The purpose of this feature is to give scout leaders, educators and naturalists an idea of some of the natural events coming up each month.  We will try to cover a variety of natural events ranging from sky events to calling periods of amphibians, bird and mammal watching tips,  prominent wildflowers and anything else that comes to mind.  We will also note prominent constellations appearing over the eastern horizon at mid-evening each month for our area for those who would like to learn the constellations.  If you have suggestions for other types of natural information you would like to see added to this calendar, let us know!

Note: You can click on the hyperlinks to learn more about some of the featured items.  To return to the Calendar, hit the "back" button on your browser, NOT the "back" button on the web page.  All charts are available in a "printer friendly" mode, with black stars on a white background.  Left clicking on each chart will take you to a printable black and white image.  Please note that images on these pages are meant to be displayed at 100%.  If your browser zooms into a higher magnification than that, the images may lose quality.  The Mozilla Firefox browser is highly recommended.

Though we link book references to nationwide sources, we encourage you to support your local book store whenever possible.

Notes and Images From July 2017

The image above was taken on such an evening.  The great dark rift that splits the Milky Way was easily visible, as were a host of star clusters.  The star clouds of Sagittarius seemed to rise out of the spout of the "Teapot", the small grouping of stars just above the treeline at center in the image above.  The bright star Antares, marking the heart of the scorpion, is to the right of the brightest part of the Milky Way.  Saturn is now close to the heart of the dark "horse" silhouette in Ophiuchus.  For a labeled chart of this area, see July's Natural Calendar.

If you've ever wondered what the view would be like if you were in a spiral arm of a galaxy like NGC 891, looking inward toward the center, the Milky Way image above is very similar to what you would see.  In fact, the word "galaxy" and "Milky Way" are both derived from the same Greek word, galaxias, meaning "milky".

There is much lore about the Milky Way in cultures around the world.  It's most often seen as a celestial path or river.  The Cherokee spoke of a spirit dog that stole cornmeal from the tribe, and then scattered the cornmeal among the stars when the tribe chased it away. Other native american tribes thought of it as the path of departed souls on their way to the hereafter, each pinpoint of light the campfire of those along the way. 

It takes some effort to see starscapes like this.  The light pollution from our cities and suburbs has spread rapidly in the last few decades.  In suburbia, light pollution hides all but the brightest stars.  To see the Milky Way well, you must plan a trip to darker skies.

One aid in planning a summer starscape expedition is to use maps of light pollution to plan your destination.  One such map, created from data gathered by the NASA VIIRS satellite, can be found here.  In the map legend, select "Atlas 2015" and the "Hybrid" Bing base layer.  Light pollution is displayed over a zoomable map with worst light pollution shown in white and the least-polluted skies in black.  Click and drag to move around, and you can zoom in as much as you like.  Areas shown in green will give you very good skies, and blue and black areas are even better.  The image above was taken from an area shown in green.  I find that wilderness areas can be quite good in providing spots that are accessible after dark and free of streetlights.

One of the organizations that is working to promote responsible lighting practices and reduce light pollution is the International Dark Sky Association.  I highly recommend a visit to their site.  This organization works with communities and with national and state parks to preserve the remaining dark skies that we have.  In 2015 Pickett State Park and Pogue Creek Canyon State Natural Area were designated a silver-tier international dark sky park by the International Dark Sky Association. 

Our dark skies are worth protecting.  Henry Beston wrote in "The Outermost House;"

 Sky Events for August 2017:

Total Solar Eclipse!  It's finally here - the great event takes place on August 21st!  Some recommendations:

1. Plan ahead, and have a backup plan for weather.  The best laid schemes of mice and men oft go awry, and clouds can spoil your view of the eclipse even in the prettiest location.