Look up, look down, look all around in Autumn!

 

Today, we went for a walk on Hix Small Cemetery Rd. As we crossed the West Cathance Stream, we spotted a gorgeous red maple ablaze in all its autumn glory. The cloud studded sky added to the dramatic coloring of the scene.

We crossed over a log, took a right, and went uphill on a trail through Sylvan Woods. As I approached the top of the hill, I looked to my left and saw a colorful log on the ground surrounded by an assortment of fallen leaves, needles, and mosses. If you don't stop to explore something in nature like this more closely, you miss the true beauty of it.

Upon closer examination, I saw a variety of lichens, mosses, and fungi festooning the log, making it look like a Christmas tree! The brilliant red of nearby fallen maple leaves and the glossy, rich brown coloration of the beech leaves added to this colorful feast for my eyes. There is so much to see here. Do you notice that the moss on the ground is different from the moss on the tree?

Finally, I took the time to get as close a look as i could. There are so many fabulous textures and colors on just a small section of this log. It really pays to take the time to observe those parts of nature that intrigue you.

Loon Update

 We only had one loon on Caesar Pond this summer and this loon came and went on a regular basis. He would show up once or twice per week and spend a day, then go to somewhere else. I am wondering if he lost his mate last year and has yet to find another one. I was not able to catch sight of him this summer.

Yellow Blue-bead Lily and Dagger Flies

I did a quick non-scientific survey, for interest sake, of the Yellow Blue-bead Lilies, Clintonia borealis, in several areas next to Hix Small Road, leading to the Hix Small Cemetery.

I read that Clintonia generally spread by underground rhizomes, so I figured that there wouldn't be many individuals that would be flowering.

I surveyed 4 groups of plants with the number of flower stalks with flowers present: 1/58, 2/47, 2/23, 1/22. Out of 150 plants, only 6 were flowering. But, it leaves me to question what biological factors stimulate a few plants to flower when the rhizome method of reproduction is so successful. BY THE WAY, I also looked at groupings of Yellow Blue-bead Lilies in the Center Point Preserve and found many more in bloom. In fact, in one area I saw 7 out of 24 plants that were blooming.

On another note, I saw several Yellow Blue-bead Lilies that had Dagger Flies, Empidid flies (Empididae) crawling all around them. I couldn't find any information about pollinators as these plants, like the Lady's Slippers, are very successful at asexual reproduction with rhizomes.

Thanks to Edwin Barkdoll for the ID. He also told me that these flies are generally carnivorous, but that he mostly sees them supping on nectar and pollen.

Aurora Borealis

 Here is my experience with the Aurora Borealis: I chose to go to the south end of Caesar Pond to set up my tripod as the trees blocked most of the light from many neighbors who leave their outside lights on all night long. This allowed me a northward facing view up the length of the pond. I went out at around 9pm to start the photography as you never know when the aurora will arrive.  

Nothing much showed up in the early photos except that I thought I saw the faintest green glow. This photo was taken at 9:38pm, and you can see a hint of purple and green. Here were the camera settings that I used for all the photos:

•Canon 70-D camera with a 17-40 lens. I removed my lens UV filter so that I didn't get any strange concentric circles on my images.

•Manual lens focus/Single point focus (preferably the center one).

•Move focus to Infinity (then back off until a bright object in the distance is in focus)

•Iso 1600 to 2000

•F/stop 5.6

•Temperature 3500 Kelvin

•Shutter speed of 5 to 10 seconds

•A lens hood may help reduce condensation.

After 45 minutes of standing in the dark, I was surprised when it seemed as if a spotlight was suddenly illuminating the sky to the south. At 9:50pm, I looked up and saw my telltale sign of aurora...a whitish looking cloud that was moving rapidly to the north. I started shooting photos, and even though I could not see any color, the camera picked up bright green. The green color of an aurora is caused by atmospheric oxygen atoms getting excited by electrically charged particles from the Sun that slam into our upper atmosphere at millions of miles per hour. Green is the most common aurora color.

After the initial display of green, other colors emerged. This photo was taken at 9:53pm. The yellow near the bottom of the display is also created by excitation of oxygen atoms and molecules, while the purple color occurs due to excitation of nitrogen atoms. Both the purple and yellow colors form during intense solar activity.

At 9:55pm, rays and veils were really changing rapidly, and purple was the predominant color. Do you see the black, horizontal line at the bottom of the aurora? It is in many of the photos I took. I think it is what is called a black aurora. The European Space Agency defines black auroras as anti-auroras where electrons shoot upwards into space and creates a hole in the aurora that is visible. See https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cluster/Black_Auroras

By 9:58pm, a pink aurora color was evident. The pink color is formed from a combination of red auroras with blue or green ones. Again, pink only forms in high or extreme solar activity.

