NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, January
29, 2021 (Friday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by: Louise Nichols nicholsl@eastlink.ca
Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
** There have not been a lot of SNOWY OWL [Harfang des
neiges] reports
this year. On Thursday at 4:40 PM, John
and Cathy Hamer saw one fly over the Pointe-du-Chêne lighthouse and land on an
ice flow approximately 200 meters out and approximately 100 meters from a seal
on another bergy bit. They wondered if
the owl may not have afterbirth from a seal birth in mind. It would have to be a possibility.
** Sterling Marsh has a resident RED SQUIRREL [Écureuil
roux] living in
his garage, and he is seeing activity he has not seen before. It has an under-snow trail system seen as a
dark line in Sterling’s photo that runs to the back deck where the bird feeders
and water are located. Sterling comments
that it is amusing watching it dive into one hole and appear at the tree line.
** A sky viewer spotted the beautiful, coloured
bands of a LUNAR CORONA in the clouds surrounding the Moon on Thursday night
and alerted photographer Brian Stone to get off his ‘fanny’ and do his job for
the Nature Information Line which he did beautifully to record the colourful
event. It is the coloured bands and the aureole (clear band around the Moon)
that make this a corona versus a halo (among other more technical reasons).
Brian provides the
links below to explain the phenomenon.
https://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/cormoon.htm
https://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/corona.htm
** As a follow-up to Yves Poussart’s
lucky observation of an adult HARP SEAL [Phoque du Groenland at L’Aboiteau
wharf, Brian Stone tried for it on Thursday.
There was indeed a seal out there, but it was so far out on the ice,
binoculars were needed to see it.
Two adult BALD EAGLES [Pygargue à
tête blanche] were
perched on poles along the road just past Robichaud. Their tails are silt-soiled just like the
ones around the Petitcodiac River often are.
** Ray Gauvin comments that he has had RED SQUIRRELS [Écureuil
roux] and GREY SQUIRRELS [Ecureuil
gris] at his
Pointe-du-Chêne feeder yard for years.
He has a pair of Red Squirrels that he assumes is a bonded pair. They are together all the time and chasing
each other. It may not seem like spring
to us, but many wild creatures have it in mind to arrange for housekeeping to
commence when temperature and food supply is right. Ray is quite sure there is more than one Grey
Squirrel in attendance as he can tell from their coats, but he never sees more
than one at a time. The Red Squirrels
put the run to the Grey Squirrels all the time, and in turn the Blue Jays put
the run to the Red Squirrels all the time!
** It is Friday and time to review the
sky-view for the next week, courtesy of sky-guru Curt Nason, and yes, it’s for
the first full week of February.
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2021 January 30 –
2021 February 6
With Groundhog Day coming this Tuesday it would be nice to talk about the
groundhog constellation, but there is none. Technically, no rodents have been
so honoured, although the second brightest star in Gemini is called Castor,
which is the genus of beavers. However, some time ago the cute bunnies decided
they didn’t want to be associated with rodents and called themselves
lagomorphs. So, at the risk of being attacked by the killer rabbit in Arthurian
legend, we will celebrate Groundhog Day by focusing on Lepus the Hare. And for
some strange reason, I feel that I have written this before.
By 9 pm Orion stands high in the southern sky while Lepus cowers below his
feet, hoping to avoid detection by Orion’s larger canine companion to the east.
I see the constellation as three vertical pairs of stars, with the brightest
pair in the middle and the widest to the right. With a reasonably dark sky you
can see the bunny ears between the widest pair and Orion’s brightest star,
Rigel. If you extend the middle pair down an equal distance a small telescope
will reveal a fuzzy patch called M79. This globular cluster is unusual in that
it is in our winter sky, whereas most of the globulars are seen among the
summer constellations. M79 could be part of another galaxy that is interacting
with the Milky Way.
If you draw a line from the top of the middle pair to the top of the widest
pair and extend it a little more than half that distance, a telescope might
pick up Hind’s Crimson Star, one of the reddest stars in the sky. Its
brightness varies by a factor of 300 over 14 months, with the red colour being
most pronounced at its dimmest.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:43 am and sunset will occur at 5:21 pm,
giving 9 hours, 38 minutes of daylight (7:46 am and 5:28 pm in Saint
John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:34 am and set at 5:32 pm,
giving 9 hours, 58 minutes of daylight (7:38 am and 5:39 pm in Saint John).
The Moon is at third quarter on Thursday, rising after midnight and setting
nearly an hour before noon. Mercury sets around 6:50 pm this weekend, but it is
fading quickly and heading sunward over the week. Mars remains in the sky over
the entire evening but it, too, is fading. With Venus moving sunward in the
morning and Saturn a week past solar conjunction, the two will have a meet-up
next weekend. Jupiter joins them the following week. This is not a great week
for solar system observing; it might as well snow.
With astronomy meetings and outreach activities on hold, you can watch the
local Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm, and view archived shows, on YouTube
at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAEHfOWyL-kNH7dBVHK8spg
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
