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 2023
January brought an extraterrestrial visitor in the form of Comet C/2022 E3
ZTF. Early attempts to photograph it were frustrated by clouds, but I
finally got a clear night on January 27th. I set up a small astrograph in
my backyard in Cloudland and spent some time with it. I never could really
convince myself that I saw it with my naked eye, but it was not hard to
spot in binoculars. Comets can be a challenge to photograph because they
are constantly changing. Images taken early in the month showed the comet
with a relatively bright ion tail, but after a major tail disconnection,
it had a very thin and wispy ion tail on the night I imaged it. The bright
green glow around the head of the comet is caused by the interaction of
solar radiation with diatomic carbon (C2) and is often seen on passing
comets. The ion tails of comets often appear blue due to ionized carbon
monoxide molecules. Ion tails tend to point directly away from the Sun.
Comet C/2022
E3 ETF drifts among the stars of the Little Dipper, Ursa Minor,
January 27th, Askar FRA400 astrograph and ZWO AM5 mounting.
Single 90-second luminance exposure and 7.5 minutes for each color
channel.
The comet was discovered in March of last year by the Zwicky
Transient Facility on Palomar Mountain. Its closest approach to Earth will
be on February first, when it will be about 26 million miles away. It may
or may not return to the Solar System in the far distant future. To quote
comet hunter David Levy, "Comets are like cats. They have tails and do
precisely what they want."
Sky Events for February 2023
Morning Sky:
Mercury reached greatest elongation from the Sun on January 30th,
so early in February it will be relatively easy to see in the
eastern sky before sunrise. Try to be in place about 45 minutes
before local sunrise. A low eastern
horizon will be helpful, as will a pair of binoculars. An app like
Sky Safari will or Sky Guide (see the recommendations below) will
make things a lot easier.
Evening Sky:
Mars, June 11th, 2016. 20" Newtonian Reflector and ZWO ASI
120MMS camera.
Bright Venus is climbing higher and higher into the western sky
after sunset this month. Jupiter is gradually getting lower in the
western sky, and the two planets will approach to within about a
half of a degree in early March. Saturn fades into the afternoon
twilight this month.
Mars is high overhead in the early evening near Aldebaran in
Taurus, but it's drawing away from Earth and its apparent diameter
will drop below 10 seconds of an arc, making surface details more
difficult to see.
Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF will continue to be visible in binoculars for
a while as it leaves Earth behind. A finder chart can be found
here, or you can locate it using an astronomy app.
Constellations:
Messier 81 in Ursa Major, April 18th and 20th and 20th, 2020, 12.5
inch Newtonian Reflector and 12.5 inch Newtonian Telescope
The views below show the sky looking east at
10:00pm EST on February 15th. 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 contains 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.
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.
February 15th, 10:00pm EST, Looking East
February 15th, 10:00pm 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 15th at 10:00pm EST, you can stay up till 12:00am EST on the February 16th
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. I 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 I'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."
You may also want to try the very beautiful app
Sky Guide.
Though not as data intensive as Sky Safari, Sky Guide goes all out
to show the sheer beauty of the night sky.
Great for locating the planets.
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
