|
If you have trouble viewing this newsletter, click here.
Welcome again to our monthly newsletter with features on exciting celestial events, product reviews, tips & tricks, and a monthly sky calendar. We hope you enjoy it!
The planet Jupiter is just making its appearance in the evening skies, and now dominates the southern horizon most of the night. For anyone who follows Jupiter closely, the giant planet presents a rather different face in 2007 than we’ve seen in recent years.
Credit: D. L. Sharp
The two images above, made by D. L. Sharp with an 8-inch Newtonian, clearly show the changes which have taken place since this time last year.
All we ever see of Jupiter is the top of its thick gaseous atmosphere, and it’s easy to forget that what we are seeing is clouds and that, as on our own planet, cloud patterns can change.
In recent years, the most obvious features have been two dark belts, known as the North Equatorial Belt and the South Equatorial Belt, with a lighter zone, the Equatorial Zone, in between, marking the planet’s equator. Bright Tropical Zones appeared north and south of the two main belts. This is shown in the image on the left; north is at the top in these images. The result was a fairly symmetrical array of belts and zones relative to the equator.
Fast forward to 2007
The most striking change is that the southern half of the South Equatorial Belt has faded, changed from dark to light. At the same time, the normally bright Equatorial Zone has darkened, and the North Temperate Belt, to the north of the North Equatorial Belt has also darkened. The visual effect of this is that Jupiter’s cloud belts have become noticeably asymmetrical: the whole northern half of the planet having become one dark complex belt, and the whole south of the planet becoming a broad bright zone.
To read the rest of this article, click here.
[Top of Page]
 Although I have a fine Dobsonian reflector which I use for most of my observing, I’ve long been on the lookout for a “grab and go” scope: one which I could carry outside in a minute or two for a quick look, or put, more or less in one piece, in the back of my car to take to public or school star parties. I’ve bought a number of potential “grab and go” scopes over the years, but they’ve all failed to satisfy in various ways: too bulky, too little aperture, awkward to set up or use. Recently Celestron developed a new size of SCT, something that hasn’t happened for decades. I’d always found their 5” SCT didn’t have enough aperture for the planetary views I like, and their 8” was too bulky to be truly portable, so their new 6” (actually 150 mm) looked promising.
The 6” optical tube is available in two configurations: either on a CG-5GT Advanced Series German equatorial mount or on the single-arm altazimuth mount used for years on the 5” and 8” NexStars. I didn’t want the weight and complication of a German equatorial mount, so went for the NexStar version. The weight difference is very significant: 30 pounds for the NexStar version vs. 52 pounds for the AS-GT version! The NexStar version can easily be carried in one piece, and, if necessary, can be broken down into two or three major components for transport: tripod, mount, and optical tube. The most recent versions of the SE series use a standard Vixen/Synta dovetail system for attaching the tube to the mount, which is a nice bonus.
To read the rest of this article, click here.
[Top of Page]
As I described last month, Venus and Saturn are rapidly approaching one another in the twilight sky. This is a reminder that they will be less than a degree apart on the evening of July 1, and will be a spectacular sight either with the naked eye or in a small telescope at low magnification.
You won’t believe until you see it how much larger and brighter Venus is than Saturn, both because of its closeness and its higher reflectivity. Don’t miss this!
Geoff Gaherty
Geoff has been a life-long telescope addict, and is active in many areas of visual observation; he is a moderator of the Yahoo "Talking Telescopes" group.
[Top of Page]
 Take a picture, win a prize. You could do just that!
Send us your original electronic images of solar system celestial objects—Planet, Moon, or Sun—captured with an Orion® StarShoot™ Solar System or Deep Space imaging camera, and you will be eligible to win one of three terrific prizes.
All images will be judged by Orion's panel of astrophotography experts, and three winners will be chosen. So fire up your StarShoot™ camera and take your shot!
Prizes to be Awarded
- First Prize: New Orion® StarShoot Deep Space Color Imager II—$699.95 retail value!
- Second Prize: Orion® ED80 Apochromatic Refractor OTA—$499.95 retail value.
- Third Prize: $200 Orion® Gift Certificate.
Deadline for image submission is July 31, 2007. Click here for full details.
Winners will be announced on or before August 31, 2007. Winning images will be showcased in the StarShoot™ Image Gallery at OrionTelescopes.com, and other submitted images of good quality will be posted in the Gallery.
Terry D'Auray
[Top of Page]
For those of us in mid-northern latitudes, it's probably best to start low; the underbelly of Scorpius skirts the southern horizon, making observation tricky.
The Scorpius Jewel Box is actually two open clusters in close proximity: the top one loose, and the lower one tight. A great binocular target.
NGC 6242 is an open cluster, and NGC 6281 is an open cluster with nebulosity.
C69 or "The Bug Nebula" (aka NGC 6302) is an interesting planetary which looks, at first glance, like a galaxy. The western side of the nebula has a prominent lobe with a tapered end while the eastern side is noticeably blunt.
NGC 6383 is a dim, wide cluster with nebulosity.
M6 is a bright and obvious open cluster which makes for an easy binocular target. Telescopes show rich detail and M6 is seen to be aptly named, "The Butterfly Cluster".
Three globular clusters sit close to Antares. M4 and M80 are well known, but a challenge is NGC 6144 because it sits so close to the 1st Mag red supergiant.
Antares itself is 600 lightyears away and glows with a luminosity 12,000 times greater than our own sun.
This area rewards binocular users generously. There are seemingly endless textures, patterns, star clusters and odd little clouds, all of which are well within the grasp of even basic optical aids.
