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 July 2020

 On July 30th I tracked the comet down again and found that it had faded considerably, but was still relatively easy to find in binoculars. It will continue to fade as it journeys outward from the Sun.

All of the great comets that I've seen have very long orbital periods. Comet NEOWISE will not return for around 6,700 years. Comet Bennett has a 1,678 year period and Comet Hale-Bopp has a 2,533 year period. Comet Hyakutake will not return for 70,000 years!

In their book, "Comet", Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan said, "Like a breaching whale before it plunges into the ocean depths, a comet briefly luxuriates in the sunlight and then is gone."

Comet NEOWISE will soon be gone as well. But for a few evenings under the stars, all of the stressful events of this year seemed a little farther away, the world a little more peaceful.

In fact, even a good quality 60mm refractor will give a better view of the ringed planet than Galileo was ever able to see. Saturn was a puzzle to him. In his low-resolution telescope the planet appeared as three separate discs - one large disc with a smaller disc on each side of it. A few years later, he returned to look at the planet when the rings presented edge-on. His two attendant discs had disappeared! He never solved the riddle. He would have loved to see the view available to just about any amateur astronomer today.

Mars rises around three hours after sunset at the beginning of the month in Pisces. As Earth and Mars approach each other, the apparent motion of Mars against the stellar background each evening increases. Its apparent diameter increases from 14.6 seconds of an arc to 18.7 seconds of an arc, enough that details can be seen well in larger telescopes in good seeing conditions. You usually get the best viewing conditions when the planet is due south and at its highest altitude above the horizon. Picking out the subtle details on Mars takes patience. It will reach opposition this year on October 6th.

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