7th Edition	August 2004

 

To friends and fans of Distant Suns. Welcome to August 2004 celestial newsletter showing you what�s up in the sky and how to make the best use of Distant Suns to observe these stellar treasures. We hope you'll enjoy reading, just as much as we enjoyed creating!    The Wanderers     The evening skies are nearly devoid of planets this month. Mighty Jupiter may be just visible low in the western horizon not too long after sunset, but will soon disappear altogether only to reappear in the early morning skies.  Venus is officially the morning star, blazing fourth at a �4.3 magnitude, almost at its brightest. Saturn also joins it in the morning as well. For a few days immediately after Cassini entered the orbit of the ringed giant, it was eclipsed by the sun. As a result we were out of communications for several days. The same happens with Mars and the MER rovers in about 6 weeks.         Perseid Meteor Shower      Out of the 10 major meteor showers of the year, the Persieds in August are considered to be the most reliable and the best. Meteor showers are produced as the earth sweeps through a trail of dust and debris usually left by a passing comet. The �shooting stars� visible on most nights are typically no larger than a grain of sand. The larger fireballs, some visible even in daylight might only be a few pounds worth of material. You can identify a Perseid meteor from random ones due to their direction, as a Perseid will be seen radiating from the constellation of Perseus like spokes in a wheel. The major part of the Perseid shower goes from August 10 to 15 and typically peaks on the evening of the 11th to 12th as it will do this year. This shower is known for having a wide variety of meteors, the fainter ones being white or yellow, brighter ones, green, orange, deep red and in some cases violet. About 1/3 leave trails. There will be occasional fireballs often ending in bursts. Some of the larger ones have been known to split or explode half way through. Showers are best observed in between 2 am and sunrise. Having a thermos with some hot chocolate, a bag of popcorn and some of your favorite tapes can make for a pleasurable time for the whole family. An old moon ensures nice dark skies as opposed to last year�s full moon. Unlike most showers that have rapid buildups and short peaks, the Perseid cloud is quite broad, and hence produces shooting stars all the way from late July, to beyond mid-August. Image courtesy of Dautel Nathalie             NGC457 Open Cluster in Cassiopeia     One of the most distinctive constellations in the sky is the lopsided �W� of Cassiopeia.  Below and to the right of the left �Dub� is the attractive little open cluster NGC457. At magnitude 6.4 it is barely visible to the unaided eye under the best seeing, but with a pair of binoculars it should be quite easily found. An "open cluster", is a loose association of stars usually numbering anywhere from a dozen on up to several hundred. This one contains about 60 known members of which two dozen should be visible in a small telescope. There are a couple of very bright foreground stars that form a nice pair which resemble a couple of eyes peering out from the depths of space with the fainter stars forming what some think looks like an owl. One of the "eye" stars seems to show evidence of being one of the most luminous and a clear rival to Rigel in Orion, shining with the brightness of 275,000 Suns! NGC457 is about 9000 light years away and 30 light years across. If you can find this cluster, why not try for a double-header and look for M103 only a degree away from bottom of the left half of the "W" and three degrees from the other cluster. Open cluster M103 was the final entry into the original "Messier" catalog of objects. Over 40 stars have been counted in the cluster that is 15 light years across, over two times dimmer and only half the size as NGC457.        Wacky Constellation of the Month : Scutum            Scutum, "The Shield" was created in 1684 to honor King John III of Poland. It was a common practice for court astronomers to honor their benefactors with constellations of their own, and Scutum is the sole remaining survivor of this lot. Being the 5th smallest in the sky, it doesn't look like much to the naked eye, the brightest stars being only 4th magnitude. M11 listed below is the most noteworthy single object  Three degrees south of M11 is a smaller cluster, M26 which contains about 100 stars. As pretty as M11 is, Scutum is known primarily for the deep and rich galactic star clouds from the Milky Way which adorn the background.   Jan Sobieski (1629-1696) was the eldest son of the castellan of Crakow, Jakob Sobieski.  He was a brilliant military leader and by 1665 had become the field commander of the Polish army. The main threat to Poland at this time (indeed to all of central Europe) came from the Turks.  While Sobieski attempted to repulse the Turks, the Polish king's envoys ceded all the Ukraine to Turkey.  Meanwhile Sobieski won victory after victory.  In November of 1673 the king died.  Sobieski left the front lines and presented himself as a candidate for the throne back in Warsaw (the kingship was an elected position). In May of 1674, he became King John III.  Sobieski returned to his former job as army commander, and after nearly a ten year struggle, he was able to sign the Treaty of Warsaw with Leopold I.  