Why National Bird Day?
- The beauty, songs, and flight of birds have long been sources of human inspiration.
- Today, nearly 12 percent of the world’s 9,800 bird species may face extinction within the next century, including nearly one-third of the world’s 330 parrot species.
- Birds are sentinel species whose plight serves as barometer of ecosystem health and alert system for detecting global environmental ills.
- Many of the world’s parrots and songbirds are threatened with extinction due to pressures from the illegal pet trade, disease, and habitat loss.
- Public awareness and education about the physical and behavioral needs of birds can go far in improving the welfare of the millions of birds kept in captivity.
- The survival and well-being of the world’s birds depends upon public education and support for conservation.
This is the reason for National Bird Day. Join us!
All posts by mjh
OUTDOORS NEW MEXICO: Sleigh Rides at Valles Caldera Make for Great Winter Fun
OUTDOORS NEW MEXICO: Sleigh Rides at Valles Caldera Make for Great Winter Fun by Karl Moffatt
See the preserve’s website at www.vallescaldera.gov for reservations and more information about available dates.
Costs are $30 for adults, $24 for those 62 and older. Kids under 15 years old pay $15 while children under four ride free.
It should be noted that in the event that the winter produces little or no snow a wagon will be substituted for a sleigh.
OUTDOORS NEW MEXICO: Sleigh Rides at Valles Caldera Make for Great Winter Fun
2013 Stargazing Events: Comets, Eclipses, & Meteor Showers Not To Miss In New Year
In particular, two comets, one in mid-March, one in November-December (possibly brighter than the moon).
2013 Stargazing Events: Comets, Eclipses, & Meteor Showers Not To Miss In New Year By: Joe Rao Published: 12/28/2012 12:18 PM EST on SPACE.com
In general, 2013 promises an action-packed 12 months for stargazers. Hopefully, your local weather will cooperate on most, if not all of these dates. The following list below includes some of the most promising night sky events of the upcoming year!
2013 Stargazing Events: Comets, Eclipses, & Meteor Showers Not To Miss In New Year
Shortest moon shadows of the year under the Cold, Ice, Frost, Winter, Oak or Long Night’s full moon
The Sky This Week, 2012 December 26 – 2013 January 2 — Naval Oceanography Portal
The last Full Moon of 2012 falls on the 28th at 5:21 am Eastern Standard Time. December’s Full Moon is variously known as the Cold Moon, Ice Moon, or Long Night Moon. The latter is particularly appropriate as we are just beginning to enter the time when the nights gradually begin to shorten after the winter solstice. Fortunately, Luna serves as our night-long companion to shed her pale light on the winter landscape as she reaches her highest declination for the year. On the evening of the 26th look for the Moon between the stars that mark the “horns” of Taurus, the Bull. By New Year’s Eve she has drifted to the east, rising just before Regulus, lead star of Leo, the Lion.
If you’ve been paying attention to the times of local sunset over the past week or two you will have noticed that the time of sunset has been gradually getting later. Our earliest sunsets occurred back on December 7, and by New Year’s Eve Old Sol will dip below the horizon some 10 minutes later than he did back then. However, the total length of day is still just one minute longer than it was at the solstice as the week begins, so what’s going on? The answer lies in noting the time of the latest sunrise, which is still getting later each morning and will continue to do so until January 4th. Once we’ve passed this marker the darkest days of the year will truly be behind us.
The Sky This Week, 2012 December 26 – 2013 January 2 — Naval Oceanography Portal
Last full moon of 2012 rises Friday – Technology & science – Space – Space.com | NBC News
By Geoff Gaherty
updated 12/26/2012
The last full moon of 2012 will rise into the night sky this week in a year-ending lunar treat.
