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Just want to make sure our LC5 scientists and their families enjoy what the natural world is serving up this weekend!   Starting tomorrow night you will not want to miss the opportunity to view Earth’s natural satellite.  I know some of you have some spectacular telescopes that should come in handy but the rest of us will be treated as well to a fantastic view of a supermoon as the weather forecast appears to be clear.  A supermoon is when the moon is both full and at perigee (an orbital position closest to Earth).  The official perigee point in time will be Monday morning at 6:52am right before moonset in the west.  If you are up early Monday morning for work or school look west for a special site.

This is a great explanation from NASA on the science behind the occurence we have the opportunity to enjoy :))     NASA Rocks Supermoon Explanation!

Maria…. we are counting on you!

Today, August 25, 2016, is the 100th birthday of the founding of our country’s National Park  Service (NPS).   On this day in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill into law to create an organization to care for the National Parks.  The mission for the NPS was “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

At that time we had just 12 national parks including our first, Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872 under President Ulysses S. Grant.  Today we have over 400 national parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House all managed by over 20,000 National Park Service employees and rangers.

In honor of the NPS’s 100th birthday, Google has put together an INCREDIBLE collection of virtual tours combining 360-degree video, panoramic photos and expert narration. PLEASE click on the following link from your Google Chrome browser to experience five great national parks: Bryce Canyon, Kenai Fjords, Carlsbad Caverns, Dry Tortugas and Hawaii Volanoes.  Start by DIVING IN to the Dry Tortugas 🙂

The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks

How many national parks have you visited?

 

Most of you will remember my surprise discovery of a second clutch of eggs from Cookie in early June.

I was hoping that the babies would hold out and hatch the first week we were back to school but unfortunately the toasty warm incubator in the Caldwell laundry room/snake nursery was too ideal an environment. So excited that we have FOUR Amelanistic (red albino) babies and Four Okeetee already.  2 more eggs to go!!  Stay tuned and let me know if you are interested in adopting a baby corn snake. 

Fellow Fiver, Maddie, and her family enjoyed special vacation time at Yellowstone National Park a few weeks ago! Sadly the little baby bison above, Maddie reports, had a broken leg.   It looks like “Mom” was shedding her winter coat.  Check out the cool hot spring photo.  I wonder what is making the water that reddish-brown color?

 That bird of prey that Maddie captured in the camera lens is an Osprey.  An expert fisherman!  Is that a trout?

Thank you Maddie for sharing these great pictures!!

Grab a map and zoom in on the eastern Minnesota/Canada border.  There is a pristine region called the BWCA Wilderness.  (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) This remote area of over 1 million acres is loaded with 1,100 + glacial carved lakes. The placid lakes are connected by short portages through the woods and gentle streams where river otters play and beavers build dams.  The protected region allows no powered boats and is peppered with hundreds of remote campsites only accessible by canoe or kayak.  It is an area ideal for week(s) long canoe/camping trips that recreate the travels of our nation’s early explorers and the French Voyageurs. Here we can be detached from modern conveniences and experience our connection to the natural world.

This folk song celebrates the Minnesota Northwoods. It is one of many songs we sing while paddling.  It was performed beautifully by our LC 5 music students last spring   …  🎼”Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver, where still the mighty moose wanders at will. Blue lake and rocky shore I will return once more …”🎼.

My family has returned to a unique YMCA family wilderness camp here for 17 years, Camp du Nord.

Here are a few photos of this special area where wild wolf packs can be heard howling at night.  Loons call.  Black bears beat you to the best berries, bald eagles fly by and the glow of the Northern Lights competes with the peaceful beauty of the Milky Way at night.

No technology in the BWCAW … This belated blog comes to you as I leave through the town of Ely, MN.

Nick found and said I could share with you this cute little friend that he found about a week ago.  He has made it a really nice habitat to observe it for a while at home before he releases it back into the wild. He has a nice stick in there and even added fresh rainwater.  The frog is only about 3/4 inches long and likes to cling to the glass side of the habitat.  At first Nick thought it might be an albino of some sort but given the black eyes is now hypothesizing that it is a gray tree frog.  What species do you think it is?  Do you think it is at its full adult size?

… your light shines straight to me. When glass or ___?___ bend your line your colors I can see 🎼.  Hopefully some of you remember this song I shared with you when we were learning about refraction.  It was a song I sang to wake up my boys when they were little. The way the sun would shine through their window they would get a little rainbow on the wall.

Catching fish wasn’t the best, but fishing for fish at sea for days provided many magical moments enjoying the natural world.  We saw pods of hundreds of the Common Dolphin species and even a pod of about 7, rarer, Bottlenose Dolphin.  Check out the video!!  It’s about 1 1/2 minutes long but worth the watch for the jumper close to the end.

As for catching fish, we certainly didn’t ” Catch ’em all” but we did lure from the deep and then release a few Bonita and Calico Bass.  Only one fisherman, Mark, in our group of 3 boats prowling the sea ,came back to port with the big prize, an 80lb Yellow Fin Tuna.

Hard earned fresh sushi was enjoyed last night by all.

On this day, July 20th, in 1969 humans first set foot on the Moon. NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong piloted the Apollo 11 Lunar Module to the surface and announced to Mission Control, “Houston, the Eagle has landed.”  at 3:17pm CT (Central Time).  After several hours of rest and preparation at 9:56pm CT Neil Armstong stepped onto the lunar surface. His famous first words were broadcast around the world… “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  He was joined by Buzz Aldrin minutes later.  The “unsung hero”, Michael Collins, remained in orbit piloting the Command Module around the moon to safely capture Neil and Buzz when the Eagle’s accent stage launched for the return to Earth. 

The title of today’s post comes from the words on the plaque of the descent stage of the Lunar Module that is still on the moon undisturbed today.  

The last Apollo mission to land on the moon was Apollo 17. It landed on December 19,1972.  No humans have left Earth’s orbit since. Remarkably, only 12 humans have walked on our moon.  All men. All Americans. 

I wonder when humans will once again leave the “little blue marble’s” orbit.  Will you be the one to go on the next great space adventure? Red planet here we come!
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html