Following this treaty, Sobieski further safeguarded Europe from the Turks.  Personally leading the Polish cavalry, on September 12, 1683, he broke the Turkish siege on Vienna, and liberated Hungary in the bargain.  Seven years later, Hevelius commemorated these events with the inclusion of Scutum Sobieskii  in the heavens.   Image courtesy of Till Credner       M11 � Open Cluster in Scutum     Scutum, the Shield, is one of the more �obscure� constellations, at least as far as the general public is concerned. While a small constellation, it has an exceptional open cluster, M11 bordering the northern edge of the star clouds in Scutum. It is called �The Wild Duck� cluster, because there are numerous �V� shaped patters looking like ducks or geese heading south for the winter. Resembling a globular cluster in binoculars, M11 turns into a triangular swarm of stars containing hundreds of members brighter than 14th magnitude. The cluster is about 15 light years in diameter and considered to be about 500 million years old. Image courtesy of Bill Keel       Space News     We really are in a new golden age of planetary exploration. With a comet sample return, comet impactor, 2 Mars rovers, a Mars orbiter, Saturn orbiter and Titan lander all in progress or nearly so, we suffer from an embarrassment of riches. Joining this party is the launch of the MESSENGER mission to the enigmatic little planet Mercury. On August 2 at 2:16 AM EDT, MESSENGER will leap away from the Earth on its tower of flame for a 7 year long odyssey to the closest planet. Orbital insertion is slated for March 2011. Why 7 years? Because of the great differences in orbital speeds between the Earth and Mercury, Mercury being much slower, a lot of energy has to be used to actually slow the spacecraft up. That could either be done by rockets adding extra weight and complexity to the spacecraft (bumping off experiments), or by using a complex gravity assist trajectory, used so successfully for the Galileo, Cassini and other planetary missions. You may watch the launch live on NASA TV.    for TV links.    for the MESSENGER home page. The ISS crew will be making another space walk on the morning of August 3. As with all other ISS events, this will be carried live as well on NASA TV. Just remember, that the very first space walk lasted only 10 minutes, in 1965. The crew will be adding in support equipment for automated dockings as well as some experiments. The MER rovers keep on rolling along. Spirit just passed 200 days. In spite of having a bum wheel, it has a lot of life left in it as it continues exploring the foothills of Gusev Crater. Near plans call for it to scale the top of a little nearby hill to examine an interesting rocky outcropping. Gusev is thought to be a former lake, and the floor was expected to be sedimentary in nature. But it has only shown volcanic basalts up to now, suggesting that later volcanic activity buried the lake bottom material. However it is hoped that the outcrops might have lifted some of that lakebed up through the surface.  to see. Meanwhile, Opportunity is still examining the interior of Endurance crater, hitting some 30 degree slopes at spots. After over 6 weeks inside the crater there is no telling just how much longer it will be until it climbs back up onto the plains. But once it does so, there has been some talk of traveling over to the heatshield nearby and examining that for engineering studies, then heading on south for several kilometers to pick up on some interesting features spotted from orbit.  for a view looking up slope back to the rim of the crater.       The Month of Star Parties     For beginning astronomers, perhaps the best way to get acquainted with the hobby is via a �Star Party�. Star Parties are all night viewing sessions typically hosted by local astronomy clubs. Here you will find a large assortment of instruments and sky fans eager to share their knowledge and hobbies with others. No scope is needed, just a wide-eyed wonder and some munchies. In Canada, the largest gathering is Starfest 2004, in late August. Canada friends, . For our British friends,  to go to Astrocamp . And the �granddaddy� of US events is Stellafane, in Vermont - . No doubt there are local and more intimate gatherings as well. Check out the full calendar at SkyandTelescope.       The Space Place Do you have children in elementary school? Are they also interested in astronomy and space? If you can answer yes to both these two questions, you should take them on a trip to this cool educational NASA site.  "...The bare beginnings of the Space Place appeared online in February 1998. It was started as an education and public outreach project of NASA's New Millennium Program, which continues to be its primary supporter. Its target audience is elementary school age kids. They felt it was important to reach this young audience with the message that science and technology and learning about space are fun, understandable, and within their grasp. They designed it with a very kid-friendly "by kids, for kids" look and feel. It is very modular, so visitors can pick and choose different projects or activities that are self-contained". Click the image to start learning your kids what astronomy is all about........

