Nature Moncton Nature
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**Lynda Leclerc has been noticing wasps or bees hanging around their mountain ash tree, and she presumes they are hanging around what looks like a hole in the bark. In another area, it looks like a yellow-bellied sapsucker has been busy. She wonders if they are after the sap released by the woodpecker’s probing (which could well be the case). It would be interesting to hear comments if anyone has seen this scenario before.
Lynda got a
video of the activity, which can be viewed at the link below:
**Marbeth
Wilson shares some photos from the Nature Moncton Wednesday night walk. An encounter
with a young-of-the-year American toad was special!
**On
Thursday night, and very early Friday morning, Brian Stone did his best to
photograph the partial, but nearly full, lunar eclipse that was taking
place at that time. Gosh darn clouds blocked the first half hour of the eclipse,
but it then cleared, and the rest of the eclipse proceeded in full view. Brian sends
a composite image of several stages of the eclipse, plus a single photo showing
how some stars in the constellation Aquarius came into view as the Moon dimmed.
It is always convenient to photograph Moon or Sun events, as they are both
so bright that dark skies are not needed, and Brian didn't have to leave home
to get his photos. He got them just standing in his driveway right
beside Mountain Road!
**This
Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 August 29 – September 5
Technically, any three stars in the sky will form some sort of a triangle, but
there are those that stand out. Overhead in early evening is the best known
celestial threesome, the isosceles Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb and Altair.
Straddling the Milky Way, each star is the brightest in their respective
constellations of Lyra the Harp, Cygnus the Swan and Aquila the Eagle. An
ancient tale of Eastern mythology depicted Vega and Altair as lovers separated
by a river (the Milky Way). I look at them as an updated version of that tale,
that of Running Bear and White Dove in the Johnny Preston hit written by the
Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson.
With the Summer Triangle overhead, the constellation Triangulum the Triangle is
low in the east below Andromeda. Known as a constellation for thousands of
years, it has been said to represent, among other things, the Nile Delta and
the island of Sicily. If you have a dark sky, use binoculars to look about a
third of the way and a tad to the right, between the tip of Triangulum and the
orange star Mirach in Andromeda above, to see the face-on spiral galaxy
M33.
Now that summer is fading, and if you can't wait for winter, just look to the
east in morning darkness for the Winter Triangle. Orange Betelgeuse in Orion's
armpit joins with Orion's companion Dog Stars of Sirius and Procyon to form an
equilateral triangle. All three stars make the top ten in brightness.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:36 and sunset will occur at 8:03, giving
13 hours, 27 minutes of daylight (6:42 and 8:07 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 6:44 and set at 7:49, giving 13 hours, 5 minutes of
daylight (6:50 and 7:54 in Saint John).
The Moon is near the Pleiades Thursday morning and it is at third quarter
the following day. Venus and Spica will be a binocular couple low in the
west-southwest a half hour after sunset this week, with Venus just below it on
Tuesday. Saturn will be on the rise around the time they set. An hour before
sunrise Jupiter is a fist-width above the eastern horizon with Sirius, the
brightest star of the night sky, equally high in the southeast. Reddish-orange
Mars will be much higher and a little to the right of Jupiter, with similarly
coloured Betelgeuse as high above Sirius. Mercury has moved to the evening
sky but it will be lost in twilight for a couple of weeks, and even then it
will be a difficult target.
The RASC NB Fundy Park Stargaze will be on September 4-5 at Fundy National
Park. On the following weekend Mount Carleton Provincial Park will host a
special astronomy-themed Dark Sky Experience weekend. The next meeting of the
Saint John Astronomy Club will be on September 12.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
