchers armed with
telescopes are in for a real treat.
The planet Saturn provides some of the most spectacular views you'll
ever hope to see in a telescope. Even in the most modest of instruments,
its beautiful ring system is clearly visible. Take a moment out of your
busy schedule for a bit of eye-candy. You'll be glad that you did!
Rounding out the visible planets is the largest of them all..
the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is rising just after 4:00am. It should be
reasonably well placed for viewing around first light... say between
6:00am & 6:30am. Its also incredibly bright... currently around mag -1.75.
It's also quite large.. currently about 32". Jupiter has, in my opinion,
the most detail to offer to planetary observers. It's beautiful colored
cloud bands encircle the planet. These are generally visible... even when
skies are fairly turbulent. As skies steady a bit... details within the
cloud bands themselves begin to come into view. There are numerous swirls
and festoons that can be seen from time to time. Mixed in with this the
Great Red Spot... a giant hurricane-like storm first viewed by Galileo
several hundred years ago. Finally, we top this off with the 4 Jovian
Moons. Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. Like I said, Jupiter has lots to
offer. I got some views of Jupiter on Thursday morning. Skies were
marginal, at best... but I was still able to make out several of the
colored cloud bands... and 3 of the Jovian Moons. The forth, Ganymede was
hidden behind the disk of the giant planet. Actually, this is one of the
coolest aspects of observing Jupiter... watching the comings and goings of
its brightest moons. If you'd like to be know when any or all of these
features will be visible, there's a very cool web application called
Java Jup that'll tell
you what's visible at any given date and time. This is a must for any
serious Jupiter observers.
Astronomy News From Around The World... and Beyond
Friday, December 16th, 2005
The Real Lord of the Rings
The orbiting Cassini Spacecraft recently captured this exquisite shot of Saturn's
ring beautiful system. Taken in infrared, this shot highlights some gaps in the rings. From bottom to top, they are the Cassini Division, the Encke Gap
and the Keeler Gap. Checkout NASA's Planetary Photojournal for more details. Skywatchers Note: The planet Saturn can now be found rising in the
eastern sky around 8:30pm. It is one of the brightest star-like objects in the sky and can be seen without any optical aid. Of course, if you want to see
those beautiful rings, you're definitely going to need a telescope.
Wednesday, December 14th, 2005
Luna and the Seven Sisters
The Moon and the open clusterM45, also know as the Pleiades, were in conjunction last night. The view to the naked eye was of a very bright, waxing gibbous moon and just a few of the brightest objects in the vicinity; the Pleiades were not visible, though. This image however, a digital composition of two separate images, shows the two objects as they were in relation to each other. As the moon continues on to full and then wanes gibbous, the beautiful Sisters will once again shine in the evening sky.
Tuesday, December 13th, 2005
Saturn's Mysterious Bulging Rings
The orbiting Cassini Spacecraft has returned some incredible images of a
mysterious bulge in the outer edges of the planet Saturn's beautiful
rings. The bulge is only evident when the rings are viewed edge-on. Earlier images taken by the Voyager
spacecraft hinted at this phenomenon. Cassini will take additional images of the area so that the vertical extent of the bulge can be more
precisely measured. Checkout NASA's Planetary Photojournal for more details.
Monday, December 12th, 2005
A Pair of M's
As the Moon, in its ancient lunar ritual, sped around the Earth Sunday night December 11th, it had a close and beautiful encounter with the red planet, Mars. This chance meeting in the night sky - a conjunction - had the two celestial bodies (from our perspective here on Earth) less than a finger's width apart. This apparent proximity, measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds of arc, was about 49' when this image was taken, or less than two apparent moon-diameters. Look again Monday and Tuesday to see the Moon close to the Pleiades.
Saturday, December 10th, 2005
Weekend Conjunction
This weekend, look for a waxing gibbous moon to pose alongside M45... aka The Pleiades Star Cluster in an event known as a alignment. The pair will swap sides Saturday night & Sunday night as the moon continues its journey through the evening sky.
