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**Brian Stone visited Wilson Marsh on Thursday afternoon and shares a few photos from his outing. The first photo opportunity that came up was a female ring-necked pheasant that was startled enough to fly up into a tree before flying off further into the marsh. An American crow looked on as an American goldfinch and an American robin fed on their respective forage. Brian noticed a few tracks in the fresh snow, but photographed the one type of track that was most common, and he suspects it might be those of a weasel.
There were also several long, white-tailed deer trails crossing the frozen marsh ponds and through the woods. Brian photographed young buds waiting for spring to entice them to open, and the largest pileated woodpecker feeding cavity in a dead tree that he has ever seen.
**This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 January 31 – February 7
The constellation Hydra is the largest of the 88 and it represents a female
water snake. I mention the gender because there is a male water snake
constellation, Hydrus, in the southern hemisphere. A small trapezoid of stars,
located about halfway below a line between Procyon in Canis Minor and Regulus
in Leo, represents the snake’s head. To its lower left is a solitary bright
star called Alphard, the heart of the snake. The rest of the constellation is a
long serpentine string of fainter stars that stretches to Virgo. It takes about
eight hours for the entire constellation to rise. Two other constellations,
Corvus the Crow and Crater the Cup, are sitting on Hydra’s back.
In mythology, Hercules had to kill the multi-headed Hydra as the second of his
famous labours. Knowing the creature could only be killed by severing all of
the heads, and that two would grow in where one was severed, he placed a tree
stump in a fire. When he cut off a head he cauterized the wound with the
glowing stump to prevent regrowth. When Hera saw that Hercules might win she
sent a crab to distract him, but he easily stomped it dead. That explains the
presence of the dim constellation Cancer the Crab just above the head of Hydra.
Hera despised Hercules because he was the illegitimate son (one of many) of her
husband Zeus. When the Hydra was slain, Hercules dipped his arrows in the
Hydra’s poisonous blood for later use.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:42 and sunset will occur at 5:22, giving
9 hours, 40 minutes of daylight (7:45 and 5:30 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 7:33 and set at 5:33, giving 10 hours of daylight (7:36
and 5:40 in Saint John).
The
Moon is full on Sunday and just before 10 pm Monday it passes in front of the
bright star Regulus for about an hour. Saturn is in the southwest in evening
twilight this week, setting soon after 9 pm. Jupiter is at its highest around
10:30, and
on Tuesday telescope users might see its moon Europa reappear from eclipse at
6:43 and Callisto disappear behind the planet at 10:35. By midweek binocular
users might pick out Venus setting half an hour after sunset with Mercury
within the view to its upper left. Mars is out of sight on the far side if
the Sun. Also starting midweek rural observers might catch the zodiacal light
angling up the ecliptic 60 to 90 minutes after sunset.
Tune
in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and
Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay. The Saint John Astronomy Club meets in
the Rockwood Park Interpretation Centre on February 7 at 7 pm.
Questions?
Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
