Recently Moose Hill had the pleasure of seeing a presentation from a local FIRST Lego League group – Robo Rampage. This group of six students attend middle schools in both the Sharon and Canton Public Schools and part of preparing for competition during this tournament season is to present their challenge project to various professional groups in order to practice their presentation, ask questions, and listen to our thoughts or questions to help improve their overall project.

When Pooja, Soumil, Arun, Daniel, Thanh, and Arjun arrived to present their project, you could see just how much this team is a team. This is their 5th year working together, a few members have left and a few new members have joined, but you would never know that from the interactions we saw, and they have done well as a team at competition. They were excited about this year’s project and had lots of questions for us – and we had a lot of questions for them, too.

So what is this year’s challenge? Animal Allies – identify a problem when people and animals interact; design a solution that makes the interaction better for animals, people or both; and share your problem and solution with others. Team Robo Rampage set their minds to the task and each team member brought at least one project idea to the table. After presenting their ideas to each other, a vote was done to determine the winning project.

The winning project? To build a thermal detector for cars that would help drivers to know of an animal that might be crossing the street – say a deer – and would then help the driver to brake the car to avoid any collisions. I think we all realize how useful this could be, especially on those back roads, late at night, or at dusk when it can be hardest to see what animals might lay ahead.

So what happens at competition? The audience mostly sees teams playing the Robot Game, but the teams are actually judged on a few things: Core Values, Project, and Robot Design.

We wish Team Robo Rampage the best of luck at the competition on Saturday and we cannot wait to hear how you did! Thanks for visiting and sharing your project – it’s awesome!

To quote just a little of Ray Stevens, a singer, songwriter, and comedian, is a great way to sum up the evening in the skies – “Yes, they call [it] the Streak…lookatthat-lookatthat”.

No doubt that since this night was the peak of the Perseid Meteor Showers we had over 40 people in attendance with a dozen astronomers, but having Mars and Saturn also present made for an evening full of things to observe – even the International Space Station made a brief appearance!

while not our picture, we did have several sightings of meteors such as this during the evening.

Clearly the top event of the night was the Perseid meteors. The best time to see them is past midnight to dawn, when the skies are darkest and constellation Perseus, the locus or focal point of the shower is high in the sky. But, we were treated with some really nice, bright, and some times long-lasting, streaks. Of course, you have to be looking up at the moment that they appear, for they appear for only a moment and then disappear.  You have to be patiently scanning the sky to have a good chance at seeing one. Many a person was just leaving the field for the evening when they would hear “lookatthat…lookatthat”, only to turn around and miss the meteor.

the Moon – Saturn and Mars can just barely be seen above the tree tops

We had a good mix of telescopes, this time. I was able to set up two of them:  a 2.5 inch diameter refractor (spyglass type where you look through lenses) and a 6 inch diameter Newtonian reflector.  I was hoping to bounce back and forth between them to have people view through both and compare what they saw, but we had so many people come through that at times I had to abandon the refractor scope or have it fixed on the moon, which was near first quarter that night.  Saturn, Mars, and the star, Antares, in Scorpio, formed a near right triangle in the sky. The name, “Antares,”  is a contraction of the phrase “Anti-Ares.”  Ares, in this case, is the Greek name for the god of War.  The Roman equivalent is “Mars.” So when the star was named, it was referring to the red planet, Mars, because Antares has almost the same orange-red color and is similar in brightness. This was a great time to compare them side by side!  All month, Mars, Saturn, and Antares are together in that triangle formation.

The night was not great for faint objects like galaxies and globular clusters due to the moon being in the sky and the sky itself wasn’t that transparent – a term to describe how well can you see through the atmosphere – like seeing through a dirty versus a clear glass window.

The next scheduled star-gazing night is on Friday, September 23 – the first full day of fall!

Thank you to Craig Austin for this Star Gazing post. Craig is often present during Moose Hill’s Star Gazing Nights, along with a few members of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England, and other local amateur astronomers. We are grateful for those who share their scopes and knowledge with anyone who is interested in learning more and seeing the night sky from our open field.

