Nature Moncton Nature News: January 20 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

January 20, 2024

Nature Moncton members as well as any naturalist in New Brunswick or beyond are invited to share their photos and descriptions of recent nature sightings to build a fresh (almost) daily edition of Nature News

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.

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Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

** Jane LeBlanc put out Mountain Ash berries she's had in the freezer since fall. She was hoping for robins or waxwings to come. Until then, her regulars are enjoying them, including Purple Finches, Northern Cardinals, and Black-capped Chickadees.

**John Inman has a troop of White-tailed Deer that come later in the day to do cleanup around the birdfeeders.

On Friday, suddenly all tails flagged up and off they went as a Red Fox came into the yard for a late-day hunt. John was able to capture some great photos of the Red Fox intently listening for prey followed by the skillful Red Fox leap to where the sound was coming from.

This Red Fox appears in excellent condition going into winter.

**Nelson Poirier has had a Cooper’s Hawk monitoring his birdfeeder yard regularly.

Raptors have to eat as well, and Nelson has lots of Mourning Doves to share; however, he considers the few Northern Cardinals present out of bounds! Placing seeds in the center of a very thorny multiflora rosebush seems to be keeping them safe from the hawk.

The weekly sky report from Curt Nason was accidentally misplaced yesterday, so unfortunately is appearing one day late. Better late than not!

**This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2024 January 13 – January 20

Monoceros is a constellation that is easy to locate, sandwiched between Orion’s dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor, but it is not easy to see. From urban areas its dim stars are as elusive as the unicorn they depict. It was one of eight new constellations created on a globe by the Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius around 1612. Of those eight, only Monoceros and Camelopardalis are recognized as official constellations today. Monoceros is situated within the winter Milky Way, which is apparent in rural skies.

Despite being a dim constellation, Monoceros is home to some favourite targets of astrophotographers, in particular the beautiful Rosette Nebula. Another is the combination of the Cone Nebula, Christmas Tree Cluster and the Fox Fur Nebula. Check the Internet for their stunning images. Monoceros has one Messier object within its boundary, the large open cluster M50, otherwise known as the Heart-Shaped Cluster. It can be seen in binoculars about 40% of the distance from Sirius to Procyon. Three other open clusters on the Messier list are found near Monoceros but they lie officially within other constellations. They are the close pair of M46 and M47 in Puppis, and M48 in Hydra.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:54 and sunset will occur at 5:06, giving 9 hours, 12 minutes of daylight (7:56 and 5:13 in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:47 and set at 5:16, giving 9 hours, 29 minutes of daylight (7:50 and 5:23 in Saint John).

The Moon is near the Pleiades cluster in Taurus this Saturday evening, below Pollux in Gemini on Wednesday, and it is full on Thursday. On Monday telescope users might see Jupiter’s moon Europa disappear behind the planet at 5:50, reappear on the other side at 8:14, disappear into shadow 22 minutes later and reappear at 10:58, while Io reappears from Jupiter’s shadow at 8:32. Saturn sets around 8 pm midweek so observe it early. Mercury is speeding eastward from Venus toward a difficult-to-observe, tight meet-up with Mars next Saturday morning. For those who need an excuse to party on weekends, Pluto is in conjunction with the Sun this Saturday and Uranus is stationary next Saturday.

On Sunday evening at 8 pm, tune in to 200th episode of 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.