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! This week, however, the sun is quiet; there are no large sunspots visible.
Mercury remains visible in the western sky, low on the horizon after sunset. Having reached its greatest eastern elongation on the 20th of June, it is falling back into the sun's glare and it's inferior conjunction on July 18th.
Because of its proximity to the Sun, Mercury is never really viewed against a dark background. Rather, it always struggles to be seen over the light of the setting or rising Sun. Patience (and clear skies) will reward you with some beautiful evening views of this planet.
In the accompanying image, Mercury is seen following the sun toward the western horizon of southern Utah with a slender crescent moon close behind.
Still in the morning sky near sunrise, Venus marks a beginning of the "early-bird's" day. Having attained its greatest western elongation earlier in the year, Venus is continuing its inexorable journey appearing to fall into the sun towards its superior conjunction at the end of October.
If you have a telescope handy, take a peek at the love goddess' name sake; the crescent of Venus is lovely indeed. Venus was beautiful along side the Pleiades on the June 23rd , and look forward to the first of July when Venus rises with Aldebaran, the 14th of July when Venus and the Crab Nebula dance together, and the 26th and 27th of August when Venus and Saturn rise together less than a degree apart!
The ESA's Venus Express spacecraft is now in its mission phase. The ESA reports "On 3 June at 13:42 UT, after 207 days of flight, 43 orbits around Venus and many test activities, Venus Express has formally completed its commissioning phase and has entered the routine science phase...The nominal mission is scheduled to last till the end of October 2007." Venus Express will study the planet in great detail, in particular the Venusian atmosphere and clouds.
While we train our optics skyward nightly, there are visual treasures and marvels to behold earthward. Pictured here is a collection of richly colored rock in the Uinta Mountains, a massive range in Northern Utah carved by glaciers from an immense uplift of Precambrian rock. Some of this rock is exposed as colorful quartzite and shales. The main crest of the Uinta Mountains runs west to east for more than 60 miles, rising over 6,000 feet above the Wyoming and Uinta Basins to the north and south. The highest point in Utah is Kings Peak at 13,528 feet.
The Moon will be new on the 25th, and begin waxing crescent until first quarter on July 3rd, when it will wax gibbous approaching full on July 11th. Those observers that consider the moon "light pollution" look forward to this time of the synodic cycle as the moon travels with the sun, keeping the night sky dark, favoring views of distant, elusive, and faint fuzzies - galaxies, nebulae, and clusters.
Remember, as the moon waxes and wanes, you can look forward to those phases where Moon observations are most fascinating. Features appear - mountains, craters, rilles - as the sunlight casts long, defining shadows. Look along the portion of the Moon separating light from dark, known as the terminator, for the greatest contrasts.
The Red Planet is found high in the western sky at sunset as it moves to it's superior conjunction opposite the Sun later in the year. Look at this sweet shot taken by Utah Skies member Brian Jolley last year when Mars was at its closest. He took this through the historic Clark refractor at Lowell Observatory.
Even without a telescope the view of and around Mars is interesting. Having moved through the constellation Gemini, Mars is approaching a conjunction with Saturn around June 17th. On its way, it will pass through M44!
Planet Jupiter | Solar System | The Utah Skies Report
Jupiter is currently rising late in the afternoon, placing it favorably for those wanting views of the Sun's largest planet before heading off to bed.
This image is an example of what Jupiter has to offer viewers: interesting detail in the equatorial bands and, if conditions are right, swirls and festoons. Much beautiful structure can be seen through a typical telescope, but results vary depending on telescope aperture and sky conditions. Too, the Great Red Spot has some company: another storm has grow in proportion near the GRS, and has come to be known as Spot Jr!
If you have binoculars, point these towards Jupiter. While you won't be able to see any details on the planets surface, binoculars will clearly show you several of Jupiter's brightest moons, and regular observations will show them jockey for position as they orbit the giant planet. The movement is quite apparent, sometimes even in the span of a few hours.