Night sky

It was another day where the weather at the start of the day was very different from the weather by the time the star gazing night event began.  In the morning, it was showering, but by mid-afternoon, the clouds were disappearing.  We had a few clouds at the start that partially blocked the sky, but by dark, the viewing was actually pretty good.  Eight amateur astronomers and 22 people came to the event.

For me the night was especially great – I acquired a new telescope!  One of the astronomers had a reflector that he owned but didn’t use since he had larger scopes to use, I’ll call it the ‘Meade’ scope, here.  So, I bought it, to try out a respectable entry-level scope and from time to time report what I see with it. I’ll compare this scope with another scope that Moose Hill has in a later blog.

We started the night as the International Space Station flew almost overhead.  Several of us also saw a ‘shooting star’ or two – possibly from the Delta Aquarids.

Scorpius Constellation

That night, Mars and Saturn were out forming a bright triangle with Antares, the bright orange star that forms the heart of the constellation, Scorpius.  It’s hard to see a lot of detail on Mars with the typical instruments available.  The Meade scope showed the disk, and I believe I saw a white polar cap.  The Meade scope defined Saturn and its rings easily, and I could see darker portions closer to the disk that make it look like Saturn had handles.  Larger scopes showed more details such as the ring divisions, as well as perhaps three of its moons that were just too small for the Meade scope.  Throughout August, these planets and Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury at the western horizon will be forming tight formations.  Check out this website, Sky and Telescope for more information,

I tried a few other common sights.  I couldn’t find the ring nebula in Lyra, which looks like a smoke ring in the larger telescopes – I will try again with charts this time.  I did manage to see the pair of stars in B Cygnus, “Aricebo” a favorite because one is blue and one is orange.  I found M1, the globular cluster in Hercules, which looked like a lumpy cloud compared to the image in larger telescopes that are able to resolve individual stars.

Toward the end of the evening, I was able to show someone the main constellations.  She knew a few and some of the stories behind them.  I was able to add a few more constellations and stories.  So many sites have information about constellations.  Constellations are as much about science as they are about our culture and imagination.  So, I recommend studying both. Windows to the Universe is a great site to get you started.

The next Star Gazing Night is tonight, August 11 – hope to see you there!

Thank you to Craig Austin for this Star Gazing post and these pictures. Craig is often present during Moose Hill’s Star Gazing Nights, along with a few members of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England, and other local amateur astronomers. We are grateful for those who share their scopes and knowledge with anyone who is interested in learning more and seeing the night sky from our open field.

There is a power line right-of-way (ROW) that cuts through Mass Audubon’s Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary and The Trustees Moose Hill Farm properties. A hike along the ROW is a wonderful exploration; there are a number of habitats and a variety of animals and insects to discover.

Recently Vin, one of our property staff and a nature enthusiast, headed out to look for insects along the ROW. He had a great day and provided us all with an update of what he found.

Dragonflies (Odonates):

• Ebony Jewelwing
• Eastern Red Damsel (probably new for Moose Hill)
  

  eastern red damsel

• Eastern Forktail
• Fragile Forktail
• Sphagnum Sprite
• Harlequin Darner
  

  harlequin darner

• Common Green Darner
• Delta-spotted Spiketail
• Common Baskettail
• Blue Dasher
  

  blue dasher

  

  blue dasher (female)

• Eastern Pondhawk
• Spangled Skimmer
• Chalk-fronted Corporal
• Common Whitetail
• Twelve-spotted Skimmer
• Widow Skimmer
• Painted Skimmer
• Meadowhawk sp.
• Dot-tailed Whiteface

Butterflies (Lepidoptera):

• Spicebush Swallowtail
• Great Spangled Fritillary
  

  great spangled fritillary

• Pearl Crescent
• Southern Cloudywing – a lifer for Vin, found at Trustees Moose Hill Farm, which abuts Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary
• Northern Cloudywing – at Trustees Moose Hill Farm
• Peck’s Skipper
• Dusted Skipper – a lifer for Vin and probably new for Moose Hill
  

  dusted skipper

So next time you want a little more adventure on your walk, take your binoculars, grab a camera, and discover the wonderful world of Dragonflies, Damselflies, Butterflies, and Moths!

Another Star Gazing Night was held earlier in June, and though it started a little milky, the conditions improved so that we had good views of the moon, several planets, and a few other objects.

