Nature Moncton Nature News: September 22 2023

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

September 22, 2023

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**A few weeks ago, Louise Richard found 2 Monarch Butterfly caterpillars on her milkweed. Rheal Vienneau immediately came and picked them up to let them feed and go into chrysalids. They emerged this week and got tagged Wednesday and released Thursday to start their journey to Mexico to overwinter. Louise comments, “What a great experience and a very kind man.”

**Shannon Inman has found an area with a diversity of mushrooms, which we can expect to find more of with wet ground and cooling nights.
A few that Shannon has photographed are the Northern Tooth Mushroom, which is almost always found fruiting on Sugar Maple, or occasionally Beech; the bright red Scarlet Waxy Cap which is a relatively easy one to identify; the Thin-maze Polypore which is a tentative identification. The brilliant Yellow Slime Mold Fungus species interestingly will attach to plants occasionally, as Shannon’s photo shows. The texture of the fungus quickly gives away its identity.

(Editor’s note: Pictures of mushrooms are tough. It is helpful to get several photos of a single mushroom over and under where applicable, the substrate it is growing on, does it ooze latex when cut, is the stalk friable or does it just bend, a spore print is very valuable, is it growing on wood or ground, is there a specific odour, and more. The more info, the better.

In saying all that, some are very easy to ID.)

**It’s Friday, and time to take a look at what next week’s night sky may hold for us, especially with the suggestion that Mother Nature may provide us with some clear nights. Thanks to sky guru Curt Nason for the outlook below.

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2023, September 23 – September 30
Small constellations tend to get overlooked unless, like Delphinus the Dolphin, they have fairly bright stars or an eye-catching pattern. Aries the Ram and cleverly named Triangulum aren’t quite as pretty as Delphinus but they do get noticed. Okay, Triangulum isn’t pretty, but it is acute, situated below Andromeda in mid-evening. Below it is brighter Aries, which resembles a somewhat squashed triangle.

In mythology, the god Hermes sent a flying, golden ram to rescue a prince who was being sacrificed to end a famine. The prince showed his gratitude by slaughtering the ram and giving its fleece to a man in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage. The Golden Fleece later became the quest of Jason and the Argonauts. Over 2000 years ago, the will the Sun was in Aries on the first day of spring, and the vernal equinox is still called the First Point of Aries despite having moved into the constellation Pisces long ago.

Triangulum is not associated with an exciting tale from mythology, but at times, it had been regarded as a tribute to both the Nile Delta and the island of Sicily. I use the tip of the triangle as a reference for locating the Triangulum Galaxy, also called M33. It is almost halfway and a tad to the right of a line from the tip to orange Mirach in Andromeda. Smaller and slightly more distant than the nearby Andromeda Galaxy (M31), this face-on spiral galaxy is dim but attainable with binoculars in a reasonably dark sky.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:07 am, and sunset will occur at 7:15 pm, giving 12 hours and 8 minutes of daylight (7:12 am and 7:20 pm in Saint John). Next Saturday, the Sun will rise at 7:16 am and set at 7:01 pm, giving 11 hours and 45 minutes of daylight (7:20 am and 7:06 pm in Saint John). This Saturday at 3:50 am the Sun crosses the equator, heading southward, to begin our autumn season.

The Moon is at first quarter on Friday, September 22, leading us into Fall Astronomy Day. It passes near Saturn on Tuesday, Neptune on Thursday, and it is full next Friday. Brilliant Venus rises around 3:45 am midweek, followed by Mercury two hours later. The steep angle of the ecliptic on early autumn mornings places them higher in the sky for better viewing. Saturn is at its best for observation in the late evening, and Jupiter rises around 9:45 pm midweek.

The RASC NB star party at Kouchibouguac National Park takes place on Friday and Saturday, September 22-23. Also, Astronomy Day public observing will be held at the Irving Nature Park in Saint John on September 22 from 8 – 11:30 p.m., with a back-up date of September 23.