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.
Sky Events for August 2024:
We recommend checking the NASA Space Weather Prediction Center forecast every few days for upcoming auroral displays. Some sources on the internet tend to exaggerate the visibility of these displays, at least at our latitude. To really tell if you have a chance to see them in Tennessee, compare what the NASA Space Weather Prediction Center shows with the image at right. It shows the predicted display for the aurora on May 11th, during the great magnetic storm beginning on May 10th.
Morning Sky:
Jupiter rises about 4 hours before the Sun at the beginning of the month in Taurus. On August 1st, look for it an hour before sunrise below and to the left of Mars. Jupiter is a lot brighter than Mars, and the two planets will form a pretty pair in the dawn sky. The Pleiades, a bright cluster also called the Seven Sisters, will be above Mars on the 1st, and a waning crescent Moon will be below the two planets. This is a great time to see the apparent motion of these two planets in the sky. As August progresses the two planets will appear closer to each other each morning, and will appear to pass each other on August 14th. They then will appear only 19 minutes of an arc apart from each other, which means they will be visible in the same low-power eyepiece of a telescope!
Evening Sky: Venus is low in the west after sunset on August1st. If you have a flat western horizon, look for it with binoculars about 15 minutes after sunset low in the West-Northwest. It is bright but it is very close to the horizon. Mercury is about the same elevation above the horizon on August 1st, but much fainter. It is about 8 degrees to the left of Venus, but you will need binoculars to spot it, if you can even spot it at all. Try for it about 30 minutes after sunset. Saturn is much easier to see in August, rising about two hours after sunset on August 1st in Aquarius. We are passing through the plane of Saturn's rings, and they are reduced to be a very fine line on each side of the planet. To see it at its best wait till the early morning hours when it will be about 48 degrees above the southern horizon.
The views below show the sky looking east at 10:30pm EDT on August 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. New constellations this month are Pegasus, the Flying Horse, Andromeda, Princess Andromeda, Triangulum, the Triangle, Pisces, the Fishes, and Aquarius, the Water Bearer. In Pegasus, the reddish star Enif marks the nose of the flying horse. Just above Enif is the globular cluster Messier 15, a nice ball of stars about 33,600 light-years away. The cluster was discovered by Jean Dominique Maraldi on September 7th, 1746. Maraldi was searching for De Chéseaux' Comet at the time. In binoculars or a small telescope it will appear like a little cotton ball of faint light. With increasing aperture, you'll be able to spot some of the faint stars around the periphery of the cluster. Be sure to use averted vision, looking to one side of the cluster, to allow the cluster's light to fall on the light-sensitive rod cells of your eye.
On Learning the Constellations: Try to learn 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 August. 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 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 "Square of Pegasus." 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 September 15th at 10:00pm CDT, you can stay up till midnight on August 15th and get a preview. The westward motion of the constellations is equivalent to two hours per month. Recommended: Sky & Telescope's Pocket Star Atlas is beautiful, compact star atlas. 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." 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:
Recommended: The Frogs and Toads of North America, Lang Elliott, Houghton Mifflin Co. Archives (Remember to use the back button on your browser, NOT the back button on the web page!) Natural Calendar February 2024 Natural Calendar December 2023 Natural Calendar November 2023 Natural Calendar September 2023 Natural Calendar February 2023 Natural Calendar September 2022 Natural Calendar February 2022 Natural Calendar December 2021 Natural Calendar November 2021 Natural Calendar September 2021 Natural Calendar February 2021 Natural Calendar December 2020 Natural Calendar November 2020 Natural Calendar September 2020 Natural Calendar February 2020 Natural Calendar December 2019 Natural Calendar November 2019 Natural Calendar September 2019 Natural Calendar February 2019 Natural Calendar December 2018 Natural Calendar September 2018 Natural Calendar February 2018 Natural Calendar December 2017 Natural Calendar November 2017 Natural Calendar October 2017Natural Calendar September 2017 Natural Calendar February 2017 Natural Calendar December 2016 Natural Calendar November 2016 Natural Calendar September 2016Natural Calendar February 2016 Natural Calendar December 2015 Natural Calendar November 2015 Natural Calendar September 2015 Natural Calendar November 2014 Natural Calendar September 2014 Natural Calendar September 2013 Natural Calendar December 2012 Natural Calendar November 2012 Natural Calendar September 2012 Natural Calendar February 2012 Natural Calendar December 2011 Natural Calendar November 2011 Natural Calendar September 2011 Natural Calendar December 2010 Natural Calendar November 2010 Natural Calendar September 2010 Natural Calendar February 2010 Natural Calendar December 2009 Natural Calendar November 2009 Natural Calendar September 2009 Natural Calendar February 2009 Natural Calendar December 2008 Natural Calendar November 2008 Natural Calendar September 2008 Natural Calendar February 2008 Natural Calendar December 2007 Natural Calendar November 2007 Natural Calendar September 2007 Natural Calendar February 2007 Natural Calendar December 2006 Natural Calendar November 2006 Natural Calendar September 2006 Natural Calendar February 2006
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