Featured Web Site The Wanderers Perseid Meteor Shower NGC457 Open Cluster in Cassiopeia Wacky Constellation of the Month : Scutum M11 Open Cluster in Scutum Space News The Month of Star Parties Distant Suns price increase Grand Tour 3D Pro The Space Place Distant Suns 5.3    *Final Sale Price*    Factlet of the month    Journey to Mars with this Web-based simulator!  Using current and developing technology, we can land a crew on Mars by the year 2015. This is reality. "...in no less than 10 years and certainly no more than 20, we're going to see Astronauts on the Red planet. There is no doubt in my mind." -Dan Goldin, former NASA administrator, 1999. On this site, explore and evolving design of a Mars habitat, based on current concepts of engineers and designers. As you walk through the simulation, discover the science, technology and hazards of a near future mission to the red planet.   To get started on this month's featured web site.....                                     Factlet of the month  Will better images than the Hubble Deep Field ever show the edge of the universe?  What you will see will be an increasing number of younger and younger objects until you reach a point where the individual objects are too faint to see and only their diffuse light remains...like the billions of stars that make up the faint glow of the Milky Way. Eventually you reach objects so young that you arrive at the 300,000 year marker when all that existed was a dilute plasma, which is the glow seen by the COBE and WMAP satellites. You never reach a true edge to space. You just run out of objects that are old enoughand bright enough to be detected.

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Essential Web Links

Atmospheric Optics -- the first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. See also Snow Crystals.

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. (European Mirror Site)

Daily Sunspot Summaries -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Current Solar Images --a gallery of up-to-date solar pictures from the National Solar Data Analysis Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center. See also the GOES-12 Soft X-ray Imager.

Recent Solar Events -- a nice summary of current solar conditions from lmsal.com.

SOHO Farside Images of the Sun from SWAN and MDI.

The Latest SOHO Coronagraph Images -- from the Naval Research Lab

The Sun from Earth -- daily images of our star from the Big Bear Solar Observatory

List of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

Observable Comets -- from the Harvard Minor Planet Center.

What is the Interplanetary Magnetic Field? -- A lucid answer from the University of Michigan. See also the Anatomy of Earth's Magnetosphere.

Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from NASA's ACE spacecraft. How powerful are solar wind gusts? Read this story from Science@NASA.

More Real-time Solar Wind Data -- from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Proton Monitor.

Aurora Forecast --from the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute

Daily Solar Flare and Sunspot Data -- from the NOAA Space Environment Center.

Lists of Coronal Mass Ejections -- from 1998 to 2001

What is an Iridium flare? See also Photographing Satellites by Brian Webb.

Vandenberg AFB missile launch schedule.

What is an Astronomical Unit, or AU?

Mirages: Mirages in Finland; An Introduction to Mirages;

NOAA Solar Flare and Sunspot Data: 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003; Jan-Mar., 2004;

Space Audio Streams: (University of Florida) 20 MHz radio emissions from Jupiter: #1, #2, #3, #4; (NASA/Marshall) INSPIRE: #1; (Stan Nelson of Roswell, New Mexico) meteor radar: #1, #2;

Recent International Astronomical Union Circulars

GLOSSARY | SPACE WEATHER TUTORIAL