the moon begins another synodic cycle, from full on the 11th, waning gibbous to last quarter on June 18th and waning crescent to new on the 25th. Saturn and Mars will dance together in the Beehive's ballroom as the two planets and the open cluster M44 are in conjunction late in the week in the western sky, while Jupiter continues to rule the planetary views, transiting just after sunset.
As events to be captured by an amateur astronomer's telescope or camera go, supernovae are rare. However, this time of year - in the first or second week of June - we are witness to literally thousands of brilliant explosions, of energy released from stars growing beyond their bounds. This is the time of graduation. Stars in the sky of our lives, students - brilliant and shining - are approaching an end of one aspect of their lives and the beginning of another. As a star ages and grows, so do our students -- filling with knowledge. There comes the time when a star explodes to create nebula - seen from earth as rich reds, greens, and blues of excited and ionized gas. So, too our students burst forth through graduation into their adult lives, coloring our world with their richness, their opinion, their knowledge. Just as the stars in the heavens stir a sense of wonder, so do the possibilities and hope that follow our young adults - Utah Skies congratulates tomorrow's scientists, artists, doctors, and world leaders. As today's supernova graduates move on, let us ensure that our younger stars -- tomorrow's supernovae -- are given the gift of education that fuels their brilliant and explosive internal fires.
Finally, Utah Skies would like you to come visit our booth at the 2nd annual Watershed Festival at the Basin Recreation's Field House on Saturday, June 10th from 10am until 2pm. For more information on the night sky, preventing light pollution, or current astro news, browse to www.utahskies.org, your ticket to the stars.
Astronomy News
From Around The World, and Beyond
The Perfect Storm?
Monday, June 5th, 2006 - The two largest storms in the solar system are about to collide in an event of cosmic proportions. The best part of this is the fact that amateur astronomers with backyard telescopes will be able to see the whole thing. Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot and its namesake, Red. Junior are expected to converge around the 4th of July. How's that for some backyard fireworks. Checkout Science@NASA for more details, and be sure to point your telescope towards the planet Jupiter at every opportunity. Also, be sure to checkout Java Jup to see when the Great Red Spot will be visible from your area.
Thursday, June 1st, 2006 - Wednesday night, the Beehive Cluster (or more formally known as M44 or NGC2632) was in the middle of a swarm, so to speak. Buzzing closely around the open cluster were the Earth's moon and the planet Saturn, each dutifully orbiting their respective focus, like bees never straying far from the queen. (Ironically, the cluster in this image looks more like the bees!). Mars was wasn't far from the hive either, just a little more west. Pay attention to M44 next week as from June 13th through the 18th, the Beehive get busier when Mars appears to pass through the cluster on its way to a conjunction with Saturn where the two are less than 40 minutes apart.
The Moon, Mars, Pollux, and Castor - Close, But Not Really
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 - Last night, a fine crescent moon nestled between Mars and Gemini's brightest star, Pollux, with Castor farther right. In this image, there is an interesting contrast in distances present. While these object appear close together, they are in fact separated by great distances. The moon, as earth's natural satellite, orbits at a distance of less than 250,000 miles. Mars, is currently about 186,000,000 miles from earth, or nearly 750 times as far away! However, considering that the distance to Pollux is 204 trillion miles, and to Castor, 300 trillion miles, Mars and the Moon are a comparative "stone's throw" from each other!
The Moon Slides Close By Mars And Saturn
Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 - Tonight and tomorrow night (May 30th and 31st) will bring the Moon close to Mars and Saturn. The moon will sit between Mars and Gemini's Pollux tonight as a 16% crescent, and will join Saturn and the Beehive Cluster tomorrow night (check out NASA's Science Headline for more info). At less than 25% illuminated, the moon won't be so bright as to wash out the surrounding stars, so the views of these conjunctions should be spectacular through binoculars and wide-field telescopes. Of course, the heavens as viewed with the naked eyes is an ancient heritage, so find a dark site and look up!
