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!
Though we link book references to nationwide sources, we encourage you to
support your local book store whenever possible.
Notes From January 2022
On January 3rd I awoke to 4-5 inches of snow. I photographed this Northern
Cardinal right outside my front door.
Northern Cardinal, January 3rd, Nikon D750 and Nikon 200-500mm
f5.6 lens
On January 31st, while testing out a new camera setup, I photographed this White-breasted
Nuthatch on an Eastern Red Cedar in my front yard. The autofocus on the new
system is fast and accurate, and I was pleased with the level of detail.
White-Breasted Nuthatch, January 31st, Nikon D850 and Nikon
500mm f5.6 Lens
Sky Events for February 2022
Evening Sky:
Crescent Venus June 28th, 2012 20-inch Newtonian Reflector and
Flea 3 camera.
Look for
Jupiter
about 15 degrees above the southwestern horizon at dusk on
February 1st. It will gradually sink into the twilight glow around
the third week of the month.
Morning Sky:
Venus
will rise a little earlier each morning in February, During the first part of
the month you can still see its crescent phase in binoculars. To
see the crescent follow Venus as it rises into the brightening
sky. A bright
background sky will help you see the crescent form.
Marsis below
and to the right of Venus as the month begins, just to the left of
the spout of the "teapot" in Sagittarius. The red planet is far away right now, and its tiny
disk reveals little detail in telescopic views.
Mercury
will be about 8 degrees below and to the left of Venus at the beginning of the
month. It will climb higher in the sky each morning until it reaches
its maximum altitude above the horizon on February 9th. Look for
it about 30 minutes before sunrise low in the southeast. You will have about a
week to spot the fleet-footed planet till it sinks back into the
twilight glow.
Constellations:
Messier 82, January 5th, 2020, 12.5 Inch Newtonian
Reflector and ZWO ASI2600MM Camera
The views below show the sky looking east at
10:30pm EST on February 7th. The first view shows the sky with the
constellations outlined and names depicted. Star and planet names
are in green. Constellation names are in blue. The second view
shows the same scene without labels.
Ursa Major, the Great Bear, is now
prominent in the northeast. It has quite a few bright galaxies and other
deep sky objects. The nearby galaxies
Messier 81 and Messier 82 can be
spotted as dim small glows with binoculars on dark moonless nights.
The cigar shape of M82 is easily seen in small telescopes, and the
dark dust lanes appear to cut it in half in a 6-inch
aperture or larger telescope. Unfortunately the faint reddish
hydrogen alpha streamers are not visible in small telescopes.
All of the bright stars of Leo, the Lion, are visible
now, including
Denebola, the bright star at the
tip of the Lion's tail. Part of the constellation of
Virgo is visible below Leo.
It's handy to know where Denebola is, because below it, if you imagine sliding
down the Lion's tail, is the great Virgo cluster of galaxies. Left of Denebola,
on a line towards the handle end of the "big dipper," you will see the faint
star cluster Mellotte 111, in
Coma Berenices. The
little
constellation of
Craterhas now cleared the horizon.
January 7th, 10:30pm EST, Looking East
January 7th, 10:30pm EST, Looking East
On Learning the
Constellations:
We
advise learning a few constellations each month, and then following them through
the seasons. Once you associate a particular constellation coming over the
eastern horizon at a certain time of year, you may start thinking about it like
an old friend, looking forward to its arrival each season. The stars in
the evening scene above, for instance, will always be in the same place relative
to the horizon at the same time and date each February. In particular,
learn the brightest stars (like Regulus and Denebola in the above scene), for
they will guide you to the fainter stars. Once you can locate the more
prominent constellations, you can "branch out" to other constellations around
them. It may take you a little while to get a sense of scale, to translate
what you see on the computer screen or what you see on the page of a book to
what you see in the sky. Look for
patterns, like the stars of Leo.
The earth's rotation
causes the constellations to appear to move across the sky just as the Sun and
the Moon appear to do. If you go outside earlier than the time shown on
the charts, the constellations will be lower to the eastern horizon. If
you observe later, they will have climbed higher.
As each season
progresses, the earth's motion around the sun causes the constellations to
appear a little farther towards the west each night for any given time of night.
If you want to see where the constellations in the above figures will be on
March 7th at 10:30pm EST, you can stay up till 12:30am EST on the February 8th
and get a preview. The westward motion of the constellations is equivalent
to two hours per month.
A good book to learn the constellations is
Patterns in the Sky, by Hewitt-White.
For sky watching tips, an inexpensive good guide is
Secrets of Stargazing, by Becky Ramotowski.
A good general reference book on astronomy is the Peterson
Field Guide,
A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets, by Pasachoff. The book retails for around $14.00.
The Virtual
Moon Atlas is a terrific way to learn the
surface features of the Moon. And it's free software. You can
download the Virtual Moon Atlas here.
Apps:
The Sky Safari 6 basic version is free and a great aid for
the beginning stargazer. We really love the
Sky Safari 6 Pro. Both are available for iOS and
Android operating systems. There are three versions. The Pro is
simply the best astronomy app we've ever seen.
The description of the Pro version reads, "includes over 100 million stars, 3 million galaxies
down to 18th magnitude, and 750,000 solar system objects; including every comet
and asteroid ever discovered."
A
nother
great app is the Photographer's
Ephemeris. Great for finding sunrise, moonrise, sunset and
moonset times and the precise place on the horizon that the event will
occur. Invaluable not only for planning photographs, but also nice
to plan an outing to watch the full moon rise. Available for both
androids and iOS operating systems.
Amphibians:
Spotted Salamander
The
amphibian season continues to build in February. One trick to finding
amphibians in winter is to go out on mild (50 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer)
rainy nights. It is important for safety reasons that you have another person
with you to help watch for traffic as you slowly drive the back roads. Look for
things that cross the road in front of you and stop frequently and listen.
Early breeding frogs like
Upland Chorus Frogs,
Spring Peepers and Wood
Frogs are already calling by the first of the month. On warmer nights
listen for
Southern Leopard Frogs.
Spotted Salamanders
and Tiger Salamanders
also breed in January and February, and the
eggs of both can often be
found this time of year. Towards the end of the month, given mild temperatures,
you can sometimes hear
American Toads beginning to call. In west Tennessee,
Crawfish Frogs give their
loud snoring calls starting in late February and continuing on into early
March. At higher elevations, listen for
Mountain Chorus Frogs
towards the end of the month. Remember that on mild nights you may find frogs
and toads out foraging that you do not hear until later in the season.
Nature Notes Archives: Nature Notes
was a page we published in 2001 and 2002 containing our observations about
everything from the northern lights display of November 2001 to frog and
salamander egg masses.
Night scenes prepared with The
Sky Professional from Software Bisque
