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. Please note that images on these pages are meant to be displayed at 100%. If your browser zooms into a higher magnification than that, the images may lose quality. Though we link book references to nationwide sources, we encourage you to support your local book store whenever possible.
Notes and Images From September 2018 I've been enjoying the nice grove of trees that surrounds my house. Among the species are Mockernut Hickory, White Oak, Post Oak, Red Maple, Magnolia, Flowering Dogwood, Short-leaf Pine, Cypress and Eastern Red Cedar. It's great habitat. The many dogwoods attract Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Summer Tanagers, who feed on the bright red drupes. Some mornings I'm greeted by the trill of a Pine Warbler as I walk out the door. Skies are quite dark here at night. On September 14th, I decided on the spur of the moment to take a photograph of the Milky Way. I set my tripod up about ten feet from my front door, and took several thirty-second exposures, looking straight up through a gap in the canopy. One of these is shown below. The image shows stars too faint to be seen with the naked eye.
The pond next to the house is bordered on woods on one side. The water attracts many species. In the brief time I've been here I've seen Black-and-white Warblers, American Redstart, Pine Warblers, and Palm Warblers. On September 30th I photographed a male and female Wood Duck in the shallow water near the edge of the pond. The image is shown below.
Sky Events for October 2018: The Orionid Meteor Shower peaks on the morning of October 21st. Unfortunately, the waning gibbous Moon will tend to wash things out in the sky around the radiant. Evening Sky: Jupiter is in Libra this month. Look for it low in the southwestern sky at dusk as the month begins. If you steady your binoculars on something solid, you can often pick out several of the four Galilean satellites of Jupiter close to the planet. With a telescope, you can glimpse some details in the cloud belts. These details change rapidly, and the details can look different from night to night. It's also fun to watch the Galilean satellites transit the face of the planet, or be eclipsed by the planet's shadow.
Venus is very low to the western horizon this month, but if you manage to spot it in binoculars, it should be very pretty. It is now a waning crescent, getting thinner each day before it passes between the Earth and the Sun. Mercury may be visible low in the west after sunset near the end of the month. Look for it from 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. You will want a fairly flat western horizon, as it will be very low.
Saturn is in Sagittarius this month. Look for it about 31 degrees above the Southern horizon at dusk. The tilt of the rings has now opened to 26 degrees, and the view is spectacular in any size telescope. The globe of Saturn is now 16.5 seconds of an arc in apparent diameter. Times given are in EDT for Chattanooga. Those in other time zones will need to adjust the given times accordingly.
Constellations: The views below show the sky looking east at 9:30pm CDT on October 15th. The first view shows the sky with the constellations outlined and labeled. Star and planet names are in green. Constellation names are in blue. The second view shows the same scene without labels. Prominent constellations include Andromeda , Perseus, Triangulum, the Triangle, Aries, the Ram, and Cetus, the Sea Monster. Auriga, the Charioteer, with its bright star Capella, and Taurus, the Bull, are rising in the northeast. The bright star Aldebaran, a red giant representing the eye of the bull, should just be rising.Above Aldebaran, look for the Pleiades, a beautiful open star cluster. Also called the "Seven Sisters," it has been known since antiquity. In Japan it is known as Subaru, and the Subaru automobile is named for this cluster. Before the Gregorian calendar reform in 1582, the Pleiades culminated around midnight on October 31st, and it has been traditionally associated with Halloween.
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 October. 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 constellation of Perseus. 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. To observe faint objects, it's always better to wait until they are high in the sky. 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. 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. You may also want to check out at H. A. Rey's classic, The Stars, A New Way to See Them. 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: We really love the Sky Safari 6 Pro. It is available for both 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.
Amphibians:
Recommended: The Frogs and Toads of North America, Lang Elliott, Houghton Mifflin Co.
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