This sweet shot of Jupiter nicely shows its great red spot and some of the incredible details just waiting your observation. Additionally, you can see one of Jupiter's moons eclipsing the giant planet. The round "ink spot" on the planet's surface is the shadow cast by its moon. Watching Jupiter's moons as they orbit and occasionally transit the giant planet is a very interesting part of observing Jupiter.
Saturn is now rising mid-morning and reaching the highest point in its path across the sky in the late afternoon; the spectacular views of the ringed planet will soon come to an end as it moves behind the sun with the passing weeks. Some truely great views of the ringed planet and its satellites are available on the Cassini Huygens pages. This sweet shot was taken by Don Brown of Utah Skies.
Uranus is currently rising in the early morning, about an hour after Neptune.. The Earth and Uranus have ostensibly achieved their greatest separation, and will soon begin to draw nearer again.
This fascinating image was taken from a ground-based telescope in the European Southern Observatory.
Planet Neptune | Solar System | The Utah Skies Report
The planet Neptune, is currently rising several hours before the sun, leaving you precious little time to view the 8th rock. To speed up your acquisition of the planet, look just east of south before first light. Find Deneb Ageldi; Neptune is just about 4.5° west and north of "the water goat's tail". At just a touch brighter than mag 8, Neptune should be visible as a faint star-like object in binoculars or as a bluish object in a telescope. Once you've found it, higher powers will clearly reveal the disk of the planet .
This beautiful image of Neptune and its moon, Triton, was taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft from a perspective that will never be had from Earth. Interesting to note is the gray hue of the planet in this image. The atmosphere of the planet preferentially scatters the light forward from this vantage and so removes the bluish tinge, and reddens the color.
Planet Pluto | Solar System | The Utah Skies Report
Pluto is rising before midnight, giving you the time you'll need to seek this faintest of planets. To know you've seen Pluto is going to require observations over several nights, carefully noting star patterns until you see one point of light move relative to the others: that's Pluto!!! But don't try this at home kids, unless you have some serious aperture, because at mag 15+, you're gonna need it!
This image of Pluto and its moon Charon was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, showing the improved performance of a space-based observational platform over ground-based telescopes.
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.
The Dog Star, Sirius, and
its Tiny Companion
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows
Sirius A, the brightest star in our nighttime sky, along with its
faint, tiny stellar companion, Sirius B. Astronomers overexposed
the image of Sirius A [at center] so that the dim Sirius B [tiny
dot at lower left] could be seen. The cross-shaped diffraction
spikes and concentric rings around Sirius A, and the small ring
around Sirius B, are artifacts produced within the telescope's
imaging system. The two stars revolve around each other every 50
years. Sirius A, only 8.6 light-years from Earth, is the fifth
closest star system known.
Sirius
B, a white dwarf, is very faint because of its tiny size, only
7,500 miles in diameter. White dwarfs are the leftover remnants of
stars similar to the sun. They have exhausted their nuclear fuel
sources and have collapsed down to a very small size. Sirius B is
about 10,000 times fainter than Sirius A. The white dwarf's feeble
light makes it a challenge to study, because its light is swamped
in the glare of its brighter companion as seen from telescopes on
Earth. However, using the keen eye of Hubble's Space Telescope
Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), astronomers have now been able to
isolate the light from Sirius B and disperse it into a spectrum.
STIS measured light from Sirius B being stretched to longer,
redder wavelengths due to the white dwarf's powerful gravitational
pull. Based on those measurements, astronomers have calculated
Sirius B's mass at 98 percent that of the sun. Analysis of the
white dwarf's spectrum also has allowed astronomers to refine the
estimate for its surface temperature to about 44,900 degrees
Fahrenheit (25,200 degrees Kelvin).
Accurately determining the masses of white
dwarfs is fundamentally important to understanding stellar
evolution. The sun will eventually become a white dwarf. White
dwarfs are also the source of Type Ia supernova explosions, which
are used because of their brightness to measure the distance to
distant galaxies and the expansion rate of the universe.