Sean O'Dwyer
Starry Night® Times Editor
[Top of Page]
Phillip Holmes of Rockhampton, Australia took this photo of Rho Ophiuchus with his STL-11000M camera on a Televue NP101mm F/5.4 telescope. Exposure times 2x2 bin RGB 15min x 2 and Ha 1 x 120min and clear 1 x 115min. Darks, flats taken for all frames. Phillip writes: “the seeing was not that great and my focus is a tiny bit off.” Looks great to us.
PRIZES AND RULES:
We would like to invite all Starry Night® users to send their quality astronomy photographs to be considered for use in our monthly newsletter.
- Featured submissions (best of month) will receive a prize of $75 USD.
Please read the following guidelines and see the submission e-mail address below.
- Format: Digital images in either JPG, GIF or TIFF format.
- Size: 700 pixels wide maximum.
- File size should be less than 2 MB.
- Include a caption: Your full name, location where photo was taken and any interesting details regarding your photo or how you took it. Please be brief.
- Important notes: We may edit captions for clarity and brevity. We reserve the right to not use submissions. In submitting your image or images to Imaginova®, you agree to allow us to publish them in all media—on the Web or otherwise—now and in the future. We'll credit you, of course. Most important, you'll have the satisfaction of sharing your experience with the world!
- Send images, following the above guidelines, to photo@starrynight.com (by sending an image you agree to the above terms, including Imaginova®’s right to publish your photos). Please do not send .ZIP files as they will not reach us.
[Top of Page]
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
Metzada Israel Panorama
A new panorama of Metzada Israel.
|
|
|
Starry Night® Pro 4.x and higher users: simply download the archive, unzip, and place the resulting files in your Sky Data/Horizon Panoramas Folder.
Pedro Braganca
Content Director,
Starry Night®
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
A guided video tour of celestial events visible this month.
• Click Here to Download
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
Custom Time Steps
In Starry Night® Pro and Pro Plus, you can create entirely new discrete time steps. To do this, choose Edit from the bottom of the time flow pull-down menu.
This opens a new dialog box, which lists the existing time steps and their values.
Double-click on any of the existing time steps to change their values, or click the “+” sign in the bottom left corner of this dialog box to define a new time step. For example, you could create a “Martian day”, the average time between sunrise and sunset as seen from Mars!
Pedro Braganca
Content Director,
Starry Night®
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
Moon Phases
 Last Quarter:
July 7
 New Moon:
July 14
 First Quarter:
July 22
 Full Moon:
July 30
Planets
Mercury has moved to the morning sky and is not easily visible until about mid-month, when it rises in the East-northeast roughly an hour before the Sun.
As it has for some months, Venus opens the month as a surpassingly brilliant sight in the western sky after sunset. But by mid-month it is starting to dip sunward and by the end of the month this brightest of planets is hard even to find by the end of evening twilight.
Mars is in the morning sky, rising in Aries more than four hours before the Sun from mid-latitudes. Currently it is a small object in a telescope, although its distance slowly decreases and its apparent size increases in the coming months. Mars flees Aries for Taurus near the end of the month.
Jupiter, as is so often the case, rules the night. Not far from Antares in Scorpius, Jupiter is well up in the southeast sky at sunset. After Venus goes down it is unmistakably the brightest object in the sky when the Moon is not around. It remains a large and spectacular sight telescopically, setting several hours before sunrise.
Saturn is low in the western sky in Leo at mid month, and sets less than two hours later. Although appearing considerably larger than Mars in a telescope, Saturn appears much smaller than Jupiter (roughly 17 seconds of arc compared to Jupiter's 45). By the end of the month it is so deep in the glare of the setting Sun as to be difficult to find at all, and within a week or two after that is lost altogether until it reemerges in the morning sky in September.
Dates
Sunday, July 1
Venus/Saturn, 8:45 p.m.
Venus passes Saturn by less than a degree. While this event is in the still sunlit sky for all but some eastern locations in North America, the view should be spectacular everywhere after sunset. This also provides an opportunity to see how early you can pick out Venus, and then Saturn in a darkening sky. Could be a nice chance for a photo as well.
Friday, July 6
Earth at Apogee, 8:00 p.m.
The Earth is at its farthest point from the Sun this year, at 152,097,053 km (94,508,727 miles). This gives lie to the common misconception that the Seasons are caused by Earth's varying distance from the Sun. In fact, the slight change in distance has very little real effect. The real reason for the Seasons is Earth's tilt on its axis, alternatively tilted toward (Summer) and then away from (Winter) the Sun.
Saturday, July 7
Last Quarter Moon, 12:54 p.m.
About a week before the next New Moon and three weeks after the last New Moon, this phase represents the Moon about 75 percent through its current cycle. It rises at about mid-night (roughly 1 a.m. Daylight Time).
To read the rest of this article, click here.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
Join the Starry Night® Affiliate Program
If you publish a space or astronomy Web site or blog, earn extra cash by promoting Starry Night® on your Web site.
Click here to learn more!
It's easy to join and it's free!
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
Send us your feedback
Do you have a question, comment, suggestion or article idea to pass along to Starry Night® Times?
Click here to get in touch with us.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Starry Night® is the world's leading line of astronomy software and DVDs. Visit starrynight.com to see all the great products we offer for everyone from novice to experienced astronomers.
You have received this e-mail as a trial user of Starry Night® Digital Download or as a registrant at starrynight.com.
Starry Night® is a division of Imaginova® Corp.
To unsubscribe, click here.
To subscribe, sign up here.
Imaginova® Corp.
470 Park Ave South
9th Floor
New York, NY 10016
|
|
 |
|