Cassini Captures Sweet Shot Of Rings A Moon
Monday, May 29th, 2006 - The orbiting Cassini Spacecraft recently captured this sweet edge-on shot of Saturns rings along with its tiny moon Janus. The planet Saturn is well into the western sky at sunset now, so best views of the ringed planet are behind us. You can still check it out though for another month or two as it moves closer and closer to the western horizon each night. Saturn will then swing behind the sun and reappear in the eastern sky before sunrise late this summer. For more information, checkout the Cassini website.
A Beautiful Solar Prominence
Saturday, May 27th, 2006 - Sunspot activity may have slacked recently, but that doesn't mean that nothing is happening on the Sun. Checkout these sweet shots of solar prominences taken yesterday. Checkout Spaceweather.com for more details.
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 is again visible in the western sky, low on the horizon after sunset. It is climbing higher as it approaches its greatest eastern elongation on the 20th of June, at which time it will start its apparent fall 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. Some dates to pay attention to are June 23rd when the moon joins Venus along side the Pleiades, 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.
The past week was less than ideal for astronomical pursuits, but the reasons were themselves spectacles to behold. Summer thunderstorms bring much needed water to the high deserts of Utah, and sometimes the awesome wonder of a lightning storm. According to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, as the ice particles within a cloud (called hydrometeors) grow and interact, they collide, fracture and break apart. It is thought that the smaller particles tend to acquire positive charge, while the larger particles acquire more negative charge. These particles tend to separate under the influences of updrafts and gravity until the upper portion of the cloud acquires a net positive charge and the lower portion of the cloud becomes negatively charged. This separation of charge produces enormous electrical potential both within the cloud and between the cloud and ground. This can amount to millions of volts, and eventually the electrical resistance in the air breaks down and a flash begins. Lightning, then, is an electrical discharge between positive and negative regions of a thunderstorm.
The Moon reaches full on the 11th. Those observers that consider the moon "light pollution" don't necessarily look forward to this time of the synodic cycle as the moon's glow doesn't favor viewing of distant, elusive, and faint fuzzies - galaxies, nebulae, and clusters.
Remeber thought, as the moon 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 well before sunset after 6pm, placing it more 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.
Deep Sky
NASA News
NASA's Fuse Finds Infant Solar System Awash in Carbon
Scientists using NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, or FUSE, have discovered abundant amounts of carbon gas in a dusty disk surrounding a young star named Beta Pictoris.
The star and its emerging solar system are less than 20 million years old, and planets may have already formed. The abundance of carbon gas in the remaining debris disk indicates that Beta Pictoris' planets could be carbon-rich worlds of graphite and methane, or the star's environs might resemble our own solar system in its early days.
A team led by Aki Roberge of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., presents the observation in the June 8 issue of Nature. The new measurements make Beta Pictoris the first disk of its kind whose gas has been comprehensively studied. The discovery settles a long-standing scientific mystery about how the gas has lingered in this debris disk, yet raises new questions about the development of solar systems.
"There is much, much more carbon gas than anyone expected," said Roberge, a NASA postdoctoral fellow and lead author on the Nature report. "Could this be what our own solar system looked like when it was young? Are we seeing the formation of new types of worlds? Either prospect is fascinating."
Image left: In the Beta Pictoris Disk. Artist's conception of the dust and gas disk surrounding the star Beta Pictoris. A giant planet may have already formed and terrestrial planets may be forming. The inset panels show two possible outcomes for mature terrestrial planets around Beta Pic. The top one is a water-rich planet similar to the Earth; the bottom one is a carbon-rich planet, with a smoggy, methane-rich atmosphere similar to that of Titan, a moon of Saturn. + High resolution. Credit: NASA/FUSE/Lynette Cook
Beta Pictoris, about 60 light years away from Earth, is 1.8 times more massive than our sun. At eight to 20 million years old, it is very young. This young star's disk was discovered in 1984. Earlier observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck telescope hinted that a Jupiter-like planet may have already formed in this disk, and rocky terrestrial planets may be forming. Such planets would be too small and faint to observe with current instruments. The terrestrial planets in our solar system -- Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars -- formed from the collision of smaller planetary bodies such as asteroids about five billion years ago. During the few hundred million years after Earth was formed, asteroids and comets might have smashed into our planet to deliver virtually all of the water and organic material we see today. These materials are the building blocks of life on Earth.
