BALD EAGLE.YOUNG-OF-THE-YEAR.AUG 13, 2015.PENNY CLARK
BLACK BELLIED PLOVER 02. AUG. 13, 2015. BRIAN STONE
BLACK BELLIED PLOVER AND HERRING GULL. AUG. 13, 2015. BRIAN STONE
BLACK BELLIED PLOVER AND SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS. AUG. 13, 2015. BRIAN STONE
BLACK BELLIED PLOVER AND SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS. AUG. 13, 2015. BRIAN STONE
BLACK BELLIED PLOVERS AND GULLS. AUG. 13, 2015. BRIAN STONE
LESSER YELLOWLEGS (LEFT) AND SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER (RIGHT).AUG 12, 2015.ALDO DORIO
SANDPIPERS AT JOHNSON'S MILLS. AUG. 13, 2015,. BRIAN STONE
LESSER YELLOWLEGS (LEFT) AND SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER (RIGHT).AUG 12, 2015.ALDO DORIO
SANDPIPERS AT JOHNSON'S MILLS. AUG. 13, 2015,. BRIAN STONE
SANDPIPERS AT JOHNSON'S MILLS. AUG. 13, 2015,. BRIAN STONE
SEMIPALMATED PLOVER 02. AUG. 13, 2015. BRIAN STONE
SPOTTED SANDPIPER (JUVENILE OR BASIC PLUMAGE ADULT).AUG 13, 2015.ALDO DORIO
** Penny Clark captured a few photos of one of the two young-of-the-year
Bald Eagles at the Camp Wildwood nest site at McKee's Mills. They're looking
very ready for inaugural flights.
** More and more shorebird photos to share. Aldo Dorio got a photo of a
LESSER YELLOWLEGS [Petit Chevalier] and SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER [Bécassin roux]
side by side. He also got a SPOTTED SANDPIPER [Chevalier grivelé], either a
juvenile bird or an adult bird that's molted to basic plumage.
** Louise Nichols, Anne Marsch and Brian Stone visited the Johnson's Mills
shorebird area on Thursday. Brian got a great series of excellent photos,
several of BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS [Pluvier argenté] that show the varying plumage
of this species in its molting stages, and showing them with other shorebirds
and a GULL [Goéland] to show size comparisons.
** This weeks Sky-at-a-Glance is added to today's transcription, courtesy
of Curt Nason.
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, August 15 –August 22
First, a correction to last week’s sky report. The parent comet of the Perseid meteor shower is named Swift-Tuttle. Tempel-Tuttle is the parent comet of the Leonid shower in November. Perhaps I made the mistake on porpoise as a lead-in to this week’s constellation highlight.
One of the prettiest constellations can be seen halfway up in the southeastern sky around 10 pm. Delphinus the Dolphin is composed of a small diamond-shaped asterism with a couple of stars tailing off to the right, and it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to picture a dolphin leaping out of the sea. Although its stars are not bright, its compact shape is eye-catching. Below it are the watery constellations of Capricornus, Aquarius, Piscis Austrinus and Pisces. In mythology, Poseidon had designs on the sea nymph Amphitrite but she hid on him. Delphinus ratted her out and was rewarded with a place of honour in the sky. The diamond part of the constellation has also been called Job’s Coffin but the origin of this has been lost to time.
Above Delphinus, and within the Summer Triangle, are two other small constellations called Sagitta the Arrow and Vulpecula the Fox. Like Delphinus, Sagitta does resemble its namesake but apparently the fox is too sly to give itself away readily. Sagitta is supposedly the arrow shot by Hercules to kill Zeus’s pet eagle (Aquila), which had been commanded by Zeus to peck out the liver of Prometheus each day to punish him for giving humans the secret of fire. Binoculars might reveal the tiny gaseous remnants of an expired star, called the Dumbbell Nebula or M27, to the upper left of the arrow, and the Coathanger Cluster is to the upper right.
First, a correction to last week’s sky report. The parent comet of the Perseid meteor shower is named Swift-Tuttle. Tempel-Tuttle is the parent comet of the Leonid shower in November. Perhaps I made the mistake on porpoise as a lead-in to this week’s constellation highlight.
One of the prettiest constellations can be seen halfway up in the southeastern sky around 10 pm. Delphinus the Dolphin is composed of a small diamond-shaped asterism with a couple of stars tailing off to the right, and it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to picture a dolphin leaping out of the sea. Although its stars are not bright, its compact shape is eye-catching. Below it are the watery constellations of Capricornus, Aquarius, Piscis Austrinus and Pisces. In mythology, Poseidon had designs on the sea nymph Amphitrite but she hid on him. Delphinus ratted her out and was rewarded with a place of honour in the sky. The diamond part of the constellation has also been called Job’s Coffin but the origin of this has been lost to time.
Above Delphinus, and within the Summer Triangle, are two other small constellations called Sagitta the Arrow and Vulpecula the Fox. Like Delphinus, Sagitta does resemble its namesake but apparently the fox is too sly to give itself away readily. Sagitta is supposedly the arrow shot by Hercules to kill Zeus’s pet eagle (Aquila), which had been commanded by Zeus to peck out the liver of Prometheus each day to punish him for giving humans the secret of fire. Binoculars might reveal the tiny gaseous remnants of an expired star, called the Dumbbell Nebula or M27, to the upper left of the arrow, and the Coathanger Cluster is to the upper right.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:18 am and sunset will occur at 8:28 pm, giving 14 hours, 10 minutes of daylight (6:28 am and 8:32 pm in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 6:27 am and set at 8:16 pm, giving 13 hours, 49 minutes of daylight (6:33 am and 8:20 pm in Saint John).
The Moon is at first quarter on Saturday, August 22, yielding great views in a spotting scope during the latter half of this week.
Mercury may be seen with binoculars a few degrees above the western horizon a half hour after sunset.
Venus, at inferior conjunction on August 15, is too close to the Sun to be seen.
Mars rises more than an hour and a half before the Sun and passes just below the Beehive star cluster in Cancer late in the week.
Jupiter is in conjunction with the Sun on August 26 and won’t be visible until mid-September.
Saturn is in the southwest at dark and sets around midnight this week. Its rings are at their best viewing in a decade so give them a try with your spotting scope, and look for its brightest moon Titan nearby.
Have a look at Saturn, the Moon and other celestial delights through an array of telescopes at the Irving Nature Park in Saint John from 8:30-11:00 pm on Friday, August 21 (cloud date August 22).
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
