Winter 2014

Public Is Invited
Marietta Natural History Society
Winter 2014 Newsletter
.
What’s
in the
Thursday, January 9,
6:00 PM, MNHS Annual Potluck Dinner,
St. Luke’s Lutheran Church
4th & Scammel Sts.
Presenter: Dr. Almuth Tschunko
Botany Professor, Marietta College
Have you ever wondered which plants and
parts of plants are in a delicious spice cake?
Come and find out! Bring a covered dish to
share and table service.
Seed
Production
in the
American Chestnut
Thursday,
February 6,
7:00 PM,
Anderson-Hancock
Planetarium , Marietta College
Presenter: Dr. Ann Bragg
Astronomy Professor, Marietta College
Ann has written an article (page 4) and
will make a presentation on The Winter
Sky: Bright Stars, Young and Old. She
will also be showing a video called The
Astronomer Cowboy. Read the article,
see the show, and the winter sky you
will better know.
Thursday, March 13, 7:00 PM
Selby Hall, Rm 150,
Marietta College
Presenter: Dr. Brian McCarthy
Assoc. Dean and Professor of
Forest Ecology, Ohio University
Brian has been very active in the American Chestnut Foundation, doing basic research
and helping to re-establish disease-resistant hybrids. He will talk about research on
chestnut seed production and nutritional qualities compared to other hardwood species
(e.g., oaks) and the potential impacts of chestnut decline on wildlife communities.
Page 2
Marietta Natural History Society
It’s Time for
MNHS
Membership Renewal
Use the enclosed membership form
to renew today! Please send to:
Marietta Natural History Society
P.O. Box 983 Marietta, OH 45750
Dinner with the speakers
Meets at
5:30 at the
Levee House
Restaurant
Check with Marilyn
(373-3372) or Elsa (373-5285) first.
Members should make their own reservations.
Events Sponsored by the Friends of
Ohio River Islands
National Wildlife Refuge
All activities are free and open to the public.
Meet inside the refuge visitor center (3982
Waverly Rd., Williamstown, WV), unless
otherwise indicated. To learn more about any of
the activities, please call or email: Matthew
Magruder, (304) 375-2923, Ext. 117
[email protected].
January 28 - Owls of the Ohio Valley
Presented by Mike Williams – 7:00 PM
February 25 -Insects of the kroger Wetlands
Presented by Brad Bond - 7:00 PM.
March 25 -
Amphibians:
Voices of Spring
Presented by
Lynn Barnhart
– 7:00 PM.
Winter 2014
Ohio Wildlife
Legacy
Stamp
The fifth annual
Ohio Wildlife
Legacy Stamp will feature a
reflective image of a midland painted turtle photographed
by Sharon Cummings, Graytown, Ohio. The photo will appear
on the 2014 Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp, which goes on sale
March 1, 2014. Her image was selected as the top photo out of
143 entries from 83 photographers.
Those interested in purchasing a Legacy Stamp can visit
wildohiostamp.com for details. Additional information about the
Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp and other wildlife-related topics
can be found at wildohio.com. Buying an Ohio Wildlife Legacy
Stamp is a way that you can help Ohio's wildlife and the habitat
they call home. Fourteen dollars of every $15 Ohio Wildlife
Legacy Stamp sold is invested in the state’s Wildlife Diversity
Fund.
Proceeds from the sale of the Wildlife Legacy Stamp help
support a range of wildlife diversity projects including
management of endangered and threatened wildlife species
and their habitats; habitat restoration, land purchases and
conservation easements; and development of educational
products for students and wildlife enthusiasts.
With a stamp purchase you'll receive an attractive collectible
stamp, window cling, and commemorative card. Proceeds from
the stamp go into the Endangered Species and Wildlife
Diversity Fund. With your Legacy Stamp, you also receive a
lapel pin (wear it and let others see that Ohio’s wildlife matters
to you), distinctive commemorative card suitable for framing,
and a certificate of appreciation.
The Ohio legacy stamp is chosen
each year from submissions to the
Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp
Contest which runs annually.
The contest is open to
Ohioans age 18 years
and older, and the
photographer with the
winning image will win
$500. Photographers,
age 17 and younger, will
be able to compete in
the youth division. For
contest rules, visit www.
wildohiostamp.com.
Suggestions, Comments
or Contributions for the
MNHS Newsletter?
Send them to the Editor:
374-8778
Page 3
Marietta Natural History Society
Winter 2014
Still Time to Watch
the Bird Feeder
We are in the middle of the
Winter Bird Feeder Watch.
