Jan 6, 2023
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
Proof review courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
**Marc
LeBlanc located a juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker in Riverside on January
5. The bird Marc located is molting en route to adult plumage. There is a
possibility this could be the same bird Gordon Rattray photographed in
nearby Shepody on November 9, 2022 which is reattached to today’s edition.
If
it stays in the area, it will be very interesting to see photos as it matures.
**Fred and Lynn Dube had an adult male Merlin drop by their Lower Coverdale feeder yard to check the menu on Thursday and pose for some nice photographs.
(Editor’s note: the Merlin has vertical striping on the breast both as
juvenile and adult. Fred’s photo is a male as indicated by the dark bluish
mantle whereas a female would be chocolate brown in that area. The dark eye
also indicates it is an adult as the juvenile Merlin has a yellow eye).
**Friday has arrived already and time to review what next week’s night
sky may have in store for us courtesy of sky guru Curt Nason.
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2023
January 7 – January 14
Looking at a constellation it is easy to imagine its component stars being
fairly close together in space, as if it is an actual body. Let us look at two
prominent winter constellations to see if that is true. Surely the three stars
of Orion’s Belt are equidistant; at first glance they appear to be almost
equally bright. Alnitak, the left star, is 1260 light years (ly) away, slightly
farther than dimmer Mintaka on the right. Alnilam, the middle star, is much
farther at 2000 ly. Saiph and bright Rigel, marking Orion’s feet or knees, are
650 ly and 860 ly distant, respectively. In the giant hunter’s shoulders orange
Betelgeuse is about 550 ly away and Bellatrix is 250 ly.
Following the belt to the lower left we arrive at Canis Major, the Big Dog,
with brilliant Sirius at its heart. Sirius is the brightest star of the night
sky and the closest naked-eye star we can see in New Brunswick at 8.6 ly (only
82 trillion kilometres), which is the main reason it is the brightest. If Rigel
were that close it would be about as bright as the quarter Moon. Adhara, in the
dog’s rear leg, is the 23rd brightest star and 400 ly away, Wezen in the dog’s
butt is 1600 ly, and the tail star Aludra is 1100 ly distant. Obviously, the
constellations are just chance alignments of stars from our viewpoint. The
distances cited here are taken from Wikipedia, but other sources could vary
significantly as stellar distances are difficult to determine precisely.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 8:00 am and sunset will occur at 4:50 pm,
giving 8 hours, 50 minutes of daylight (8:02 am and 4:58 pm in Saint John).
Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:58 am and set at 4:58 pm, giving 9 hours
of daylight (8:00 am and 5:06 pm in Saint John).
The Moon is full on Friday, January 6 and at third quarter next Saturday.
Venus leads the evening parade of four planets, setting around 6:30 followed by
Saturn 70 minutes later. On Monday Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, the largest in the
solar system and even larger than Mercury, might be seen with a telescope
disappearing behind the planet at 5:16 and reappearing at 8:13. Mars is
stationary on Thursday, resuming its eastward motion away from the Pleiades and
above the Hyades star clusters over the month. Mercury is at inferior
conjunction this weekend, popping up in the morning sky an hour before sunrise
by the end of the week.
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.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
