September 4th, 2010
Waning Crescent Moon
moon

Astronomy Stuff

Richard

How Far Can You See?

The most distant object obersvable with the unaided eye is visible in our current night time sky. It is the Great Galaxy in Andromeda, M31. There are many ways to find this object. I prefer to use the constellation Cassiopeia.
Cassiopeia was the Queen of Ethiopia. She is commonly depicted as a lady on a throne, [...]

Seth Jarvis

Venus: It’s Just a Phase it’s Going Through

Grab your party hats and telescopes, it’s time to celebrate 400 years of observational heliocentrism.
You have a good opportunity this week to observe Venus and see the dynamic geometry of the solar system in action.
While you are looking at Venus, appearing like a diminutive first-quarter moon in your telescope’s eyepiece, consider this:

Dani Weigand

Tweet up offers VIP views of ATK ground test

Last year several Clark Planetarium staff members had the opportunity to watch the DM-1 test firing of the Ares solid rocket motor in Promontory, Utah. I was there, watching the visual representation of what 3.6 million pounds of thrust (22 million horsepower) looks like and it was pretty incredible.
Next Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010,  at 9:05 a.m. [...]

Robert Bigelow

Return of the Perseids

One of the most reliable and memorable meteor showers of the year will peak on August 12.  That’s when the Earth will collide with a stream of particles left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle. While these particles will hit Earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds of 130,000 miles per hour, there is no need for Earthlings to [...]

Jesse Warner

Illusions of the Seasons: Part 3

In our last two seasons discussions (part 1, part 2) we dispelled some common misconceptions about why we experience seasons here on Earth.  In this discussion, we will dispel the last misconception I presented and conclude our seasons discussion with an activity that you can do to help you better understand the seasons. 
The last misconception, The Earth’s [...]

Talia Butler

BOGO Offer at Clark Planetarium and UMFA

Clark Planetarium and The Utah Museum of Fine Arts have partnered to bring you the complete Maya experience.  Come to Clark Planetarium to see Tales of the Maya Skies which tells of Mayan astronomy, culture and achievement.  Tales of the Maya Skies, produced by Chabot Space and Science Center, uses full dome digital technology to [...]

Richard

2010 Perseid Meteor Shower

The Perseid meteor shower peaks at 6:00 pm, MDT, on Thursday, August 12, 2010. Predictions are for a healthy 90 meteors per hour at peak. A waxing crescent Moon will set early and give meteor watchers a good dark sky on the nights of the 11th and the 12th.
Regardless of the predicted peak hour, the [...]

Rob Morris

Aurora Watch for Salt Lake City (and other magnetic latitudes above 45N)

20% chance of an aurora visible tonight. Look to the north from a dark location!

Richard

Planetary grouping continues this week

Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn are all visible in the evening skies this week. Mercury sits alone near the Sun, but Venus, Mars and Saturn are grouping together. Mercury is 25 degrees away from the Sun and 20 degrees away from the other planets. Venus, Mars and Saturn are all within 10 degrees of each [...]

Richard

4 planets visible in the evening sky this week

Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn are all visible in the evening skies this week.
Mercury will be  the most difficult to see, being only about 20 degrees away from the Sun at the beginning of the week, and 23 degrees away from the Sun by end of week. However, it is a bright magnitude 0 object.
Venus [...]

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