Eggs ... Real ...

An update on the Canada Geese outside my office.

They have eggs.

Six of them.

More to come ...

Rings!

Around the sun, while Mercury was transiting.

Both 22° halos.

Changing as the clouds rolled in.

And in my friend Drew's telescope.

These aren't good, and the scope will need to be returned for servicing. Seems there's an problem with the oil that is used between the lens elements.

There's A Little Black Dot on the Sun Today ...

Well several.

Including a very round one. Mercury.  The others are sunspots.

On Monday May 9, 2016, Mercury transited the Sun. While not as rare as transits of Venus, Mercury transits are not everyday occurrences. The last one was in 2006. The next are in 2019 and then 2032. Luckily for us, the entire transit would be visible here and Monday was the first day in a week for which the forecast did not call for rain.

And thus we got to see it.

Well most of it.

In the image above, Mercury is just to the left of the vertical center line and in the bottom half of the Sun's disk. Below, Mercury is just right and under center.

You can easily see that Mercury has moved across the face of the sun.

In the above shot you can see Mercury just entering the disk of the sun at about the 7:30 position or 225° from the top (the image is not quite in focus and was shot through thin clouds). As always, click on the image to bigafy it.

Below is the setup at our observing site. My setup is closest and was the simplest, it took me a half hour to get ready. First contact was at 7:12 am local time. I arrived around 6:40 am, cutting it close. The other guys got there around 5:00 am, as they needed to align their mounts and setup fancier telescopes. Of course, they had the benefit of tracking the sun across the sky, while I had to keep manually moving my optics (one of the reasons the sun isn't the same location in each image).

The other two observers are both under cover as they try to focus, a non-trivial endeavor made worse by the small image size of features on the sun and the bright ambient daylight (think viewing your phone in bright sunshine).

Alas, we did not get to observe the entire event. At just about the halfway point clouds rolled in and the show was over. We waited a bit in hopes of sucker holes but our luck had run out.

Overall it was an enjoyable morning, surprisingly relaxing compared to other solar events such as eclipses and ISS transits, in no small part due to the differences in duration. And yet it was still over much too soon.

Next up, a total solar eclipse that will cross the continental US in August 2017. I suspect our observing site will be much more crowded for that event.

Public Service Announcement

It is the time of year, at least in these parts, where turtles can be found crossing country roads. Too often, that does not end well for the turtle.

They cross the roads looking for mates, for places to lay eggs and just going about other turtle business.

Redbelly Turtle

Turtles, as well as snakes, find roads nice warm spots to rest as they travel about. As you are no doubt aware, turtles defend themselves by tucking into their shells. Alas, they did not evolve in an environment with automobiles. Shells are fine for defending against raccoons, fox, and the like. Not so much against a motor vehicle.

This past Sunday we came across the large (10+ inches long) Redbelly Turtle above and the small Eastern Painted Turtle below in the middle of county roads in the NJ Pine Barrens.

Eastern Painted Turtle

And we were able to help both of them cross the road.

Sadly, it was too late for this one.

Common Snapping Turtle

~~~~~~~~~~

Whenever we see a turtle in the road we pullover and move it to the side of the road it was facing, in the direction it was headed. We move it as far off the road as possible, in an area with cover and room to roam. With most turtles you can just lift and carry. Snappers require a more cautious approach. I travel with a hiking stick in my car, thick enough to withstand a bite and long enough to keep me out of harms way. And with it I can convince the snapper to move along.

So please be on the lookout for turtles in the road, and if you should come upon a turtle in your travels, why not help it along and get it off the road and to safer ground?

Migration Time

It seems there is something new in our yard every day this time of year.

Today a Rose-breasted Grosbeak made an appearance at our feeders. We'd seen reports on the web of Grosbeaks in our area and were wondering when one would visit.

Our wondering stopped at breakfast. And the bird, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, was still here at dinner time.

These images are of the evening bird. We don't know if it was the same bird or of different individuals, each just passing through. And pass through they do, visiting for a few days and then gone.

Another recent arrival is this Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Unlike the Grosbeak, this bird is here to stay, breeding here in our yard. We've three visiting our feeders at the moment. Last year we have as many as ten at any one time.

I wonder what we'll see tomorrow?

Whitesbog Full Moon Night Hike

At least, that's what the website said.

But it wasn't a full moon.

And the hike was over before it got dark.

But we saw this:

Belt of Venus

And this:

Mallards

And then as an extra curricular activity this:

Northern Spring Peeper

So no complaints.

~~~~~~~~~~

We were here: Whitesbog.

Look Up In the Sky, It's A ...

... Bat?

Patty and I were out on the deck one afternoon, relaxing, and an odd bird flew out from the area of the back pond and landed in the tree.

Upside-down.

A bat. Flying in the day time. Pretty weird we thought.

Then a Cooper's Hawk came flying out from the same direction. And the bat, making like a dead leaf, successfully hid in plain sight as the hawk flew by.

And once the hawk was safely out of the picture, the bat flew back to wherever it was roosting when it was spooked by the hawk. Which, alas, is not our bat box.