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 November 2023
Our common resident sparrows, the Song Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows, Field Sparrows and Eastern Towhee, are joined by species that breed farther north. Some arrive early in the fall. Others arrive later. It's always nice to hear the first White-throated Sparrow of the season sing its "Old Sam Peabody-Peabody-Peabody" song. Swamp Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos and occasionally Savannah and Vesper Sparrows each make their appearance. The differences in their plumage can be subtle from one species to the next, but what was frustrating to me when I was first trying to learn sparrows is what draws me back to them. They are joined by other birds returning from the north. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers give their mournful calls and Golden-crowned Kinglets sing their "See-See-See" songs. A Winter Wren shows up in the damp cove behind the house. Although their appearance is brought about by seasonal changes, sometimes it seems as if they bring the seasons to us.
Sky Events for November 2023: The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks during the evening hours of December 14th and the morning hours of December 15th. There will be no Moon to interfere with the view, so hopefully the weather will cooperate. The Winter Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere occurs on December 21st at 10:27pm Eastern Standard Time. This is the shortest day and the longest night of the year for us. The earliest sunset occurs two weeks prior to this on December 7th. The latest sunrise occurs about two weeks after the solstice.
Jupiter is in Aries this month. Over two-thirds of the combined mass of all of the solar system's planets is in your field of view when you aim your telescope at Jupiter. Look for Jupiter about 30 degrees above the eastern horizon at dusk at the beginning of the month.. For good telescopic views wait till it is due south and higher above the horizon. There's a lot to see on Jupiter. Even with just a good pair of binoculars you can see Jupiter appears as a small disk rather than a point like a star. You can often see one or more of the four Galilean moons. A six-inch aperture telescope will show the Great Red Spot, a long-lasting storm in Jupiter's clouds shown in the image at right, and some of the belts, though those are of lower contrast visually than they appear in images. The planet rotates in just under 10 hours, so in a single night you can watch the Great Red Spot rotate from one side of the planet to the other. Saturn is getting lower to the horizon this month, so you will want to observe it early in the evening. It is spectacular in just about any size telescope. Look for Mercury low above the southwestern horizon early in the month. Try looking about 30 minutes after sunset. A flat horizon and binoculars will help. Morning Sky:
Venus still shines brightly low in the
southeastern predawn sky this month. It is brighter than any other star-like object
in the sky, so you shouldn't have a problem locating it. Constellations:
The views below show the sky looking east at 10:15pm EST on December 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.
Look for the bright stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation of Gemini, The Twins. Compare the colors of the bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel in Orion. Betelgeuse is a red giant and Rigel is a very hot, blue-white supergiant. If you have a telescope or binoculars, look at the center of the three "sword" stars below Orion's belt. There you will find the Orion Nebula, M42, one of the most magnificent emission nebulas in the sky. The red glow of hydrogen alpha light is visible only in very large telescopes and the nebula appears as a small greenish glow in small telescopes. Crouching beneath the feet of Orion, is Lepus, the Hare. Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, shines below Orion. Sirius is in Canis Major, the Great Dog, and for that reason is known as the Dog Star. In the late summer, Sirius rises at the same time as the Sun. Because of this, the late summer days are known as the "dog days." The faint constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn, follows Orion over the eastern horizon. Low in the eastern sky below Gemini is Canis Minor with its bright star Procyon. Procyon means, "before the dog," and refers to the fact that Procyon rises just before the Dog Star, Sirius. Look below Gemini and see if you can spot the faint glow of M44, the "Beehive Cluster." This cluster is located in Cancer, the Crab. Look due north above the North star to find the rather inconspicuous constellation of Cepheus. It looks like a small upside-down house with a very pointed roof. Cepheus is along the Milky Way and has a wealth of interesting nebulae and star clusters. One of these nebula is the Wizard Nebula shown above in a narrowband image.
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 December. 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 Sirius and Procyon 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 three stars in a line in Orion's belt. 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 January 15th at 10:15 EST, you can stay up till 12:15am EST on the December 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. 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:
Recommended: The Frogs and Toads of North America, Lang Elliott, Houghton Mifflin Co.
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