NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, July 9, 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)
** Jane LeBlanc got a great photo of a BLACK-BILLED
CUCKOO from her St. Martins deck on Thursday, a bird that can be hard to
get close to and not that abundant. The
muted cuckoo clock vocalization is unique and a great way to get to see the
species. Jane also sends a photo of
colour in her backyard with an AMERICAN GOLDFINCH and a male PURPLE
FINCH. Jane photographed a HAIRY
WOODPECKER she assumed to be a young-of-the-year bird.
** Jane recently sent a mushroom photo
that we felt was a JACK-O-LANTERN MUSHROOM. Jane was back to get a photo of the underside
gills which more closely confirmed it with gill descending the stalk. Her original photo is re-attached today for
comparison.
** A few plant observations from
Thursday: EVENING PRIMROSE is a
very common pleasant-blooming plant at the moment. It often tends to close its blooms on sunny days
yet opens wide at dusk and cloudy days.
This is due to its very close relationship to the small to medium-sized
pale red and white PRIMROSE MOTH.
The moth pollinates the Evening Primrose and can be seen cryptically hidden
in some primrose blossoms. It lays its
eggs in the blooms and later the larvae will feed on some of the primrose green
pods. The larval caterpillars are so
cryptic that you have to stare at the cluster of seed pods to pick them
out. It is an excellent example of how
one uses the other’s services for mutual advantage. Both plant and moth are doing well.
** Another plant that is blooming with
abandon at the moment is SHEEP LAUREL.
The pleasant pink blooms attract insects, but the laurel may have a surprise
in store as the filaments within the flower will snap down to load the insect
with pollen to be sent to other flowers for pollination. It will immediately let the filament snap
back into place to be ready for the next visitor.
** Another plant that is going into
bloom at the moment is VALERIAN.
This plant has white to pinkish floral clusters and is a very invasive
plant that can take over whole fields if left to do so. It has a heavy sweet odour to attract insect
pollinators. The leaves help to identify
the plant with a photo attached. This
plant has been used medicinally in the past and does indeed contain the
chemical diazepam which is now prepared synthetically and known under the trade
name Valium to treat anxiety.
** It is Friday and time to review the
next week’s Sky-at-a-Glace, with some interesting evening planet activity, courtesy
of sky-guru Curt Nason.
This
Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2021 July 10 – July 17
The dome of the night sky appears to be two dimensional, which led the ancients
to propose that the stars were embedded on a crystal sphere beyond the
wanderers of the Sun, Moon and five planets. We now know that the stars are
much farther than the planets, but how much farther? Neptune is the most
distant planet from the Sun, about three times farther than Saturn and 30 times
farther than Earth. Sunlight takes 4.2 hours to reach Neptune but 4.2 years to
reach the closest star, Proxima Centauri. The nearest star we can see easily
from New Brunswick is Sirius at 8.6 light years.
Although the constellations appear to be distinct figures of related stars,
often those stars are at vastly different distances. Rasalhague, the brightest
star of Ophiuchus and which marks his head, is 49 light years away, while the
one at his waist is about ten times farther. Rasalhague is closer to us than it
is to some of the other stars that form the constellation. The constellation
shapes are a matter of perspective but they will look the same from Neptune as
they do from Earth.
Near Antares in Scorpius is the globular cluster M4, one of the nearest such
clusters at 7000 light years. M13 in Hercules is more than three times distant,
and M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is about a hundred times farther than M13. The
most distant object accessible by a medium-size backyard telescope is the
quasar (an extremely luminous active galaxy) 3C 273 in Virgo, which is a
thousand times farther than M31. And sometimes in Saint John I can barely see
across the street.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:38 am and sunset will occur at 9:10 pm,
giving 15 hours, 32 minutes of daylight (5:46 am and 9:12 pm in Saint John).
Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 5:45 am and set at 9:05 pm, giving 15 hours,
20 minutes of daylight (5:53 am and 9:07 pm in Saint John).
The slim waxing crescent Moon passes a wide binocular field to the right of
Mars and Venus around 10 pm Sunday, and it is at first quarter on July 17. Look
for the Lunar X with a telescope a few hours before sunset next Friday. Mars
and Venus cross paths within the same binocular field this week, with Mars half
a degree below the much brighter planet on Tuesday. Saturn rises before the end
of nautical twilight, followed by Jupiter around 11 pm. Although Mercury is
past its greatest elongation it continues to brighten and be easier to spot in
morning twilight.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
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