For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s Milky Way Season! Similar to the relationship between the tilt of the Earth and the Sun that brings forth our seasons, so, too, does our ever-moving common home allow us seasonal glimpses of the galactic core. Last night was one of those rare occurrences of clear skies, no Moon and relatively good air quality. I set up my camera at Big Falls, Wisconsin, one of my favorite night photography locations about 15 minutes from my house. Here’s what I captured last night/this morning.
This image is panorama of nine images, 13 seconds of exposure time on each image, an ISO of 20,000 with a 12mm lens with an f-stop of 4. For those of you who “speak camera,” you might be thinking, “That looks pretty dark for ISO 20,000.” For whatever reason, the camera I own gives me better images if I over expose the image and then darken it in edited.
As I was taking these images, I was reflecting on my past involvement with citizen science programs. Yes, I’ve participated in astronomy projects, but I’ve also been able to explore my love of nature too.
My most recent citizen science program was charting Sharp-tailed Grouse for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The Sharp-tailed Grouse is a locally endangered species in Wisconsin.
The project was to enter a blind an hour before sunrise (4:30am where I live) and count the number of male and female grouse that come to an established mating location. I was also to look for tagged birds vs non-tagged birds.
What did I find? Seventeen males showed up to strut their stuff, but, sadly, no females responded to them. It is late in the mating season so its not completely odd that no females were present, but given the low numbers of these birds, it did create a small moment of concern.
One of the fun parts about doing citizen science is that you can enjoy some fun moments. The Sharp-tail Grouse has one of the more humorous shows of dominance. The grouse below didn’t seem all that excited about my presence in the observation blind. How do I know? He showed off in front of me and then landed on top of my tent three times in protest. I didn’t mean to anger the little guy, but it did put a smile on my face.
Another citizen science program that I participate in is the banding of Northern Saw-Whet Owls during their fall migration. They are not endangered, but threatened. When you handle them, you quickly learn why… They’re so small they are hunted by just about every predatory animal in nature. This program captures, checks for bands and then does a basic aging of the owl. How can you tell the age? The owl’s wings contain porphyrin pigments that will fluores in black light. The color patterns can show the approximate age of a Saw-Whet Owl. Below is an image of an Owl we aged and banded last year.
And, of course, I love doing citizen science programs with Zooniverse. The most recent project I’ve helped with is Galaxy Zoo’s exploration of James Web Space Telescope images to help find some of the most distant galaxies ever imaged. It’s a simple project where you learn what different shapes may indicate and then plow through hundreds of images looking for those shapes. To the left is one of my favorite images I’ve seen thus far.
As I’ve shared in the past, if you want to walk into the world of faith and science questions, you should first “do faith” and “do science.” You don’t need to be a professional in either to jump in. Whether its developing a healthy prayer life, participating in citizen science programs or simply trying to practice the late Pope Francis’ proposed spiritual and corporal works of mercy for the environment, your participation will open your eyes in a new way. Doing faith and doing science helps us realize that both lead to an exploration of wonderment of God’s creation. Therefore, whether you look for the Milky Way, observe a lovesick grouse or quiet your heart in prayer: do faith and do science today. And in the process, wonder at God’s amazing creation and thank God for giving us the gift of our intellect to understand these wonders.
Update: I stitched together another sequence of images that were a bit cleaner than my first attempt. I like this edit better!
