As 2021 passes the 300 day mark, orbiting into the home stretch of another year, trick or treaters wander, All Hallows Eve parties resume (safely, I hope) and leaves continue to lose the chlorophyll, making the quick transition from green to a brilliant hue before joining the crowd and tumbling earthward on the slightest breeze; suddenly, it’s November.
November, named as month nine on the ten month Roman calendar, kicks off with an election on the 2nd but a bonus week before Falling Back to the shocking end of Daylight Saving Time early on the 7th. We take a day to remember the service of veterans on the 11th, consider getting up very early to see a lunar eclipse on the 19th and gather and give thanks with family and friends on the 25th.
If your daily walk takes you past a little drainage, perhaps dry or very low after our dry October, keep an eye out and see if any water appears as the leaf-fall picks up, even without any rain. Many streams around here are actually groundwater streams and as trees, large players in the water cycle in warmer times, stop their water uptake as the light fades and temperatures drop, the ever present water in the ground, even without much rain, fills back into the many tiny voids in the world below our feet and shows itself as a fall and winter stream. My stream has reappeared without a drop of rain!
If the limited daylight has you out for a stroll at twilight or beyond, the just dark sky continues to dazzle. Venus remains the startlingly bright beacon in the west, Saturn and Jupiter, both still bright, easy to spot farther along the arc of the ecliptic in the south. A thin crescent moon visits Venus on the 7th, the first quarter moon forms a triangle with Jupiter and Saturn on the 11th. Mars and Mercury are both sneaking into the pre-dawn sky, very low in the southeast.
Need help finding things in the night (or daytime) sky? I use a free app, Sky View Lite; just point your phone at the sky, it’ll tell you what you are seeing. Want a challenge? Try and find Venus while the sun is still up. You need a clear blue sky, something to block the sun completely (a tree trunk or wall) and pretty good eyes. After about 3pm, I use the app to get close and there it is, just a little white dot but it’s a planet, in the daytime; it’s that bright.
While we were not turned toward this past May’s lunar eclipse, we will be able to see this month’s Full Beaver Moon slide almost completely into Earth’s shadow in the wee hours on the 19th. The moon enters Earth’s shadow at 2:18am, is 97% covered just after 4am and slips clear of the shadow at 5:47am. Lunar eclipses vary from blood red, to copper to dark brown in color depending on volcanic dust in the air. Set your alarm and hope for clear skies.
Even though our tilted planet blocks another 50 minutes of daylight during November, the month’s cooler temperatures and ever changing leaf display make any outing a pleasure. An added bonus: little chance of encountering biting bugs, spider webs or snakes. On this world, in this country, even as problems persist, there is so much to be thankful for and November is the month to slow, to stop, to be truly, thankful.
That's it...trying to rain here but not like in SF last night...woooo...that was rain!
Still trying to upload this into iNaturalist...but verizon SUCKS!!
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