Asteroids and comets orbiting Beta Pictoris might contain large amounts of carbon-rich material, such as graphite and methane. Planets forming from or impacted by such bodies would be very different from those in our solar system and might have methane-rich atmospheres, like Titan, a moon of Saturn.
"What we have learned in the past ten years is that our galaxy is filled with other solar systems, and each one is different from the next," said Marc Kuchner of NASA Goddard, an expert on extra-solar planets. "Beta Pictoris may be telling us something about the variety of planets that might be out there; some might be carbon planets, very different from the Earth."
Alternatively, Beta Pictoris might be similar to how our solar system was long ago. While local asteroids and comets don't seem carbon-rich today, some research suggests that certain meteorites called enstatite chondrite meteorites formed in a carbon-rich environment. Some scientists also speculate that Jupiter has a carbon core.
Image right: The Debris Disk Around Beta Pictoris. This image of the circumstellar disk around Beta Pictoris shows (in false colors) the light reflected by dust around the young star at infrared wavelengths. The Beta Pic disk is very likely an infant solar system in the process of forming terrestrial planets. + High resolution Credit: Jean-Luc Beuzit, et al. Grenoble Observatory, European Southern Observatory
"We might be observing processes that occurred early in our solar system's development," said Nature co-author Alycia Weinberger of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Other co-authors on the report are Paul Feldman, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and Magali Deleuil and Jean-Claude Bouret, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille in France. The FUSE project is a NASA Explorer mission, developed in cooperation with France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales and the Canadian Space Agency by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; University of Colorado, Boulder; and University of California, Berkeley. Goddard manages the program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
The Hubble Space Telescope has distinguished itself as a premier source of astronomical images and science. 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 this incredible information.Hubble Heritage Team.
ACS Image of NGC 5866
This is a unique NASA Hubble Space Telescope view of the disk galaxy NGC 5866 tilted nearly edge-on to our line-of-sight.
Hubble's sharp vision reveals a crisp dust lane dividing the galaxy into two halves. The image highlights the galaxy's structure: a subtle, reddish bulge surrounding a bright nucleus, a blue disk of stars running parallel to the dust lane, and a transparent outer halo.
Some faint, wispy trails of dust can be seen meandering away from the disk of the galaxy out into the bulge and inner halo of the galaxy. The outer halo is dotted with numerous gravitationally bound clusters of nearly a million stars each, known as globular clusters. Background galaxies that are millions to billions of light-years farther away than NGC 5866 are also seen through the halo.
NGC 5866 is a disk galaxy of type "S0" (pronounced s-zero). Viewed face on, it would look like a smooth, flat disk with little spiral structure. It remains in the spiral category because of the flatness of the main disk of stars as opposed to the more spherically rotund (or ellipsoidal) class of galaxies called "ellipticals." Such S0 galaxies, with disks like spirals and large bulges like ellipticals, are called 'lenticular' galaxies.
The dust lane is slightly warped compared to the disk of starlight. This warp indicates that NGC 5866 may have undergone a gravitational tidal disturbance in the distant past, by a close encounter with another galaxy. This is plausible because it is the largest member of a small cluster known as the NGC 5866 group of galaxies. The starlight disk in NGC 5866 extends well beyond the dust disk. This means that dust and gas still in the galaxy and potentially available to form stars does not stretch nearly as far out in the disk as it did when most of these stars in the disk were formed.
The Hubble image shows that NGC 5866 shares another property with the more gas-rich spiral galaxies. Numerous filaments that reach out perpendicular to the disk punctuate the edges of the dust lane. These are short-lived on an astronomical scale, since clouds of dust and gas will lose energy to collisions among themselves and collapse to a thin, flat disk.
For spiral galaxies, the incidence of these fingers of dust correlates well with indicators of how many stars have been formed recently, as the input of energy from young massive stars moves gas and dust around to create these structures. The thinness of dust lanes in S0s has been discussed in ground-based galaxy atlases, but it took the resolution of Hubble to show that they can have their own smaller fingers and chimneys of dust.
