Astronomy Picture of the Day 6-28-03

NASA ^ | 6-28-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 June 28

Messiers and Mars
Credit & Copyright: Michael Cole

Explanation: A telescopic tour of the constellation Sagittarius offers the many bright clusters and nebulae of dimensioned space in a starscape surrounding the galactic center. This gorgeous color deep-sky photograph visits two such lovely sights, cataloged by the 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier as M8 and M20. M20 (upper left), the Trifid Nebula, presents a striking contrast in red/blue colors and dark dust lanes. Just below and to the right is the expansive, alluring red glow of M8, the Lagoon Nebula. Both nebulae are a few thousand light-years distant but at the far right, the dominant celestial beacon is a "local" source, the planet Mars. Just passing through Sagittarius and strongly overexposed in this picture, the Red Planet was a short 4 light-minutes away. Now headed for its closest approach to planet Earth in recorded history, Mars rises in the east southeast by midnight shining brightly at about -1.4 magnitude. Urban imager Michael Cole recorded this photograph at 3:00 AM on May 20th, 2001 in clear skies over Camp Hancock, Oregon, USA.

[petuniasevan]

Brilliant Mars is a prominent feature in southern skies as we "catch up" to it (like a car overtaking on the inside lane at a racetrack). Closest approach is in late August.

You really can't miss Mars. It's rising earlier each night as a bright orange-red "star" in the southeast. By late August it will be rising soon after sunset.

[petuniasevan]

[firewalk]

Good morning
bttt

[Joan912]

Ooh! Beautiful!

[RightWhale]

I'll attempt to spot Mars in about a month. There are no stars visible until after the first of August and you have to have excellent sky conditions and know where to look to see anything dimmer than Vega until after Aug 14 at local midnight.

[petuniasevan]

...Plus Mars will be very low in Alaskan skies. At its zenith it will be only about 13 degrees above the southern horizon.

If you were to look for it now, Mars at magnitude -1.33 rises out of the east-southeast at local 2 AM at a VERY shallow angle. It would be like hunting for Mercury in twilight at your latitude. Binoculars would be needed, IMHO.

In a month your prospects are a lot better. Then Mars at magnitude -2.20 rises out of the east-southeast at about 12:15 AM ADT. It will be at about 9 degrees above the southeastern horizon at 2:05 AM ADT which appears to be the darkest time of night on 27 July.

I got this information from my Starry Night software.

[foolish-one]

Beautiful. Thanks.