Participants record
species and number of
birds at their bird feeders
every other weekend from
November through March (on days marked with
the bird icon). You don’t have to watch every
weekend; all data collected can be used. If you
want to participate, contact Marilyn Ortt (3733372 or Bird Watcher's Digest (373-5285).
Learn more about calendar events
marked with a “*” on page 5.
Some definitions
Recycled Paper
30% Post-Consumer
AU (Astronomical Unit): 1 AU equal average
distance between the earth and Sun.
Elongation: the angle between the Sun and the
planet with Earth as the reference point.
Perihelion: an object’s closest approach to the sun.
Occult: to pass in front of.
Page 4
Marietta Natural History Society
Winter 2014
The Winter Sky: Bright Stars, Young and Old
by Ann Bragg, Associate Professor of Physics, Marietta College
Early sunsets, long nights and dry air make winter a
wonderful season for viewing the
night sky. And although cold air
temperatures may be an impediment
to spending too much time standing still
outdoors, winter’s stunning
constellations make
stargazing at this time of year
worth the discomfort.
Any exploration of the winter sky
inevitably begins with the most striking
constellation
in our sky,
Orion the
Hunter. The
most prominent
part of the Hunter
is Orion’s Belt.
The three stars
comprising the Belt are
similar in brightness and
evenly spaced along a
line, making the structure
easy to spot. At midnight
on New Year’s Day, Orion
is high in the southern sky,
with the Belt more or less
parallel to the horizon.
By February 1, Orion
reaches this position
around 10pm and by March 1, around 8pm.
Roughly 10° above Orion’s Belt (or about the width of
a human palm at arm’s length) we see two bright stars
where Orion’s shoulders ought to be. The leftmost and
brightest, Betelgeuse, has a reddish cast. Betelgeuse is a
red supergiant and glows orange-red because its surface
is actually cooler than the surfaces of most other stars we
see in the night sky. Having exhausted the hydrogen fuel
in its core, someday Betelgeuse will explode in a brilliant
supernova. Because Betelgeuse is relatively nearby, the
glow from this explosion will be visible even in the daytime
sky.
The star to the right is Bellatrix. While it is only the third
brightest star in Orion, it is one of the 30 brightest stars in
our entire sky and it appears somewhat blue-white due to
its higher-than-average surface temperatures.
Roughly the same distance below Orion’s Belt as
Betelgeuse and Bellatrix are above it, we see two more
bright stars. The brighter star, on the right, is Rigel, the
foot of Orion. This star has a bluish appearance due its
very high surface temperature. Like Betelgeuse, Rigel will
someday explode in a supernova, but Rigel is farther from
this stage than Betelgeuse.
Between Orion’s Belt and his feet, we can see a
famous region of star formation known as the Orion
Nebula. To the casual observer, this nebula looks like a
star due to its great distance, but a telescope will reveal
the gas as well as many of the stars forming within. To
find the Nebula, look for a line of three dimmer stars below
Orion’s Belt, sometimes known as Orion’s Sword. The
topmost of the three stars will look fainter than the other
two. The middle “star” is actually the Orion Nebula.
In addition to helping us find Orion, the three stars
of Orion’s Belt can help us find other nearby stars
and constellations as well. If we follow the line
created by the Belt upwards and towards the
right, we will find ourselves looking at
a second reddish star. You
may notice that this star,
Aldebaran, in a group of stars
that looks like the uppercase letter “V”, which forms the
head in the constellation Taurus the Bull – Aldebaran is
the bull’s eye.
Although Aldebaran and Betelgeuse look very similar in
brightness, Aldebaran is actually 10x closer to Earth.
Aldebaran has less than twice the Sun’s mass and is
considered a low-mass star. Aldebaran is also near the
end of its life; however, it will meet a less violent end,
leaving behind a white dwarf “star.”
Astronomers have estimated that
roughly half the non-dark-matter
mass of our Galaxy may be
made up of white dwarfs left
behind after lower-mass stars
reach their ends.
If we follow the arms of the “V”
forming Taurus’ head, we will come
to the two stars marking the ends
of the bull’s horns. In between
these two horns is an
interesting object that is not
visible without a telescope,
the Crab Nebula. This
nebula was left behind
by a supernova
explosion that
occurred in 1054.
We know the date because the explosion was noted by
Chinese astronomers. Although telescopes did not exist
at that time, the explosion was bright enough see by eye.
We can find another interesting object in Taurus if we
once again follow Orion’s Belt to Aldebaran, but this time
continue on about the same distance across the sky, until
we reach a star cluster best known as the Pleiades. As
we saw in the Orion Nebula, stars often form in big
batches.
Continued on next page
Page 5
Marietta Natural History Society
After this process ends, a star cluster is left behind. The
Pleiades star cluster is close enough that we can see the
brightest several stars by eye.
