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 May 2022
I've always enjoyed total lunar eclipses. While solar eclipses are more
spectacular, totality last longer in lunar eclipses and there's more time
to just relax and enjoy the show. My view of the total lunar eclipse on May 15th-16th,
however, was threatened by clouds. The day had been beautiful, without a cloud in the sky. I set up
my camera and mount, and then just as Earth's shadow bit into the edge of
the Moon, high clouds moved in from the southwest. As
totality began, the Moon almost disappeared among them. Flashes from
distant storms lit the sky every now and then.
While waiting for a gap in the clouds, I listened to the frog and toad
choruses around me. There are five ponds on the property and one on the
adjacent property to the south. Loud choruses of Fowler's Toads, Eastern
Cricket Frogs and Southern Cricket Frogs called from the pond closest to
the observatory. Every
now and then a Green Frog and an American Bullfrog would join in. A more
distant
pond had a Green Treefrog chorus. A few Cope's Gray Treefrogs called, as
well as a lone Spring Peeper. Then,
over the treeline to the south, I heard what sounded like a group of
distant hand drums being played. Barking Treefrogs! I ended up hearing nine
species of frogs and toads from one spot!
The Moon continued to drift in
and out of view, but was never completely free of the clouds.
Finally, just as the Moon reached the midpoint of its journey through
Earth's shadow, I saw a patch of clear sky approaching. It wasn't very
large, but it just might work! I made sure everything was ready at the
camera and waited. Then suddenly it was in the open, lit by all of the
sunsets around Earth. I took multiple shots with different exposure times.
The Moon against a backdrop of faint stars.
Total lunar eclipse, May 16th, Sony A1 camera and 600 f/4
lens with 2x teleconverter, 8-second exposure.
I stayed at my spot near the observatory till I was fairly sure I had some good
shots.
As drove back I was struck by the beauty of the eclipsed Moon over
the pond beside my house. I got out of the car amidst a deafening chorus
of Eastern and Southern Cricket Frogs. They did not stop, or even pause
their chorus as I got out of the car. The naked eye view of the eclipse
was every bit as beautiful as the camera's view, but in a more subtle way.
To see the eclipsed Moon hanging over the bright stars of Scorpius was
just spectacular. What a beautiful evening!
On May 14th, I decided to test out a new teleconverter for my wildlife
lens. Looking for something closeby, I walked down to the pond beside my
house and decided to try and photograph a dragonfly in flight. I found out
this was not an easy thing to do! With their incredible vision and
reaction time, it's tough to get very close to them. Their acceleration
left me flat-footed. Eventually I noticed a Carolina Saddlebags that was
making a circuit around my end of the pond. It flew the same approximate
route on each circuit, hovering in about the same places.
Carolina Saddlebags in flight, May 14th, Sony A1 camera and 600mm f/4
lens with 1.4 teleconverter.
I started concentrating my efforts on these hovering spots. I took many,
many images, and finally got an image where each pair of wings was at the
full extent of its stroke. Note that the front pair of legs are folded and
carried alongside its thorax, while the rear two pairs of legs are folded
and carried beneath.
Banded Pennant portrait, showing the hexagonal
ommatidium, August 30th, 2021, Nikon 105mm Micro
Lens and Nikon D5600 camera. Five-image focus stack.
Dragonflies are incredible fliers. They can control each of their four
wings independently, and can warp the wing surfaces so they create little
drag on the upstroke. The wings can beat together, both moving upwards or
downwards at the same time, or in opposition, as the Carolina Saddlebags
above is doing while hovering. It seems incredible that they can unfold
their marvelous wings as they exit their larvel exoskeleton and everthing
performs to perfection!
Their top speed is said to be between 30 and 40 miles per hour, and their
acceleration has been measured at 20 meters per second squared. That's
about a zero to 60mph time of 1.35 seconds, if they could keep
accelerating at that rate past their maximum speed.
Their compound eyes allow almost 360 degree vision, with a small blind
spot directly behind them. Their reaction time is a mere 30 milliseconds.
Human reaction time varies between 150 and 300 milliseconds. Dragonflies
can often perceive, pursue and catch their prey in a time quicker than we can
react in any way at all.
Finally, dragonflies have extraordinary color vision. Humans have
trichromatic vision, and see colors as a combination of red, green and
blue. Dragonflies are said to detect as many as 30 different visual pigments.
Sky Events for June 2022
The June Solstice,
marking the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, occurs at 5:14
a.m. EST on June 21st.
The naked eye planets, June 24th. Screenshot from Sky Safari.
Note that this view is an extremely wide angle view. Visually
they will appear to be spread out over a much larger part of
the sky.
The naked eye planets put on quite a show in the eastern sky
before sunrise this month. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and
Saturn will not only be visible in the predawn sky, but will
appear in
the same order as their distances from the Sun. An app like Sky
Safari or Sky Guide will make it quite easy to find the planets in
the morning sky. See the image at right and the recommended apps below.
The most compact grouping of the
planets occurs on June 4th, when they cover an arc about 91
degrees in the sky. Probably the best date to see them all well is
around June 24th, when Mercury will be much easier to see. But
you can watch their positions change all month long.
Mercury
may be visible as early as June 4th, but you will need a very flat
horizon and binoculars to pick it out of the bright twilight sky.
It will be only about 3 degrees above the horizon 30 minutes
before sunrise. It will appear higher each day. Waiting until the
last week of the month will make it easy to see. Pick a time about
30-45 minutes before sunrise to see it and the rest of the planets.
Venus
rises about two hours before the Sun at the beginning of the
month. Use bright Venus and Jupiter to locate the fainter planets, as they
are easier to spot.
Mars
rises about 3 hours before the Sun at the beginning of the month.
Look for it next to Jupiter at that time, slightly closer to the
sunrise point. As the month goes on the distance between Mars and
Jupiter will keep increasing.
Jupiter
rises about 3 hours before the Sun at the beginning of the month.
As with all of the planets this month, look for it about 30-45
minutes before sunrise.
Saturn
rises about 5 hours before the Sun in Capricornus at the beginning
of the month. The best telescopic views should be just before
dawn.
Constellations:
Messier 106, May 11th
and 12th, 2020, 12.5 inch F/6 Newtonian Telescope and ZWO
ASI1600 Pro camera. Total exposure time 2.5 hours
The views below show the sky looking east at 10:45pm EDT on June 15th. The
first view shows the sky with the constellation 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.
New
constellations this month in the eastern sky are
Lyra,the Lyre, with its bright star
Vega,
Cygnus,
the Swan, and
Aquila, the Eagle. The bright stars Vega, Deneb and Altair form the
"summer triangle."
The galaxy Messier 106
hangs below the "Big Dipper" just over the border of Canes Venatici, the
Hunting Dogs. Its bright core contrasts with its rather faint spiral
arms. My notes show that it was not hard to see in my little 22 power,
60mm spotting scope. In a dark sky you should be able to see it as a very
faint misty spot in binoculars. You will want to have either a good star
chart or an app like Sky Safari to know where to look.
June 15th, 10:45pm EST, Looking East
June 15th, 10:45pm 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 June. Of course, the planets
do move slowly through the constellations, but with practice you will learn to
identify them from their appearance. In particular, learn the brightest
stars (like Altair and Vega in the above scene looking east), 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 that make up the constellation Lyra.
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
July 15th at 10:30pm EDT, you can stay up till 12:30am EDT on June 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. 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."
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.
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
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