We started when it was still twilight – which is pretty late in the day this time of year.  By the way, I recently found an excellent discussion about hours of daylight and what, technically, is the longest day of the year (it might surprise you) on David Epstein’s blog at Boston.com.

We had about a dozen telescope observers and another dozen people wanting to see through them. As the twilight gave way to the night, there were fireflies in the field, twinkling away – creating the illusion that the stars were coming down for a visit.

firefly, by Firefly.org

Our moon, which has the Latin name, “Luna,” (you may have heard of lunar tides, and lunar phases), was near first quarter phase and was the first target.  Nearby was bright Jupiter, which also was an early target.

Moon and Jupiter by C. Austin

The four ‘Gallilean’ moons of Jupiter, three of them slightly larger than our moon, and one slightly smaller, were easy to spot, though it takes looking at a chart to identify which is which.  This Wikipedia article compares the size between solar system objects, which is very interesting, albeit a bit to wade through and think about.

In the south was Mars, bright orange-red.  Mars just passed its closest approach to us in about three decades.  But despite being relatively close, I could only see general dark and light spots and maybe a polar cap.

Saturn was further east from mars.  Here, Saturn is at its most magnificent!  The rings are tilted about as much as possible, so it was easy to see them  against the round yellow globe.  One or two moons could be seen as well.

Saturn, taken by NASA’s Voyager 2

I was involved in several interesting discussions about Pluto:

One discussion was about how Pluto got its name. Was it a girl who named it? Was it named after Mickey Mouse’s dog? The truth involved both. All orbiting bodies of size are named after Greek/Roman dieties. The Romans adapted their dieties from Greek ones, so that, for example, Zeus, the great god of Greek mythology, is the same as Jupiter in Roman mythology. The name, Pluto, initially suggested by a little girl who was interested in Greek mythology, is the Roman equivalent to the Greek God, Hades – the god of the underworld. Pluto, the dog in Disney cartoons, appeared around the time Pluto, the (dwarf) planet was discovered and the dog was likely named after the planet. You can read more about this little girl naming Pluto in the Washington Post or the Smithsonian Magazine.

Pluto, image by New Horizons, an interplanetary space probe

Another discussion was about an object’s ‘status.’  Though I’m not going to try to put that whole discussion into words here, the Wikipedia article above on the size of objects provides one perspective of that discussion.  If we were to replace our moon with Pluto, Pluto would appear in the night sky about two thirds the diameter of our moon.  Just sayin.

The next Star Gazing Night is Friday, July 29- hope to see you there!

Thank you to Craig Austin for this Star Gazing post and these pictures. Craig is often present during Moose Hill’s Star Gazing Nights, along with a few members of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England, and other local amateur astronomers. We are grateful for those who share their scopes and knowledge with anyone who is interested in learning more and seeing the night sky from our open field.

Canton High School has run an Externship program for students for four years. For 6-7 weeks, seniors have an opportunity to gain new skills outside of the classroom. Catherine (Cat) Song reached out to several places before meeting with Jan Goba and talking about potential opportunities at Moose Hill. With classes all done, seniors in the Externship program returned to school on May 25 to share their experiences and present summaries and display boards for fellow classmates, teachers, parents, and community leaders. Below is Cat’s recollection of her experience at Moose Hill.

When I first arrived at Sharon’s Moose Hill, I remember simply thinking how scenic it was, how picturesque the historical white nature center looked amidst the backdrop of budding trees. I remember walking the beautiful green trails, just glad that I was in my happy place – nature. I only faintly remember the solar panels on the roof, and meeting the volunteer coordinator, Jan. Little did I know at the time that my Externship at Moose Hill would become more about those I would work with than the hands-on nature outside. And that wasn’t a bad thing at all.