Returning to Orion, we can follow the Belt down and to
the left and find ourselves at the brightest star in Earth’s
night sky, Sirius. Sirius is one of the closest stars to the
Earth, which is why it appears so bright. Sometimes called
the “Dog Star,” Sirius is a part of the constellation Canis
Major, the Big Dog. While many stars in our night sky
appear white primarily because our eyes are poor at
detecting color in low-light conditions, Sirius is actually
white in color.
To the upper left of Orion, we find the brightest object
(besides the Moon) in our 2014 winter sky, the planet
Jupiter. While the various stars and constellations
discussed above remain in the same relative positions year
after year, the planets move around in our sky because of
their orbits around the Sun. Due to its twelve-year orbit,
Jupiter moves through about one constellation each year
and is currently found in Gemini the Twins. To identify
Jupiter in the current winter sky, follow a line from Rigel
through Betelgeuse and then continue away from Orion
until you reach Jupiter. Jupiter is about as far on the sky
from Betelgeuse as Betelgeuse is from Rigel.
Our closest approach to Jupiter for the year will occur
on Sunday, January 5, 2014 when Earth overtakes and
passes the slower-moving Jupiter. We call this event
“opposition”because Jupiter is opposite the Sun in Earth’s
sky. At this time, Jupiter will be about 392,000,000 miles
away. Continuing beyond Jupiter, we find the two brightest
stars in Gemini, Castor and Pollux, which form the heads
of the twins, whose stick-figure-like bodies extend back
towards Betelgeuse and Orion.
The most variable
astronomical feature of the sky at
any time of year is, of course, the
Moon. Full moons are beautiful
to look at, and reach their highest
altitudes in the sky during winter
months, although they do make
star-gazing more challenging by
introducing a great deal of
background light. The best
observing is done at times at least one week away from full
moon dates. During the week leading up to the full moon,
the evening sky tends to be quite bright, growing more so
night-by-night.
A special event will be on April 15 when there will be a
full moon lunar eclipse visible throughout much of the
continental United States. This eclipse will begin around
12:58am and end around 4:33am, with totality occurring
from 2:06am until 3:24am
(http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2014.html). Those
who are staying up late completing their taxes in time for
an April 15 postmark may want to step outside and take an
eclipse break!
Winter
2014
Calender Notes
Rosetta was launched on 2 March 2004, set on a course
to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. On its way, it by
and imaged asteroids Steins (5/9/08) and Lutetia (10/7/10).
In July 2011 the spacecraft was put into deep-space
hibernation for the remaining 800 million KM trip. Rosetta's
internal alarm clock is set for reawakening on Jan 20. Once
Rosetta wakes up, it should signal home that it is still alive.
After wake-up, Rosetta will still be about 9 million km
from the comet. As Rosetta closes in on its target, it will
take thousands of images to reveal the comet's major
landmarks, rotation speed and spin axis. Rosetta will also
send observations of the comet's gravity, mass, shape,
atmosphere, and analyse how it interacts with the Sun's
solar wind.
Sometime in August or September, after extensive
mapping of the comet's surface, Rosetta will dispatch its
100 kg Philae probe for the first attempted landing on a
comet.
Stay posted.
Cassini is a spacecraft that has been orbiting Saturn
since 2004. Its elliptical orbit periodically brings Cassini
near one of Saturn's moons, encounters called a "Flyby".
During a Titan Flyby in 2005, Cassini released the
Huygens probe that parachuted through Titan’s murky
atmosphere and landed on the surface. The pictures it
sent are the only images we have of the surface of a
planetary body in the outer solar system.
Mars years: While there is no universal (or at least
Earthly) agreement on a Martian dating system, many Mars
scientists and the Planetary Society have adopted Earth
date April 11, 1955 as the beginning of Mars year 1. Since
a Martian year, the time required to complete one orbit
around the Sun, is about 687 Earth days, by this system,
Mars is presently in year 32.
Known dwarf planets are smaller than the Earth’s
moon. If Earth were the size of a nickel, dwarf planets
Pluto and Eris would each be about the size of the head of
a pin. Discovered in 2005, Makemake is the second largest
dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, a
region outside the orbit of
Neptune, and is 2/3s the size
of Pluto. It is named for
Makemake, the creator of
humanity and the god of
fertility in the mythology of
the South Pacific island of
Rapa Nui, or Easter Island.
He was the chief god of the
Tangata manu bird-man cult
and was worshiped in the form
of sea birds, which were his
incarnation.
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Marietta Natural History Society
P.O. Box 983
Marietta, Ohio 45750
(740) 373-5285