Growing With Science Blog

Month: November 2012 (Page 5 of 6)

What’s Happening in Astronomy This Month

November 10, 2012 / / 0 Comments

November is packed with great opportunities to learn more about astronomy.

Event 1. Parts of northern Australia will be experiencing a solar eclipse, on November 14, 2012 (their time), which is roughly 5:00 p.m. EST November 13 in the U.S.

This video from NASA shows why astronomers are traveling to Australia for the eclipse. It is an unique opportunity to study the inner corona of the sun.

The excitement generated by an eclipse is often a good time to introduce age-specific information about the sun and our solar system.

From the comments on the first video, it seemed like there were a lot of misunderstanding about solar eclipses. I looked up this second video that is helpful in explaining why solar eclipses don’t happen all the time.

Event 2. Meteor showers

Two meteor showers have potential in November. The Northern Taurid shower peaks aound midnight on Monday November 12, 2012 and the annual Leonid meteor shower is due to appear on November 17, 2012.

Looking for a deeper involvement? NASA also has an extensive list of citizen science projects. Some, like the Rock Around the World, are definitely child-friendly.

A new children’s book:

National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Space (First Big Books) by Catherine D. Hughes and illustrated by David A. Aguilar

Bug of the Week: Fall Butterflies and the Plants that Feed Them

November 7, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Generally we don’t think of butterflies and fall going together, but there are butterflies active in the fall. To tank up for fall migrations, and to get ready for overwintering, these butterflies use late-blooming flowers for nectar.

This week we had a surprising number of butterflies visiting our willow acacia tree, which is in full blossom.

The powder-puff flowers of the willow acacia might not look like much, but they must have nectar because the bees are also visiting them in droves. The tree fairly hums on warm days.

The painted ladies were migrating through. One week you won’t see any, the next week they are everywhere.

Painted ladies also visit the lantana flowers, another good source of nectar for butterflies.

Not as noticeable, but just as numerous on the willow acacia are the snout butterflies. This butterfly’s pointed “snout” is almost as long as its antennae. Notice how camouflaged it is when it has its wings closed.

The giant swallowtails are constantly on the move. It is hard to get a photograph of one. They visit our citrus trees, which are food for the caterpillars.

We also saw a monarch butterfly in the willow acacia this week, also moving too much to be recorded. The monarchs are known for their long migrations this time of year.

We tend to have these skippers throughout most of the year. They use lantana as well.

We also saw queen butterflies. The last queen butterfly to emerge from our milkweed vine was smaller than the rest. It still enjoyed our asters.

It was interesting that these asters were blooming when we visited New England in October, and our Arizona asters were in full bloom when we got back home. Asters are also important sources of nectar for honey bees.

Of course, goldenrod is another common fall flower that is a good source of nectar. Once ignored as a weed, there are now cultivated varieties for the garden.

If you would like to put in a fall butterfly garden,  the Brooklyn Botanical Garden has some suggested plants.

Have you seen any butterflies this week?

Seed of the Week: Japanese Barberry

November 6, 2012 / / 6 Comments

Our mysterious brown seeds from last week came from a Japanese barberry, Berberis thunbergii.

The Japanese barberry is an ornamental shrub, often grown for its lovely fall color. Its leaves turn shades of red.

In the fall it is also covered with bright red berries.

The foliage is dense, forming a compact shrub that doesn’t require much pruning.

That is good, because the plant does have thorns.

Japanese barberry, as its name suggests, was originally from Japan/Asia. It was brought to the U.S. in the 1800s and is found growing throughout much of northern and eastern North America.

Recently the Japanese barberry has been added to invasive species lists because it has escaped cultivation in some areas and is replacing native plants.

There are a number of species in the genus Berberis. Some of them are native.

One species, the common barberry, Berberis vulgaris resembles the Japanese barberry except it has loose groupings of fruit rather than single fruit.

(Photograph by Steve Hurst @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database)

The common barberry seeds are similar as well.

On a personal note, my parents have had a pair of Japanese barberries that have been at the front of their house for probably 60 years.

Do Japanese barberries grow where you live? Do you know how old they are?

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