Jupiter

Jupiter is the bright “star” center left in the photo. Mars is slightly below Jupiter to the right and Saturn is the bright “star” left of and just below Jupiter.

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The early morning sky and I are not well acquainted. Seeing stars before the sun can brighten the sky enough to hide them requires getting up about 4:30 a.m. in March, just a tad early for me. But when I read that Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Venus would all be visible in the pre-dawn sky in the third week of March, I determined to see them.

So, on Thursday morning last, I rose at the requisite time, drove six miles to the top of a mountain in Chiricahua National Monument in southeast Arizona and set up my spotting scope facing east. Just as I had read, the inside of a rising sliver of a waning moon guided me to Jupiter, Saturn and Mars a fist width away to the south.

Jupiter was far easier to find than I expected. It is the brightest “star” in the sky, but just knowing to look to the right of the crescent moon gave me a great advantage. Mars was just below Jupiter and to the right, seeming to almost touch the super planet. Saturn was almost half way between the moon and Jupiter. A straight line between Jupiter and Saturn ran almost through Mercury just left of the moon, barely visible above the horizon.

I was most interested in Jupiter, our largest planetary neighbor, because of the potential role it played in the formation of Earth and mostly because of its reported role as Earth’s guardian. I was a bit disappointed when I found Jupiter in my spotting scope. Even at 45 power, about five times stronger than my binoculars, Jupiter still was just a larger super bright circle. I could see no detail.

Jupiter is truly huge. Eleven earths could fit across its diameter and it could swallow 1,300 earths without a burp. The story that I had heard at the Kitt Peak Observatory was that Jupiter, with its colossal size and equally strong gravitational pull, has saved Earth from many a meteor that could have destroyed it.

As I looked into this theory, I found, as usual, that there is more than one interpretation of the data, most of which comes from computer simulations. As a rule, Jupiter, along with Saturn, kept smaller space debris from coalescing into larger planet-like meteors that could threaten Earth during the formation of the solar system. Computer simulations of solar systems lacking giant planets found that massive impacts would occur more often and for a longer time period. Massive impacts could break off chunks of the Earth (astronomers believe our moon was formed when an enormous meteor knocked the moon-sized piece of Earth off) or even destroy our atmosphere, making the planet uninhabitable.

On the other hand, Jupiter has been accused of actually trying to hit Earth with a meteor. In 1770, a comet known as Lexell’s Comet, came within one million miles of Earth (in astronomy, that is a miss by a mere cat’s whisker and is still a record for the closest comet) after Jupiter’s gravity pulled it off course. After two orbits around the sun, Lexell’s Comet once again passed close to Jupiter which hurled it into deep space in 1779.

So, Jupiter’s role as big brother may be more complicated than I was led to believe, but I am still glad I made the effort to get acquainted with it. Getting to know our neighbors is always a good thing, and in the case of Jupiter, social distancing wasn’t an issue.

 

NOTE: Jupiter is visible in the morning sky from January 15-July 13 and evenings from July 14-December 31. If you know your constellations, Sagittarius will be in the background for much of the year.

 

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Help Idaho Wildlife

When we traveled across the state in October 2017, most of the vehicles we saw using the wildlife management areas did not have wildlife plates. Buying wildlife plates is a great way for non-hunters and hunters alike to support wildlife-based recreation like birding.

C'mon folks, let's help Idaho's wildlife by proudly buying and displaying a wildlife license plate on each of our vehicles! 

See below for information on Idaho plates. Most states have wildlife plates so if you live outside Idaho, check with your state's wildlife department or vehicle licensing division for availability of state wildlife plates where you live. 

And tell them that you heard about it from Nature-track.com!

Wildlife License Plates

Great news! as of 2024, there are three NEW designs for license plates. They still are bluebird, cutthroat trout and elk, but they are beautiful.

Idaho Wildlife license plates provide essential funding that benefits the great diversity of native plants and wildlife that are not hunted, fished or trapped—over 10,000 species or 98% of Idaho’s species diversity. Game species that share the same habitats (such as elk, deer, antelope, sage-grouse, salmon, trout) also benefit from these specialty plates.

No state tax dollars are provided for wildlife diversity, conservation education and recreation programs. Neither are any revenues from the sale of hunting or fishing licenses spent on nongame species. Instead, these species depend on direct donations, federal grants, fundraising initiatives—and the Idaho Wildlife license plates.

Both my vehicles have Bluebird Plates. I prefer the bluebird because the nongame program gets 70 percent of the money from bluebird plates, but only 60 percent of the money from elk and trout plates - 10 percent of the money from elk plates supports wildlife disease monitoring and testing programs (to benefit the livestock industry) and 10 percent from cutthroat plates supports non-motorized boat access.

Incidentally, in 2014, the Idaho Legislature denied the Department of Fish and Game the ability to add new plates or even to change the name of the elk and cutthroat plates (very specific) to wildlife and fish plates, a move that would have allowed for changing images occasionally and generating more revenue. It would seem that they believe that we Idahoans don't want a well funded wildlife program.

I think it is time we let the Legislature know that Idahoan support wildlife funding and that we would like to see these generic plates come to fruition.