Cosmic Lure: Midmonth Check-In: November 2021 and Galaxies

Introduction and Monthly Reminders

It has been a mild November for Utah so far. We have seen a little valley rain and mountain snow and have experienced many cloudy days. If this trend continues, astronomers will be fortunate enough to view the night sky all winter long! I was unable to enjoy the night sky during the first half of the month, but will hopefully have the opportunity before the end of the year. I was, however, able to take some decent images of the sky just east of Cedar City at Cedar Breaks. I will share some of my favorites at the end of this post.

Observers still have a few exciting astronomical events coming up in November. On the morning of the17th, the Leonid meteor shower will peak with only the brightest of meteors being visible due to the nearly Full Moon. If you get the chance, get to dark sky place after Thanksgiving and you should hopefully still be able to see some of these meteors. Coinciding with the Full Moon this month, Utah will experience a partial lunar eclipse. The eclipse will begin around 11 pm Utah time on the 18th and continue through the night. It will end just after 5 in the morning on the 19th. For Utahans, this eclipse will not be a total lunar eclipse, but an observer should still be able to see the shadow of the Earth move across the Moon. The next lunar eclipse over Utah will occur in May 2022.

Think About This....💡

I am constantly sharing images that I've taken of the Milky Way band from some remote area, but have never really talked about what the Milky Way band is. Hopefully most of my readers know that our Sun is just one of billions of stars that are a part of the Milky Way galaxy. The images that I take are of just one spiral arm of our galaxy that we call home. Typically, the images are towards the center of our galaxy, which contains a black hole. Galaxies are made up of billions of stars, dust, gas, planets, and anything else you can image. Galaxies are, in a way, like humans. They come in many different shapes and sizes, but are still made up of the same materials.

There are four main types of galaxies, spiral, barred-spiral, elliptical, and irregular. When I think of a galaxy, usually an image of a spiral galaxy comes to mind. These galaxies have a central point that all of the stars, gas, dust, etc. that make up the galaxy appear to orbit around. These galaxies look like water going down a drain. If you want to try an experiment, use some food coloring and add it to some water going down a drain and it should be easier to see that spiral shape. It wasn't until recently that astronomers and other scientists discovered that the Milky Way galaxy was not a spiral galaxy, as previously believed. The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) is the galaxy that comes to mind when I think of a spiral galaxy. It is the most common image that is shown if you search for "spiral galaxy."

The next type of galaxy, the barred-spiral galaxy is similar in shape to a spiral galaxy. The main difference is that there is a "bar" of stars in the center instead of a simple spiral. Most astronomers and scientists now agree that the Milky Way is a barred-spiral galaxy. Since we can't fly outside of the Milky Way galaxy, no one knows for sure what the shape is, but based on what we can see from our vantage point, our galaxy is most likely a barred-spiral galaxy. M58 in Virgo is a popular barred-spiral galaxy.

An elliptical galaxy has an elongated spherical shape but can also be almost perfectly round or a long cigar shape. These galaxies do not have a nucleus or bulge at the center like spiral galaxies, but they still appear bright in the center and lose their brightness towards the outer edges. M87 in Virgo is an example of an elliptical galaxy.

The final type of galaxy is the irregular galaxy. These galaxies do not have a symmetrical or well defined structure.. These galaxies are usually formed by two galaxies colliding or merging. Irregular galaxies are the least common of all galaxies that have been discovered, with only 1 in 5 being classified as such. Two such galaxies can be easily seen from Earth...if you live in the southern hemisphere. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are actually galaxies that are interacting with the Milky Way. The Milky Way is much larger and has caused these two smaller galaxies to be torn apart. If you get a chance to travel to the southern hemisphere, be sure to check these out!

Below you will find some of my favorite images from the area around Cedar Breaks that I was able to take in late October. I wish I could have stayed out longer to capture more images but it was below freezing temperature! The first four images were taken with my phone. In the second image, I was lucky and caught a meteor!

Milky Way band and trees.

Northern Milky Way band with meteor streak.

Jupiter, Saturn, airplane trail, and trees.

Milky Way sunset.

The next 8 pictures were taken with my DSLR camera. None of these photos have been edited, they are straight from the camera. I felt they looked great how they are! In the first image, a passing vehicle illuminated a tree in the foreground. It ruined the Milky Way shot I was going for but I thought this was pretty nice looking too.