Beginning my Externship at Moose Hill, I assumed I would be working outdoors, planting and weeding on the organic farm, or maintaining the sanctuary’s twenty-five miles of trails. The first day, however, Karen – the sanctuary director – assigned me a seemingly endless stack of camp photographs – of which I needed to organize, and collage in a scrapbook. My initial reaction, masked by an attempted poker face – was disappointment. However, over the next few weeks, the tedious task of sorting became a sort of rhythm each day in Karen’s office. And I’ll admit, it wasn’t even half bad – it became relaxing almost, especially with my Spotify playlist on in the background. Pretty soon, I began having regular conversations with Karen too, and that was when I began to realize it was the connection and discussion that made my Externship so worthwhile. We talked about Moose Hill’s own conservation efforts – their installation of the solar panels I saw on the first day, Karen’s efforts to acquire a compost method for the sanctuary, and more. And I began voicing my desire to change our Canton High School lunch trays from styrofoam to a more eco-friendly alternative, such as reusable trays or perhaps cardboard to recycle. We also bonded over my Spotify playlist (featuring some classic Bob Marley, of course). The photograph sorting, in the end, became bearable, because I looked forward to the interesting conversations every day.

In the later weeks, I often went downstairs to Jan’s office too, where I’d help her with miscellaneous tasks such as organization and advertisement for Moose Hill’s many children’s programs, hiking trails, and plant sales. With Jan, I also talked so much about the outdoors – her own spiritual nature trips as well as Moose Hill’s ongoing desire to involve all the surrounding communities in their nature-immersive programs. And just as in my advertising assignments, I learned that communication, in whatever one does in life, is key. Communication, whether that be for publicity of a certain product, or simply moving forward in a project, is crucial to self and community-wide progress.

Had I simply been working on the farm, I feel I would have gotten a very singular viewpoint of Mass Audubon and nature reserves – I would have thought they are simply hiking places, a place for anyone to escape if they enjoy being outside. What I learned, however, was so much more meaningful – the people there, with all of their ideas, discussions, and projects, are who will pioneer real progress, especially in the movement to help the Earth and the environment.

As I leave this wonderful experience, I would love to thank my mentors Jan and Karen for their time and showing me all of the amazing ideas Moose Hill has to offer.

We will miss Cat – those discussions, playlists, and projects were such a great part of our day too! Prom, graduation, and summer fun are just around the corner for Cat as she gets ready to head to Princeton University. We look forward to seeing her here, at Moose Hill, over the summer and wish her all the luck in the world in her next big adventures – we know for sure she will go far! Thank you Cat for sharing your time, energy, and talents with us.

Finally, after four months of canceled star nights due to cloudy conditions (hard to see those stars when the clouds are in the way), Star Gazing was a ‘Go’ at Moose Hill.  About 35 people showed up to gaze into the four telescopes and one pair of large binoculars turned to the heavens.

We started when it was still twilight. The nearly full moon was the main object to see, at first.

While we waited for darkness, we looked for the first stars to appear. Jupiter, the only planet visible, was one of the first objects to appear, and it turned out to be the feature of the night.

Jupiter is a mighty gaseous planet that has many moons orbiting it.  One of them, Callisto, due to our viewpoint of Jupiter and its system, crossed in front of Jupiter’s disk.  The moon was a tiny, pinprick ‘shadow’ against a bright, striped disk, so it was difficult to see and lead to many discussions of “did I actually see it?”

Other objects were attempted in the final hour of the event. Two objects viewed with multiple instruments were open clusters, M36 and M37, in the constellation Auriga (The Chariot), which is near the constellation, Taurus. These pictures from the NOAO (National Optical Astronomy Observatory) gallery were better than anything we were able to capture.

m36

m37a

And finally to clarify a conversation I overheard during the evening. There was discussion about the position and movements of the moon relative to Jupiter over the few nights before April 19.  There are actually two motions involved here.  The first is the movement from east to west with the constellations which is in the same direction the sun crosses the sky during the day. This is due to the EARTH’s rotation. The second is a slow motion eastward.  The best way to see this is to go out on successive nights at the same time and note where the moon is.  This is due to the MOON’s orbit around the earth.  So, the moon was close to Jupiter on April 18. To note, Jupiter also moves in the sky, but it changes much more slowly – you would have to be more patient.

The next Star Gazing Night is May 15 – hope to see you there!

Thank you to Craig Austin for this Star Gazing post and these pictures. Craig is often present during Moose Hill’s Star Gazing Nights, along with a few members of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England, and other local amateur astronomers. We are grateful for those who share their scopes and knowledge with anyone who is interested in learning more and seeing the night sky from our open field.