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. 

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

Notes From March 2020

The Owl Nebula is a planetary nebula. Planetary nebulae were so named because early observers thought they looked like dim planets. The Owl was discovered on February 16th, 1781 by French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Like Messier, he was primarily a comet observer, and his discovery was eventually included in Messer's catalog of objects to be avoided by comet seekers. It was first nicknamed the Owl Nebula by Lord Rosse, from a sketch he made of it in 1848 observing with his large reflector at Birr Castle in Ireland. I have seen the "eyes" in a very high-contrast six-inch refracting telescope, but haven't seen them with smaller apertures.

Planetary nebulae have been called the wreaths nature places around dying stars. They are shells of gas that have been ejected from a star as it transitions from a hydrogen-burning main sequence star into a red giant and then eventually into a white dwarf. There are three concentric shells of gas that form the Owl Nebula. The innermost shell has a barrel like structure that is inclined 45 degrees to our line of sight. The translucent middle shell is easily seen in the image above. The very faint outer shell extends almost to the bright star above and to the right of the nebula, and is barely brighter than the surrounding stellar background. The shells are illuminated by the white dwarf at the center of the nebula. White dwarfs eventually cool to red dwarfs and then to black dwarfs, but this process takes billions of years.

Like most of us, I'm not wandering far from my house right now. But the half mile walk to my observatory can begin a journey more than halfway across the observable universe. My journeys into the microscopic world are no less interesting.

Scott Russell Sanders said,

"There are no privileged locations. If you stay put, your place may become a holy center, not because it gives you special access to the divine, but because in your stillness you hear what might be heard anywhere. All there is to see can be seen from anywhere in the universe, if you know how to look."

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