Recently in ASTRONOMICAL EVENT Category

Our astronomy consultant Dan Joyce, astronomer at Triton College's Cernan Space Center has passed on three more spectacular photos taken out in the northwest corner of Illinois just south of Elizabeth in Jo Daviess County.

This photo was shot with an 8" telescope is IC1871, also known as the "Heart and Soul Nebula" in Cassiopeia, probably just over 2,000 light-years away.

This photo, taken with a 10" scope depicts IC 405 also known as the "Flaming Star Nebula" in Auriga and is about 1,600 light-years out. The bright star varies its radiant output but averages 950 times the solar luminosity. The reddish color is hydrogen fluorescing in the star's ultraviolet radiation and the bluish-purple is a reflection of the star's own color mixed with the glowing hydrogen.

The last photo is galaxy IC 342 (it has no fancy name) and is about 11,000,000 light-years away in the obsure northern constellation of Camelopardalis. This shot was taken with an 8" telescope.

Astronomical smorgasbord
Our astronomy consultant Dan Joyce, astronomer at Triton College's Cernan Space Center was kind enough to share this spectacular array of photos with us. These shots were taken with the telescopes pictured below just south of Elizabeth, Illinois located in the far northwest part of the state near Galena. The crystal-clear dark skies of Jo Daviess County necessary to produce these great shots were provided by Dan's long-time friend Sheldon Faworski. Dan is currently building a new 12.5 inch telescope which is scheduled to be put into use in the next few weeks and should produce even more outstanding photos.

The 6 inch white scope and the 10 inch red scope

The 8 inch telescope

An emission nebula depicting a vast array of stardust glowing in the light of hydrogen excited by ultra-violet light of nearby stars known as NGC6820 about 1,500 light years out in the direction of the Cygnus-Cepheus border. This shot was taken by the 8 inch scope.

This is a picture of the star clusters of M38 (on the left about 4,500 light years) and NGC1907 (on the right about 14,000 light years out) in Auriga just north of the horns of Taurus. This photo was shot with the 6 inch telescope.

This photo shows the reflection nebula known as the "Ghost Nebula". vdB141 in Cepheus taken by the 10 inch scope and thought to be 2,500 light years away.

M38 is the 38th object in Charles Messier's catalog of objects not to be confused with comets.
NGC1907 and NGC6820 are those entries into Johann Dreyer's "New General Catalog" of objects including clusters, nubulae and galaxies. Finally, vdB141 in that entry into Sidney van den Berg's catalog of very faint objects.

Thanks again Dan for these great photos and accompanying explanations.

Posted by Steve Kahn WGN Weather Center Meteorologist

The astronomical community has been abuzz for some time regarding the remarkably low level of solar activity (sunspots) in recent months. Our astronomer Dan Joyce says the situation is truly abnormal--especially in a period in which the sun should be cycling into a more active phase as a new 11 year solar maximum approaches. This geomagnetic plot back to 2000 underscores just how anomalous the low level of solar activity has been. The sun is in a less energetic state when sunspots are so limited and there are some in meteorology and astronomy who believe this can have an effect on earth's weather. It's a situation which is going to be interesting to follow. Our thanks, as always, to Dan Joyce for his insight and expertise on this subject and for sending us this geomagnetic activity plot.

Tom Skilling

Graph courtesy of astronomer Dan Joyce, Cernan Earth and Space Center, Triton College

Our intrepid astronomer Dan Joyce has forwarded this spectacular shot of Jupiter,
photographed by his colleague Don Parker. As Dan e-mailed to us:

"Jupiter is dominating the southern sky this summer. Anyone can see it in a clear
sky to the southeast before midnight and in the south thereafter for the rest of the
season. The interesting feature is that the Great Red Spot has been joined by two little
red spots nearby. The GRS, for scale, extends almost two-and-a-half earth diameters
and is a centuries old anti-cyclonic storm system with winds measured by the Voyager
I spacecraft at nearly 350 miles per hour. Jupiter itself weighs about 318 times the
earth."

Thanks Dan!

-Tom Skilling

The International Space Station rises in the southwest then passes overhead Wednesday
night between 9:40 and 9:47 pm

Thanks to e-mailer BobK who alerts us to Wednesday night’s pass of the International
Space Station between 9:40 and 9:47 pm. Here’s additional information Bob has been
kind enough to forward to us:

Weather permitting, the best viewing of the International Space Station flying
overhead in quite a while will be this Wed May 21 at 9:40pm. The space station will fly
directly overhead between 9:40pm and 9:47pm, making it a very long and bright event.
(Of course, it will still be just a very bright moving “star” in the sky).

Here is a map of its path (Note: This is designed to be printed out and held overhead, so
that the compass directions are correct) It will rise in the south-west around 9:40pm,
pass overhead at approximately 9:44pm, and finally set in the north-east around 9:47
p.m.

Sheldon Faworski has forwarded us this photograph of the core of Comet Holmes taken last Friday night (11/9/2007). Comet Holmes, still faintly visible on clear nights, appears about 40-degrees above the northeast
horizon just after sunset, our astronomer Dan Joyce tells us, then transits (moves) nearly directly overhead by about 1:30 a.m. Early risers may see it about 45-degrees above the northwest horizon just
before sunrise. The comet has led to e-mails from many of you who monitor the night skies. Dan reports it exploded with no advance warning in late October, turning much brighter in the process. Though visible to
the naked eye, as what Dan terms a "softly focused planet", it can be seen more clearly through the use of binoculars or a telescope.

This photo from Dan's friend and astronomical colleague Sheldon Faworski, offers us a view of the comet with fascinating detail. Sheldon wanted us to know that our Dan Joyce produced the mirrors used in his telescope and that he (Sheldon) actually constructed the telescope through which this photo was taken. Thanks to both Dan and Sheldon for alerting us to the Comet Holmes and for the wonderful photo.

Tom Skilling

Photo courtesy: Sheldon Faworski

Samuel Shea, service climatologist at the Midwestern Regional Climate Center in Champaign, shares this amazing collage of images from this morning's lunar eclipse. In his e-mail to me, Sam tells us:

"...the weather could not have been any more perfect here. The images were captured in the lawn of the Illinois State Water Survey/Midwestern Regional Climate Center."

Sam tells us he has other pictures online from various times during the eclipse if you click on this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/samuel.shea/LunarEclipse20070828


Thanks SO MUCH for sharing these with us, Sam, and please pass along our best wishes to all of your colleagues at the Illinois State Water Survey and the Midwestern Regional Climate Center!

Tom Skilling

Photo courtesy: Samuel Shea

Michael Durr of Westmont, Illinois has sent us these marvelous time exposure photographs taken from his backyard in Westmont of the International Space Shuttle and the Space Shuttle Atlantis passing over the Chicago area. He took these photos at 9:52 pm Wednesday evening, June 20, 2007 and e-mailed us that "it's amazing to think about people flying over us at that height and speed."

How true! Many thanks for sharing these with us Michael! They are spectacular!

-Tom Skilling


Photo Courtesy: Michael Durr

Many thanks to Anson Mount who sent us these beautiful pictures of the waxing crescent moon and the planet Venus taken this chilly evening just about an hour after the 7:07 p.m. vernal equinox which marked the official start of astronomical spring.