NGC 5866 lies in the Northern constellation Draco, at a distance of 44 million light-years (13.5 Megaparsecs). It has a diameter of roughly 60,000 light-years (18,400 parsecs) only two-thirds the diameter of the Milky Way, although its mass is similar to our galaxy. This Hubble image of NGC 5866 is a combination of blue, green and red observations taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys in November 2005.
For more information, please contact:
Keith Noll, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.,
(phone) 410-338-1828, (e-mail) noll@stsci.edu or
Bill Keel, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Al.,
(phone) 205-348-5050, (e-mail) keel@bildad.astr.ua.edu.
This weekend we move on to the constellation Corona Borealis The Northern Crown. This constellation sits between Bootes to the west and Hercules to the east.
The focus of our efforts here will be the deep sky objects of Corona Borealis
To find Corona Borealis, simply find the bright star Arcturus in Bootes. Remember to follow the arc of the Big Dipper to Arcturus ("Arc to Arcturus..."). Bootes extends north of Arcturus ("...and drive a spike to Spica"). Finally, move slightly east to "U" shaped Corona Borealis.
Corona Borealis, while not exactly a deep sky observers dream, offers a nice rich-field view of the constellation and surrounding stars. Scan through the area and examine the star patterns that it contains.
Ok, let's start things off with Irregular Galaxy NGC5958(mag13). You'll need at least 6" of aperture and dark skies to find this faint fuzzy.
Next we'll hit another Irregular Galaxy NGC5961(mag14). This dim and distant is also best observed with larger aperture scopes. Simply finding this (and a couple of it's fainter neighbors) is an accomplishment.
Continuing along we come to Irregular Galaxy IC4569(mag15)
Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, Irregular Galaxy IC4574(mag16).
Except for the fact that there are some bright stars nearby, this just may be the toughest Utah Skies Challenge Object ever. Are you up for the challenge?
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.
All light emitting from a fixture should be directed downward.
Floodlighting and spotlighting should be accurately aimed away from roadways and adjacent property.
Lighting should be shielded so that glare is not visible from adjacent property or from the street or highway.
MODERATION OF INTENSITY
Lower lighting levels provide better vision and require less re-adaptation of the eyes.
Excessively bright light spills onto other property and can cause glare even when shielded.
Maximum brightness levels should be established and not exceeded.
ENCOURAGE ALTERNATIVES TO GLARING, EXCESSIVE LIGHTING
Motion detector-activated lighting uses less energy and provides better security than constant light.
Encourage low level lighting which works better with closed circuit television.
Encourage alarms and other security measurers -- more successful than constant lighting.
LIGHT TRESPASS
Light should not spill onto other's property unless they want it too.
Fixture design, placement, moderation of intensity, and aim can help provide needed control from light trespass.
SIGNS INCLUDING BILLBOARDS
Signs should only be lighted internally or from lights mounted on top pointed downward.
Billboards should not remained lighted overnight.
n-premise signs should not stay lighted late or overnight after a business closes.
Dark colored signs with light letters reflect less light than dark letters on light signs.
Lights that flash, pulse, rotate, move, or simulate motion can annoy and distract.
ALL-NIGHT LIGHTING
Only lighting intended for security should be on all night if the business is closed.
ROADWAY GLARE
No light should be installed such that it produces excessive glare or excessive brightness that interferes with the vision of drivers and pedestrians.
A FEW EXCEPTIONS
Sports lighting should be allowed more brightness for the playing field, but directed downward and not allowed to spill into other property.
Christmas lighting, porch lighting, and landscape lighting are usually low intensity lighting not a problem unless it creates dangerous glare or nuisance.
courtesy ICOLE - Indiana Council on Outdoor Lighting Education
Stellar Sponsor Space
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it can become a nuisance.
Newsfeed
Sun
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Moon
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
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.
Ok, let's start things off with Irregular Galaxy NGC5958(mag13). You'll need at least 6" of aperture and dark skies to find this faint fuzzy.
Next we'll hit another Irregular Galaxy NGC5961(mag14). This dim and distant is also best observed with larger aperture scopes. Simply finding this (and a couple of it's fainter neighbors) is an accomplishment.
Continuing along we come to Irregular Galaxy IC4569(mag15) 
Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, Irregular Galaxy IC4574(mag16).
