The Snowiest Place in the World The North or South Pole might seem like good candidates for the snowiest places on earth. But the poles aren’t even in the running. The South Pole receives only a few inches of snow every year. There isn’t a weather station at the North Pole. But we know it …
Science Snippet: Sky Color Everyone knows that the sky is blue. But is it? During the night, the sky is black. At sunrise and sunset, the sky can be a variety of colors. What we really mean is that during the day, the sky is blue. But that blue isn’t always the same. As sunlight …
Science Snippet: The 2023 Eclipse On Saturday, October 14, an annular solar eclipse was visible from parts of North and Central America. Much of the rest of the Americas saw a partial solar eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves between the sun and the earth. Solar eclipses come in three kinds. Partial …
Science Snippet: Explore The Closest Stars On a clear night with extremely dark conditions, there can be as many as 6,000 stars visible to the naked eye. Some of these stars are bright and noticeable whereas others are barely visible pinpricks of light. You might expect that the bright prominent stars are the closest ones. …
Moths and Porch Lights Part Two For the introduction to this series, see here You may remember that we explored attracting insect to porch lights. I shared pictures of some of my interesting visitors. Today I would like to post a little update with pictures of some recent visitors to my back porch light. As …
What’s in My Backyard—Moths and porch lights part two Read More »
Science Snippet: Explore The Ice Giants Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants; Uranus and Neptune are ice giants. The ice giants both have extremely thick atmospheres made of hydrogen and helium. Uranus has a small amount of methane in its atmosphere as well which gives the planet a blue-green color. Neptune has a dark blue …
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Meet the Neighbors: Red Sunflower Seed Weevil For the introduction to this series, see here Meet the Red Sunflower Seed Weevil! These little beetles have long snouts that look like straws. You might imagine that they suck liquid like you do with a straw. In reality, the beetles have chewing mouthparts at the end of …
What’s In My Backyard?- Red Sunflower Seed Weevil Read More »
Meet the Neighbors: American Coot For the introduction to this series, see here American Coots, sometimes called mud hens, will only be your neighbor if you live in the right neighborhood. You need to live by a lake or pond because they never go far from water. These birds are not related to ducks. They …
Meet the Neighbors: White-bowed Smoothwing For the introduction to this series, see here Farmers and gardeners like things that eat aphids. Sometimes they even buy packages of ladybugs or aphid-eating wasps to help control aphids. Many people do not realize that there are many other insects that eat aphids. The white-bowed Smoothwing is one of …
