The October meeting of the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists featured speaker Rick Scholes with his presentation, “Backyard Astronomy.” Rick is well known to many in Almonte who have attended his astronomy Learning in Almonte lecture series or visited the Fred Lossing Observatory beside the Mill of Kintail, where he is the volunteer manager.
Rick’s talk highlighted the celestial bodies that can be seen from our own backyards. He began by noting the time it takes for light to reach us from distant objects. For example, the nearest major galaxy similar to our Milky Way is the Andromeda Galaxy, from which the light has been travelling for about 2.5 million years before reaching us.
He explained that a planisphere is a useful and inexpensive tool for helping to identify stars and constellations in the night sky, and showing how they move. He went on to explain where to find stars, depending on the time of night and the season. He showed us how to measure distances across the sky using our hands and fingers. The magnitude scale measures the brightness of stars, with Sirius being the brightest. Rick identified some notable stars for their colours (stars evolve such that hotter stars are bluer and cooler stars are redder) or for being doubles (for example, a double star in the Big Dipper can be seen with the naked eye).
Rick talked about our home galaxy, The Milky Way, and noted that because we are situated inside it, its overall structure and appearance is derived from inference. He then discussed the planets, or “wandering stars”. These can be located and identified using apps and some can be easily seen at various times by the naked eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). He then discussed meteors (grains of dust and sand) and noted that the best meteor showers for viewing are the Perseids in mid-August and the Orionids in late-October. He talked about comets (dirty snowballs that develop tails as they approach the sun) and how notoriously unpredictable and variable their paths are but that they can be found with charts. Rick concluded with information on the phases of the moon, which is available through moon maps, and eclipses, including an almost total lunar eclipse coming up next August.
Rick recommended joining The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada for those interested in learning more. Rick’s current project is promoting awareness of light pollution and light pollution abatement to improve our night skies and our health and safety.
Submitted by Chris Baburek