Measurements based on Type Ia supernovae are fundamental to
understanding "dark energy," a dominant repulsive force stretching
the universe apart. Also, the method used to determine the white
dwarf's mass relies on one of the key predictions of Einstein's
theory of General Relativity: that light loses energy when it
attempts to escape the gravity of a compact star. This effect is
known as the gravitational redshift of the light.
This image was taken Oct. 15, 2003, with
Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Based on detailed
measurements of the position of Sirius B in this image,
astronomers were then able to point the STIS instrument exactly on
the white dwarf and make the measurements to determine its
gravitational redshift and mass.
Credit:NASA, H.E.
Bond and E. Nelan (Space
Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore,
Md.); M. Barstow and M. Burleigh (University of Leicester, U.K.);
and J.B. Holberg (University of Arizona)
Our Constellation report is an easy way for people to become familiar with the nighttime sky. We’ll discuss myths associated with the various constellations as well as describing the numerous deep sky objects residing in the area. No equipment is required to view the constellations, though a star chart can be quite helpful. This ease of observing makes constellations a natural place to begin your journey to the stars.
This weekend we move on to the constellation Taurus the Bull. Taurus is easily spotted almost overhead. Its head is the Hyades, a beautiful V-shaped star cluster. His horns point outward from the V. Aldebaran is the red eye of the Bull as he charges down upon us.
Ok, let's start things off with the first object in the Messier list, Supernova Remnant M1(mag8.0). Also known as the Crab Nebula, this is the object which started Messier's list.
Supernova Remnant??? That's a new one.... You're right. We haven't visited one of these in a while. A supernova is the final stage in the life of a large star. Essentially, the star blows up when it runs out of fuel to keep the nuclear furnace burning. This particular supernova was seen by Chinese astronomers in 1054. It was so bright that it was visible during the day!
Located about 1° to the northwest of mag3 Zeta Tauri, this object is pretty easy to find. Keep the star within the outer ring of your Telrad and you're there. You do have a Telrad... don't you :)
In the eyepiece, The Crab appears as a soft, nebulous structure. As you increase aperture, you'll start to pull out more of these details... but... not the color. The eye simply isn't very sensitive to colors at low light levels. The Crab was recently imaged by both The Hubble and Chandra Space Telescopes. Check it out!!!
Next we'll hit the most spectacular Open Star Cluster in sky, M45(mag1.2). Also known as The Pleiades or The Seven Sisters, this is one of the most spectacular deep sky objects of any type. Easily visible to the naked eye from even the most light polluted of areas, this beauty is breathtaking from darker skies with some form of optical aid.
The Pleiades look like a tiny version of the big dipper. See the accompanying image... I'm not kidding. Located in the vicinity of mag1 Aldebaran and mag0 Saturn, these are a few easy targets for you.
Notice all the nebulosity in and around the cluster? Does it look this way in your telescope or binoculars?
From my viewing site (ok... from my driveway :) the stars were clear and bright. There was definitely some nebulosity that was directly visible. Using averted vision, I was able to detect considerably more. No.. not as much as in the accompanying Robert Gendler image. (That was created by combining several longer exposures.) But...certainly enough that you'd be sure without a doubt that you saw it. By the way.. I was viewing through my Orion AstroView 120 -- a 4.7" Refractor -- so this should be the case in most small to midsized telescopes. These telescopes provide nice rich field images. The only real drawback is that they display a bit of false color on brighter images
Moving on, we come to another beautiful open star cluster, The Hyades(mag0.5). Spanning over 5°, this is another easy naked-eye target. Checkout this shot of both The Pleiades (upper left) AND The Hyades (lower right) by Utah Skies own Anthony Arrigo.
The Hyades is a rather loose star cluster made up of around 100 member stars. The brightest star in the cluster, Aldebaran, is not actually a cluster member... merely a bright foreground star.