The full moon is actually an instantaneous event when the moon is exactly opposite the sun in the Earth’s sky, and this month that occurs on Friday morning, Dec. 28, at 5:21 a.m. EST (1021 GMT). But, to the naked eye, the moon “looks” full for a couple of days on either side of that time, so the exact date doesn’t matter
Last full moon of 2012 rises Friday – Technology & science – Space – Space.com | NBC News
Here comes the sun … it’s all right
2012 December 18
A Sun Pillar Over Sweden Image Credit & Copyright: Göran Strand
Explanation: Have you ever seen a sun pillar? When the air is cold and the Sun is rising or setting, falling ice crystals can reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light. Ice sometimes forms flat, six-sided shaped crystals as it falls from high-level clouds. Air resistance causes these crystals to lie nearly flat much of the time as they flutter to the ground. Sunlight reflects off crystals that are properly aligned, creating the sun-pillar effect. In the above picture taken last week, a sun-pillar reflects light from a Sun setting over Östersund, Sweden.
Support the Rio Grande del Norte
Salazar visits Taos to get comments on conservation area | New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
Published December 17, 2012 in El Rio Grande del Norte, News.
By J.R. Logan, The Taos News
December 15, 2012
A standing-room-only audience turned out in Taos Saturday (Dec. 15) to show overwhelming support for protecting a huge swath of public lands know as the Rio Grande del Norte.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar took comments from residents regarding a proposal to provide added federal protection to an area that straddles northern Taos and Rio Arriba counties.
Salazar was joined at the meeting by Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. Also present were Taos Pueblo Gov. Laureano Romero and Lt. Gov. Gilbert Suazo.
During the two-hour meeting at the Kachina Lodge, dozens of local residents spoke about the environmental and cultural importance of the area. All those who gave comments were in favor of added protection.
Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation have introduced legislation that would create a 236,000-acre conservation area along both sides of the Rio Grande Gorge. However, the legislation has made little progress getting through Congress.
Salazar told The Taos News after the meeting that he would be working on determining how best to get some sort of protection in place, be that through legislation or through a presidential proclamation.
“I think there is huge support for a designation that will protect this place,†Salazar said.
For more on this story, see the Dec. 20 edition of The Taos News.
Salazar visits Taos to get comments on conservation area | New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” — E. B. White
A New Meteor Shower in December? – NASA Science
Overlapping meteor showers: Piscids south, Geminids east. Get out between sunset and midnight and again before dawn. Look up!
A New Meteor Shower in December? – NASA Science
To sky watchers, he recommends having a “meteor night” after sunset on Dec. 13th, when the criss-crossing debris streams could produce the greatest combined number of shooting stars. “Meteors from the new shower (if any) will be visible in the early evening, with the Geminids making their appearance later on and lasting until dawn,” he says.
A New Meteor Shower in December? – NASA Science
The Sky This Week, 2012 December 11 – 18 — Naval Oceanography Portal
[The Geminids are] one of the few showers that you don’t need to get up at “oh-dark-thirty” to view; the best viewing time should be between 10:00 pm on the 13th and around 2:00 am on the 14th. A single observer in a dark location can expect to see up to 50 meteors per hour, while urban skywatchers may see 25 to 30 per hour. The Geminids are much slower than the Perseids, and brighter ones will travel across a good swath of sky before they burn out, often leaving a faint smoke train from their passage.
The Sky This Week, 2012 December 11 – 18 — Naval Oceanography Portal
Earliest sunset 12/7/12
The Sky This Week, 2012 December 4 – 11 — Naval Oceanography Portal
December 7th marks the beginning of the series of phenomena associated with the winter solstice. This is the evening of the year’s earliest sunset, which in the Washington, DC area occurs at 4:46 pm EST [mjh: 4:54pm in Albuquerque, New Mexico]. From this evening onward Old Sol will set a little bit later on successive nights. The change is very incremental at first, but by the time the solstice occurs on the 22nd sunset will be four minutes later. By the end of the year sunset will occur at 4:58 pm. The trade-off comes with the time of latest sunrise. That won’t occur until January 4th, 2013, when the Sun peeks over the horizon at 7:27 am. The shortest day of the year still falls halfway between these dates on the solstice itself, marking the astronomical beginning to the winter season.
