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 June 2022
I spent quite a few early mornings in June in the meadow near my
observatory. I'm fortunate in that the eastern horizon there
is only about 2 degrees above the true horizon, and the meadow is only about five
minutes away from my front doorstep.
It's a pleasant pastime. The world seems a lot more peaceful in the
predawn. There are no artificial lights visible and I love the transition
from night sounds to the dawn bird chorus. In May I observed all of the
naked eye planets except Mercury. In June I looked forward to adding the
shy innermost planet to the ensemble. On my first two attempts I was thwarted by low
clouds on the eastern horizon. On the morning of June 13th I managed to
spot Mercury in binoculars, but the sky was
too hazy to spot it with the naked eye. I finally got the look that I
wanted on June 19th.
I woke to the sound of the wind blowing through
the oaks and hickories around my house. When I stepped outside I was
greeted by a pristine sky! The air was clean and dry, and the 62-degree temperature felt wonderful
after the recent heat wave. I made a cup of strong coffee to carry with me,
grabbed a light jacket and drove out to the observatory. I got to the meadow around 4:30am EDT.
Cygnus was directly overhead. Draco wound its way around the Little
Bear. Below Cassiopeia and Perseus bright Capella, not far from the
horizon, put on a light show, twinkling from red to green to blue.
The Moon was slightly gibbous, with the sun rising on the large crater
Posidonius on the border of the Sea of Serenity.
The planets on June 19th, 5:40am EDT. Adapted from a
screenshot of the Sky Safari App. Uranus and Neptune are binocular
objects. The foreground is the actual foreground at the
observatory. The angular scale is necessarily compressed - if you
were actually looking at Mercury, Saturn would be just over 100
degrees to your right, over your right shoulder. Only the
brightest stars of the Pleiades are visible.
I used
Canon 10x30 IS binoculars and the Star
Safari app (see under "Recommended", below) to star-hop to Neptune, then checked out the other planets
and the Moon. Once Venus rose, I star-hopped to Uranus. Then I waited for
Mercury to rise.
Neptune was faint in binoculars but easily seen
with averted vision. I could see the orientation of Saturn's rings with
the binoculars. On Jupiter, I could see all four Galilean moons. The
image stabilization on the binoculars works very well for this, and ten
power is just right. Mars is beginning to get that glowing-red-ember look
it gets around opposition. Venus was quite bright, and Mercury had
brightened enough that I saw it visually when it just cleared the eastern
tree line, about 3 degrees above the true horizon.
The Pleiades sparkled above and to the left of Venus. As the sky
brightened a Yellow-breasted Chat sang from the next field over. The dawn
chorus of the birds followed, welcoming the sunrise.
On June 23rd I photographed this Great Blue Heron flying over the pond
closest to the observatory.
A Great Blue Heron cruises by the pond near my observatory.
June 24rd, Sony a1 camera and 600mm f/4 lens.
Sky Events for July 2022
Earth
is at aphelion on July 4th, its farthest distance from the Sun for the
year.
Jupiter May 8th, 2015. 20" Newtonian Reflector and ZWO ASI
120MMS camera.
All naked eye planets
will continue to be visible for the first few days of July, but then
Mercury will sink back into the twilight glow. The rest of the
planets will be visible throughout the month, and you can still
watch them move relative to each other and to the background stars. If you would like to use Star Safari to star-hop to Neptune and
Uranus, you may find the diagrams below helpful. A green circle
shows the approximate field of view of a typical pair of
binoculars (about 6 degrees) and the procedure is to locate the
nearest bright star or planet using Star Safari, and then sweep
over to the approximate area and look for the star patterns in the
diagrams. Both are for July 1st, but these planets move very
slowly through the star field. With Neptune you may have to use
averted vision, keeping the planet's position in the field of view
centered but then looking about halfway from the center of the
field of view to the edge. Sometimes you will see it pop into view
this way. You may have to experiment to find the best position for
your eyes.
For Neptune, pan your binoculars horizontally to the right from
Jupiter and look for a rectangular pattern of stars (ABCD) with a
"tail" extending upward (DEF, The Little Weasel)? Star F is
significantly fainter than D or E. Neptune is a little fainter than
star F. Again, both of these stars may require averted vision. For
Uranus at the beginning of the month, look roughly half the distance
from Venus towards Mars for the ABCD pattern shown. Uranus is a lot
easier to see than Neptune, and can actually be seen with the naked
eye in a dark sky. Another strategy would be to wait till Mars
passes by Uranus on August 1st, and the two planets are only 1.3
degrees apart. Again, having the Star Safari app helps.
Mars will continue to brighten and grow
larger in telescopic views as it moves toward opposition in
December.
Constellations:
Messier 27, the Dumbell Nebula in Vulpecula, June
29th, 2015. Total Exposure 2 hours, 20 minutes in10 minute exposures, 12.5 inch Newtonian Reflector and SBIG ST2000XCM
CCD Camera
Constellations:The views below show the
sky looking east at 10:30pm EDT on July 15th. The first chart 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. Prominent constellations this month in the
eastern sky are Cygnus, the Swan, with its bright star Deneb, and Aquila, the Eagle, with its bright star Altair. Below and to the left of Altair is the constellation of Delphinus, the
Dolphin, looking like it's leaping over the eastern horizon. Above Delphinus look for the arrow-like form of Sagitta, the Arrow.
Between Sagitta and Cygnus lie the faint stars of Vulpecula the Fox.
One of
the brightest planetary nebula in the sky resides in this little
constellation. Messier 27, shown at right, can be seen as
a fuzzy patch in binoculars (don't expect the bright colors - just a
grayish green spot). Use the easy-to-find stars of nearby Sagitta to
locate it, using the finder chart here.
June 15th, 10:30pm EST, Looking East
June 15th, 10:30pm EST, Looking East
On Learning the
Constellations:
Try 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 July. 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
Deneb and Altair 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 that make up the constellation Cygnus.
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
August 15th at 10:30pm EDT, you can stay up till 12:30am EDT on July 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:
Young Eastern Spadefoot on Sweetgum Ball
July’s frogs and toads are much like June’s. Listen for
Cope's Gray Treefrogs,
Gray Treefrogs,
Bird-Voiced Treefrogs,
Green Treefrogs and
Barking Treefrogs.
Eastern Cricket Frogs and
Southern Cricket Frogs call a lot during July, and the calls of
Bullfrogs and
Green Frogs fill the night air. After summer thunderstorms listen for
the high, insect-like call of the
Eastern Narrowmouth Toad and the strange-sounding
Eastern Spadefoot. Be sure to look closely at young toads you encounter.Sometimes I find young Eastern Spadefoots foraging during
the day.A young Eastern Spadefoot
will have vertical
pupils, a tiny spade on its rear feet and will often have some red warts, even
when only a fraction of an inch long. A hand lens helps to see these
features (or turn your binoculars around and use them for a magnifying glass.)
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
