Nature Moncton Nature News: June 10 2022

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

June 10, 2022 (Friday)

To respond by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com .

Please advise the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com if any errors are noted in wording or photo labelling.

For more information on Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com

Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

**In a recent edition of Nature News, it was pointed out participant reservations were filled up for the Nature Moncton visit to Gagetown Island on July 16. As there are often cancellations, activities committee chairperson Louise Nichols will take names for a waiting list by emailing her at nicholsl@eastlink.ca. Unfortunately, there was a typo in Louise’s email address which is now corrected.

**Ethel Douglas had one of the more beautiful of the large giant silk moths, the Cecropia Moth day perch beside her Moncton home to cooperate for a spread wing photo of this gem on Thursday. The host of this moth is a variety of deciduous trees and shrubs.

**Some comments were made on yesterday’s edition about the Nature Moncton Eastern Phoebe nest boxes being more attractive to species other than Eastern Phoebe. Yolande LeBlanc in Memramcook also his had one of these boxes host two clutches of American Robin.

**Bob Blake in Second North River reports they have fledgling Hairy Woodpeckers coming to suet with their parents, learning how to feed themselves.

**Ron Arsenault did a literature search on the leech seen by Brian Stone recently and suspects it is is Macrobdella decora (the American medicinal Leech) , see here: https://inaturalist.ca/taxa/244696-Macrobdella-decora/browse_photos.

**While on a visit to have an audience with the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in South Tetagouche, Nelson Poirier dropped by the spectacular Tetagouche Falls (9.3 km from Tim Horton’s location at the juncture of Rte. 180). This area is a very steep stone-faced cliff that tends to house a botanical community of its own. Some photos of Fragile Fern and Marginal Wood Fern are attached.

Also, an interesting lichen was photographed which Kendra Driscoll felt to be one of the Peltigera species (Pelt Lichens), possibly Peltigera canina (Dog Lichen).

The trail down to the falls has deteriorated somewhat since Nelson last visited and rappelling on a rope is necessary for part of the trail.

**It’s Friday and time to review what next week’s night sky will have in store for us courtesy of sky guru Curt Nason:

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2022 June 11 – June 18
Globular clusters are among the oldest and largest objects associated with our galaxy, being about 12 billion years old and containing tens to hundreds of thousands of stars packed into a compact sphere. There are more than 150 globulars orbiting in the halo of the Milky Way galaxy, and many more are known to be orbiting larger galaxies like M31 in Andromeda. Many can be seen in binoculars as a fuzzy patch of light, perhaps resembling those little white patches you see below bird feeders. A medium size telescope is able to resolve some of their stars. The larger globulars as seen from a dark location have been described as looking like granules of sugar against black velvet.

Summer is the season for observing globular clusters. M4 is just to the right of Antares in the constellation Scorpius and it is one of the closest globulars at 7000 light years. M13 in the Keystone of Hercules is relatively close at 22,000 light years. One that would outshine M13 if it were higher in our sky is M22, just left of the lid of the Teapot in Sagittarius. Another easy target is M3, located halfway between Arcturus and Cor Caroli, the brightest star in the small constellation Canes Venatici below the handle of the Big Dipper. Two other standouts are M92 in Hercules and M5 in Serpens.

From a dark sky, many dimmer globulars can be picked out in the region of Sagittarius and Ophiuchus. The concentration of globular clusters in this region of sky is not by accident, and it played a role in another lesson of humility for humanity. Harvard’s Harlow Shapley studied globular clusters a century ago and noticed that most were located around Sagittarius. If they were evenly distributed around the core of our galaxy, as believed, then the centre of the galaxy must lie in that direction. Just as Copernicus and Galileo demoted Earth from the centre of the solar system, Shapley showed that the Sun was not at the centre of the Milky Way.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:27 am and sunset will occur at 9:10 pm, giving 15 hours, 43 minutes of daylight (5:36 am and 9:11 pm in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 5:27 am and set at 9:13 pm, giving 15 hours, 46 minutes of daylight (5:35 am and 9:14 pm in Saint John).

The Moon is full and near perigee on Tuesday, resulting in extreme tides midweek. Around 11:25 pm on Sunday it occults (passes in front of) Dschubba, the middle star in the arc of three to the upper right of Antares in Scorpius. Shortly after Dschubba reappears from behind the Moon an hour later, Saturn rises in the east. Mercury is at greatest elongation from the Sun on Thursday, making it easier to locate in twilight although using binoculars is recommended at first. This begins a period of two weeks or more when the five naked-eye planets are lined up in their order of distance from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. I think that is a sight worth rising with the rooster.

On Sunday evening at 8 pm, tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show via the Facebook page or YouTube channel of Astronomy by the Bay.

Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.