The Sky This Week, 2012 December 4 – 11 — Naval Oceanography Portal
Shopping Fun in Gallup – New Mexico Marketplace
Shopping Fun in Gallup – New Mexico Marketplace by Jon Knudsen
A two-hour drive west of Albuquerque, Gallup lies between Zuni Pueblo and the Navajo Nation. It’s world famous as a trading center for silver and turquoise jewelry, and the city is a great place for a bit of adventurous shopping.
It’s best to drive to Gallup on Friday and come back Saturday. That way you will be there for the downtown flea market Saturday morning. There are usually over 50 different vendors from the Navajo Nation, as well as Zuni and the other pueblos, half of them selling jewelry. On Sunday, almost every shop in Gallup is closed.
My advice in selecting a place to stay is the El Rancho Hotel. It has an absolutely fabulous lobby, a restaurant, a bar and its own jewelry store. But it’s the lobby that you must see, even if you decide to stay somewhere else. El Rancho is famous for the Hollywood stars — such as Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan and Katharine Hepburn — who have stayed there while filming movies in the area. Their autographed pictures hang on the wall. The hotel was built in 1937 by the brother of film mogul D.W. Griffith.
APOD: 2012 November 29 – Super Moon vs Micro Moon
APOD: 2012 November 29 – Super Moon vs Micro Moon
Super Moon vs. Micro Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Catalin PaduraruExplanation: Did you see the big, bright, beautiful Full Moon Wednesday night? That was actually a Micro Moon! On that night, the smallest Full Moon of 2012 reached its full phase only about 4 hours before apogee, the most distant point from Earth in the Moon’s elliptical orbit. Of course, earlier this year on May 6, a Full Super Moon was near perigee, the closest point in its orbit. The relative apparent size of November 28’s Micro Moon (right) is compared to the famous May 6 Super Moon in these two panels, matching telescopic images from Bucharest, Romania. The difference in apparent size represents a difference in distance of just under 50,000 kilometers between apogee and perigee, given the Moon’s average distance of about 385,000 kilometers. How long do you have to wait to see another Full Micro Moon? Until January 16, 2014, when the lunar full phase will occur within about 3 hours of apogee
Orion treads the night sky all winter
Follow the link to read about Betelgeuse, the red giant in Orion. peace, mjh
The Sky This Week, 2012 November 27 – December 4 — Naval Oceanography Portal
In Greek mythology Orion is connected to another constellation with a distinctive reddish star. According to legend the Hunter, who was a mere mortal (albeit a very big and strong one) boasted that he held dominion over all the creatures on the Earth, a claim which upset Diana, goddess of the hunt. To put Orion’s ego in its proper place Diana sent a scorpion to challenge the boastful giant; the scorpion stung Orion in the heel as he tried to squash it with his foot. To her dismay Diana realized that she had a “crush” on the now-defunct Hunter, so she placed both victims in the sky in such a way that they would never be seen at the same time. The scorpion is, of course, the constellation Scorpius, and its brightest star is the red supergiant star Antares.
The Sky This Week, 2012 November 27 – December 4 — Naval Oceanography Portal
November’s full moon is the Frosty or Beaver Moon
The Sky This Week, 2012 November 20 – 27 — Naval Oceanography Portal
Luna waxes to Full Moon on the 28th at 9:46 am Eastern Daylight Time. November’s Full Moon is variously known as the Frosty Moon or the Beaver Moon. The latter name comes from Native American skylore reminding trappers to set their final traps for the season before the beaver ponds freeze up for the winter.
The Sky This Week, 2012 November 20 – 27 — Naval Oceanography Portal
10 years ago today: My first “Ah, Wilderness!” blog entry
Mystery of Chaco Canyon on PBS
November 25, 2002
PBS repeated a show from 1999 by Anna Sofaer, the discoverer of the meaning of the Sun Dagger on Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Sofaer has also discovered that various buildings in and around Chaco have very specific orientations to the sun and the moon (which she says no other culture has done) and to each other. The computer animations depicting the movements of the sun and moon relative to the buildings is a great part of this show. A videotape is available. mjh
Chaco entry by mjh at 12:00 AM
Note: I started blogging generally before this date; this is the oldest entry I can find on Chaco.