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 October 2021
The Pond on October 27th
Sky Events for November 2021
The Leonid Meteor Shower
peaks in the
morning hours of November 17th. Unfortunately, the waxing gibbous Moon
will wash out the sky, making fainter meteors difficult to see.
A partial eclipse of the Moon,
almost total, occurs during the morning hours of November 19th. This
should be worth losing a little sleep. At maximum eclipse, 97 percent of
the lunar disk will be covered, leaving only a very narrow sliver of
bright lunar surface visible. This maximum occurs around 4:03am Eastern
Standard Time, or 3:03am Central Standard Time, and the Moon will be about
40 degrees above the western horizon. Though you will have a pretty view
with the naked eye, binoculars will bring out the partially eclipsed Moon's
colors. In my opinion, both the naked eye view and the binocular
views beat the view through a telescope.
Evening Sky:
Saturn, Tethys and Dione, June 11th, 2016. 12.5 inch Newtonian Reflector and
ZWO camera.
Venus
is the brightest star-like object in the western sky after sunset, and
sets about two and a half hours after sunset at the beginning of
the month. Look for a pretty pairing with the crescent Moon on
November 7th.
Look for
Jupiter
about 35 degrees above the Southeast horizon at dusk at the
beginning of the month. It's in Capricornus this month. Jupiter's dusky belts change from night to night.
Since the planet takes less than ten hours to rotate, you can
watch details move across the disk during an evening. It's always fun to watch the dance of the four Galilean
moons!
Saturn
is to the right of Jupiter in Capricornus.
As the sky darkens it will be in its optimum position for viewing
due south. This is a great opportunity to see Saturn.
Even in good binoculars the tiny oval shape of the planet and
rings can be seen.
If you've never seen Saturn, it's simply spectacular in just about any
size telescope.
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.
Morning Sky:
Mercury
rapidly fades from sight during the first half of the month.
Look for it on November 3rd directly below a thin waning crescent
Moon about 30 minutes before sunrise. A flat horizon and
binoculars will help pick it out.
Constellations:
Total Lunar Eclipse, January 20th, 2019, composite of three
images showing the location and size of Earth's shadow. Televue
85mm aprochromatic refractor, 2x Barlow lens, field flattener,
Nikon D750 camera.
The views below show the sky looking east at 10:15pm EST on November 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.
Auriga
,
the Charioteer, with its bright star
Capella,
is
prominent in the northeast. Look for the bright stars
Castor
and
Pollux
as the constellation
Gemini,
The Twins, clears the horizon. In the southeast, mighty
Orion
clears the horizon with its bright stars
Betelgeuse
and
Rigel. Note the difference in color between the two stars.
Betelgeuse
is a red giant and looks orange. Rigelis a very hot supergiant and looks bluish. Looking at the center of the
three "sword" stars with binoculars, you can see
M42,
the Orion Nebula. Just poking its head above the horizon is
Lepus,
The Hare.
The Moon undergoes a partial eclipse during the morning hours of
November 19th. It will be in the constellation of Taurus, the
Bull. Binoculars will help show the colors.
November 15th, 10:15pm EST, Looking East
November 15th, 10:15pm 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 November. 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 Orion.
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 closer 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. 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."
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:
Spring Peeper
I
think of November as the quietest time of year for
Tennessee frogs and toads. However, some song can still occasionally be
heard. Listen for Spring Peepers,
Upland Chorus Frogs and
Southern Leopard Frogs.
Checking around ponds at night with a flashlight held next to your temple
will often show the eye shine of Southern Leopard Frogs,
Green Frogs and
Bullfrogs. As in October, you can locate many of the frogs and toads
that have been calling more frequently earlier in the year by driving the
back roads slowly on rainy nights. This is a two person job.
One person watches the road for amphibians and one person looks out for
other vehicles.
Recommended: The Frogs and Toads of North America,
Lang Elliott, Houghton Mifflin Co.
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