The Hyades is a GREAT target for binoculars. As I mentioned above, it spans over 5°. This is much wider than a telescope can view. So... the only way to view the whole thing is to use a pair of wide angle binoculars. This of course presents you with an amazing view.
Actually, this pair of clusters is a great way to get started on deep sky observing. Both objects are easily spotted with the naked eye... so... there's no difficult searching involved. Both objects look great with minimal investment in optics. ANY telescope or binoculars will do. Check it out!
This was another of my targets on Wednesday night. I preferred the view of the Hyades through my binoculars, a pair of 10x50's with a 7? field of view. Unless you have an extremely wide angle telescope, you'll probably feel the same way.
Here's a view of the Pleiades, the Hyades, and Mars as seen on October 30, 2005; this image scale is just about about what you're eyes would've seen. Taken with a Canon 20D, 31mm (50mm effective), and f/4.5.
Continuing, we come to a beautiful Planetary Nebula, IC1514. This could easily be a Utah Skies Challenge as the central star is listed at mag10... making the nebulosity that much fainter.
This beauty was created recently by former Featured Astrophotographer, Al Kelly using images from the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS). These were processed in AIP4WIN and Photoshop.
In case you haven't been to Al's website lately, you're missing out. Al has been as busy as ever creating some of the finest astronomical images available.
Let's wrap things up with this constellations Utah Skies Challenge Object, Irregular Galaxy NGC1552(mag14). This faint little galaxy will put your deep sky searching skills to the test. Fortunately, it's pretty small -- 1.9'x1.4'. This raises it's surface brightness to a whopping mag 13 per arcmin2. Not exactly blazing, but it should be within the reach of an 8?-10? telescope.
While you're there (you did find it... didn't you :) Anyway... While you're there, see how many of NGC1552's neighbors you can find. As the accompanying image shows, there are a handful of faint neighboring galaxies to be seen as well. Aperture requirements will climb rather quickly for these. I'd throw in clear dark skies as well.
Good Luck!
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.
Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting
Big news: A groundbreaking book on the impact of artificial night
lighting. It's entitled, "Ecological
Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting"... and is due to be released
sometime in November. Published by
Island
Press, this book is sure to shed some light (pun intended) on the very
important, if somewhat mis-understood, topic of
light pollution.
While certain ecological problems associated with artificial night lighting are
widely known-for instance, the disorientation of
sea turtle hatchlings by beachfront lighting-the vast range of influences on
all types of animals and plants is only beginning to be recognized. From nest
choice and breeding success of birds to behavioral and physiological changes in
salamanders, many organisms are seriously affected by human alterations in
natural patterns of light and dark.
Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting is the first book to
consider the environmental effects of the intentional illumination of the night.
It brings together leading scientists from around the world to review the state
of knowledge on the subject and to describe specific effects that have been
observed across a full range of taxonomic groups, including mammals, birds,
reptiles and amphibians, fishes, invertebrates, and plants.
Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting provides a scientific basis
to begin addressing the challenge of conserving the nighttime environment. It
cogently demonstrates the vital importance of this until-now neglected topic and
is an essential new work for conservation planners, researchers, and anyone
concerned with human impacts on the natural world.
Here's
another popular fixture from
Progress Lighting. Pictured here is the
P5712. This
sharp looking fixture is available in black or white and works well on
many styles of homes. This is an ideal design for a night sky friendly
outdoor light. The bulb is housed up inside the fixture... ensuring that
all the light that it outputs goes on the ground beneath it... and not in the night
sky in the form of
light pollution.
The fixture itself is just over 7" tall and 5" in diameter. Its
non-metallic and uses only non-corrosive hardware components for a very
long service life.
As you'd expect, you can find
this nice, dark sky friendly outdoor light in the
metallic wall
mount section of your favorite outdoor lighting retailer, Starry Night Lights!
Stay up to date on astronomical happenings by regularly checking the Utah Skies website at http://www.UtahSkies.org
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! This week, however, the sun is quiet; there are no large sunspots visible.