This photo was taken at 10:24pm as the cloud cover was becoming more dense. It created some dramatic light compositions.

At 10:42pm, as the cloud cover was starting to clear out, the red auroras were starting to form. They occur at high altitudes, of up to 250 miles above Earth's surface, by the interaction of oxygen atoms with solar particles that cause the oxygen atoms to vibrate at a higher frequency / wavelength.

Check out the red aurora coloration here at 10:58pm. WOW, it was so intense.

By 11:03pm, the aurora storm was starting to weaken and even though I stayed outside until 11:45pm, this was typical of the rest of the photos that I took. I like that every aurora color was represented in this photo.

What did I miss by hanging out at the pond the entire time? I missed the dramatic corona displays that occurred straight up into the sky. I couldn't see it from my vantage point. Next time, I will set up a camera in the front yard and use an intervalometer set to automatically take photos ever 5 or 10 seconds, while I am over at the pond.

Aurora Borealis - Extreme Space Weather!

 

Hokey Smokes, Bullwinkle, check out the Aurora Oval. Oh my goodness, I got the chance to photograph some amazing aurora activity! in fact, the G5 class solar storm extended auroras all the way down to the Florida Keys and Puerto Rico!

The Kp index of 9 shows the magnitude of the geomagnetic storm that we are bombarded by from the Sun! 

Sunspot group AR3664 sent out 6 coronal mass ejections that converged to disrupt Earth's magnetic field! This spawned crazy aurora activity. By the way, Sunspot 3664 is the about the size of 15 Earths.

Here is a chart telling of the aurora colors and the elements creating them.

2024 Maine Big Night #8

LH1Bowd

 May 5 -  Start Time:  8:05pm.     End Time:  10:05pm

Certified Volunteers: 1 (Paul)

Uncertified Volunteers: 0

Starting Temperature: 47F.     Ending Temperature: 47F

Precipitation: Light rain

The road is wet.

Traffic Tally: 17 cars

Species Live: 6 Pickerel Frogs, 3 Newts, 25 Spring Peepers, 4 Spotted Salamanders, 1 Green Frog, 1 Bullfrog.

Species Dead: 2 Spring Peepers

Species Injured: 0

2024 Maine Big Night # 7

LH1Bowd

May 2 -  Start Time:    8:11pm.       End Time:   9:11pm

Certified Volunteer: 1 (Paul)

Uncertified Volunteers:  0

 Starting Temperature:  47F.      Ending Temperature:  47F

Precipitation: Fog

The road is wet.

Traffic Tally: 12 cars

Species Live: 3 Pickerel Frogs, 8 Spring Peepers

Species Dead: 2 Spring Peepers

Species Injures: 0

Notes: The rain stopped around 7pm.

2024 Maine Big Night # 6

 LH1-Bowd

April 28-  Start Time:  8:10pm.    End Time: 9:10pm

Certified Volunteers - 1  (Paul)

Uncertified Volunteers - 0

Starting Temperature: 49F    Ending Temperature: 49F

Precipitation: Fog

The road is damp.

Traffic Tally: 15 Cars

Species Live: 7 Pickerel Frogs, 13 Spring Peepers

Species Dead: 1 Spring Peeper

Species Injured: 0

Notes: There was no rain as it had stopped by 6:15pm.

I heard the first loon of the season calling

 No photos, but I did hear our resident loon calling this afternoon. He has arrived about 2 weeks later than usual.

Sunspot Extravaganza

Since we are at, or almost at solar maximum I decided to photograph the Sun today. There are more sunspots on the surface of the Sun than I have ever seen. I numbered them as best I could by comparing my photo to a current one taken by NASA. If you want to know how sunspots are numbered, check out Spaceweather.com for a detailed explanation. Note: I really wanted to emphasize the sunspots, so my photo of the Sun may look a bit funky as I maximized "Unsharp Mask"-Radius and Factor in Affinity.

Sunspots are areas that are cooler than the surrounding surface due to changes in the strong magnetic field as it comes to the surface, thus the spots are darker in color. Sunspots are still hot, hot, hot at 6500F. Areas around sunspot groups can release solar flares of tremendous amounts of radiation.

Photo from NASA re Spaceweather.com - Rapid fire plasma jets

Currently, there are multiple jets of plasma being released from Sunspot group 3638-47. The Sun's surface is so dynamic that changes occur constantly as one sunspot group may die back and another may form.