NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, August
13, 2021 (Friday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by: david.cannon@rogers.com
Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
**On Saturday afternoon, Brian Coyle just happened to look out his second storey bathroom window to see a wide array of birds, mostly warblers, in a feeding frenzy, which often happens at this time of year in his yard. There was a juvenile BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER, a RED-EYED VIREO, a BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, an EASTERN PHOEBE, a suspected PALM WARBLER, and in the mix were BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES and RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS.
** The
Tuesday evening Nature Moncton walks have been well received and attendance has
been good when the weather co-operates. Fred Richards is forwarding the list of
locations and leaders for the remainder of August. All have been confirmed
except the last one, which is dependent on Fred’s neighbour getting his hay cut
and baled before then. Further details will follow as each of these events
approach:
on August 17th, the Sackville
Waterfowl Park, Leader Louise Nichols.
on August
24th, Millcreek Trail, Leader Wendy Sullivan
on August
31st, Taylor Village dikes, Leader Fred Richards.
** It’s
Friday and time to review ahead what next week’s sky will reveal, thanks to sky
guru Curt Nason:
This
Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2021 August 14 – August 21
The constellation Cepheus the King is quite large but it can be difficult to
pick out. Around 9:30 pm, look northward for a group of five moderately bright
stars in the shape of a house on its side and situated above the W-shape of
Cassiopeia the Queen. The peak of the house is only about a fist-width to the
right of Polaris, the North Star, and the constellation lies just below a line
from Polaris to Deneb at the tail of Cygnus the Swan. A colourful star can be
seen in binoculars or a scope just below the base of the house. Herschel’s
Garnet Star, a red supergiant, is one of the most luminous stars known and is a
thousand times wider than the Sun. If placed in the middle of our solar system
it would stretch beyond the orbit of Jupiter.
Another famous star in Cepheus is Delta Cephei, which is situated near the
bottom left of the house; it being the namesake of the Cepheid variable stars.
Such giant stars pulsate with a regular period and subsequently dim and
brighten consistently over that time. For example, Delta Cephei dims and
brightens by a factor of two over five days. Early in the 20th century, Harvard
astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered that the intrinsic brightness of a
Cepheid variable was proportional to its period and worked out a formula for
this relationship. Using the 100-inch telescope on Mount Wilson in the 1920s,
Edwin Hubble detected Cepheid variables in what was then called the Andromeda
Nebula. Knowing the intrinsic brightness of these stars based on their periods,
and on how stars dim with distance, he determined the distance to these stars and
proved that the nebula was actually a galaxy outside of the Milky Way.
In mythology, Cepheus and Cassiopeia were the rulers of Ethiopia. Poseidon had
made a ferocious sea monster to ravage the land as punishment for Cassiopeia’s
boasts of their daughter Andromeda’s beauty. To get rid of the monster, they
chained Andromeda to the rocks at the seashore as a sacrifice to the monster.
She was rescued by Perseus, whose namesake constellation is seen below
Cassiopeia.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:17 am and sunset will occur at 8:29 pm,
giving 14 hours, 12 minutes of daylight (6:24 am and 8:32 pm in Saint
John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 6:26 am and set at 8:17 pm,
giving 13 hours, 51 minutes of daylight (6:32 am and 8:20 pm in Saint John).
The Moon is at first quarter this Sunday and it will be below Saturn and
Jupiter next Friday and Saturday, respectively. You will need binoculars and a
clear sky to see Mercury and Mars a third of a Moon-width apart on Wednesday,
setting just 40 minutes after sunset. They will be about a hand span to the
lower right of brilliant Venus. Jupiter is at opposition on Thursday, proudly
revealing its stormy Red Spot to telescope users around 10:30 pm. Saturn is 15
degrees west of Jupiter, within the chevron-shape of Carpricornus.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
