October 2024 | Elan Valley

Curlew Monitoring Volunteer Project

Sam Price — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 12:18:21 +0000

Do you love the outdoors and conservation?

We’re looking for volunteers who would like to help us monitor the beautiful curlew. It is thought that numbers are declining at a rate of around 6% per year which means they could potentially become extinct by 2030.

It is important that curlew are identified and where possible, provide protection during the breeding season and identify whether they have been successful in raising their young.

If you are interested in curlew monitoring, please get in touch

The post Curlew Monitoring Volunteer Project appeared first on Elan Valley.

Eyes on the Night Sky – November 2024

Sam Price — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 11:56:46 +0000

Welcome to this month’s update to what’s in the night sky for November.

In the Elan Valley International Dark Sky Park, darkness falls even earlier this month – 6.40pm at the beginning of the month and 6.10pm at the end.

At 10pm, the constellations that are dominant in the southern night sky during November are Pegasus, Andromeda, Triangulum, Pisces and Aries.

Perseus, Auriga and Taurus are well placed, Cygnus and Draco still high in the western sky. The summer constellations of Sagitta, Lyra and Hercules set on the western horizon and the winter constellations of Orion, Gemini and Monoceros rise in the east. Ursa Major, although circumpolar, lies low on the Northern Horizon, making this bright constellation a good landscape astro-photography subject.

Aquarius and the faint low-lying constellation of Capricornus. Cepheus is well-placed. The summer constellations of Hercules, Aquila, Sagittarius and Lyra move westwards and in the east, the winter constellations of Auriga and Taurus begin to rise.

The New Moon falls on 1^st November and the Full Moon on 15^th November.

Leonids Meteor Shower

The Leonid Meteor Shower is active from 6^th – 30^th November and peaks on the night of 18^th November, with 15 meteors per hour (ZHR). The point from which the meteors appear is called a radiant and is located in the Constellation of Leo.

As the peak occurs a few days after the Full Moon, you will only be able to see the very bright ones this year, which travel fast and leave long trains.

This meteor shower has an interesting cycle: every 33 years the ZHR increases dramatically as there is an outburst and often there can be many hundreds of meteors per hour. The last such storms were 1799, 1833, 1866, 1966 and 1999-2001. The 1833 storm was notable as 3000 meteors per hour was seen by terrified spectators:
“On the night of November 12-13, 1833, a tempest of falling stars broke over the Earth… The sky was scored in every direction with shining tracks and illuminated with majestic fireballs. At Boston, the frequency of meteors was estimated to be about half that of flakes of snow in an average snowstorm. Their numbers… were quite beyond counting; but as it waned, a reckoning was attempted, from which it was computed, on the basis of that much-diminished rate, that 240,000 must have been visible during the nine hours they continued to fall.” – Agnes Clerke’s, Victorian Astronomy Writer
Figure 1: a 19th century woodcut with an impression of the spectacular November 13, 1833 Leonid storm. Courtesy Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Early settlers look up in amazement at a sky filled with shooting stars.

Our next Leonid ‘outburst’ is thought to be in around ten years’ time so let’s hope it’s a good one!

Stellarium

The Planets

This time of year, Jupiter and Saturn are well placed and are worth a study through telescopes.

Saturn is well-placed in the south-west and Jupiter rises in the south-eastern sky at 6.30pm.

If you have never seen a shadow on the face of a gas giant, on 4^th November, train your telescopes on Saturn when the mighty moon Titan’s shadow will transit across it between 21.05 and 22:50 – you may notice a slight notch on the edge of Saturn. There will be another opportunity to see this on 20^th November between 19:42-22:49, where Titan’s shadow look like a black blob moving across Saturn’s face.

Shadow transits also occur on Jupiter on a regular basis. One to look out for is on 10^th November, where you can see the shadow of Io pass across the surface of Jupiter, starting at 20:20 and finishing at 22:33.

Venus will appear low in the South-western sky after sunset.

Mars is a well-placed planet this month, rising in the north-east at 21:10.

The Owl Cluster

The constellation of Cassiopeia contains some lovely open clusters, all of which can be seen with 10×50 binoculars. One we can recommend you look for this month is the Owl Cluster (NGC 457).

Through 10×50 binoculars, you will be able to see the two bright ‘eyes’ of the cluster and a line of stars perpendicular to the eyes. If you have larger binoculars, the body of the owl becomes more apparent and ‘wings’ can be seen.

Through telescopes, the owl shape takes form and looks stunning. It is also known as the ET cluster because of its resemblance to the alien character from the well-known science fiction film from the 1980s.

Discovered by William Herschel, you can find it for yourself by locating the star Ruchbah. Looking at that star, raise your binoculars to your eyes and scan the immediate area until the cluster comes into view.

Credit: Michael Vlasov from www.deepskywatch.com

Mirach’s Ghost

If you have a small telescope, you can look for a fascinating companion to a star whilst you are in the Andromeda/Pegasus region.

To find it, look for the Square of Pegasus and its top left-hand star. Count two stars to the left and that second star is Mirach. The way to tell it’s the right star is to look for two stars that are directly above it, and a fuzzy object which is the Andromeda Galaxy.

Train your telescope on the star Mirach and use your averted vision to look for a ghostly companion which lies close to the star.

NGC 404 is a galaxy which lies 11 million light years from Earth. The reason why it looks dim through telescopes is that Mirach’s brightness dims our views of this galaxy. Even though they appear close to each other here on Earth, there is around 10,999,800 light years distance between them!

The first image to the right shows Mirach and NGC 404 – a galaxy that is lenticular in shape and does not have any spiral arms. It was also thought to be very old and low in star production until the GALEX (NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer) project deployed a ultraviolet-sensitive telescope to reveal a gas ring and a number of young, hot stars. New studies have revealed that this new star formation was a result of NGC 404 colliding with a neighbouring galaxy long ago

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Visually, you may see a faint object very near to Mirach that almost mimics a lens artefact of an ‘after image’ of the red giant, which is why it is known as the ‘Mirach’s Ghost’.

Credit: Michael Vlasov from www.deepskywatch.com

The post Eyes on the Night Sky – November 2024 appeared first on Elan Valley.

Elan Links: People, Nature, Water

Sam Price — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 12:47:24 +0000

The Elan Valley is a special place with a unique landscape, story and history.

The Elan Links Project was a National Lottery Heritage funded scheme which aimed to secure this heritage and boosted the opportunities available in the Elan Valley for the future. £3.3million was invested in the Elan Valley area to safeguard heritage and increased opportunities for visitors.

26 projects were delivered between 2018 and 2023 under four themes:

Celebrating heritage – Protecting and restoring historic sites and archiving people’s histories and stories.
Enjoying Elan – Increasing access, recreation and learning opportunities for visitors.
Experience and education – Providing opportunities to experience the Elan Valley through volunteering, as well as education and training.
Enhancing nature and wildlife – Restoring and enhancing natural environments.

Here are some of the projects that were completed between 2018 and 2023:

Our Partners

Elan Links: People, Nature, Water was a Heritage Lottery – funded project which was delivered in the beautiful Elan Estate between 2018 and 2023. Find out more about the partners who were involved in the delivery of the project.

Elan Links: Tir Coed

Elan Links partners Tir Coed had a vision and followed it. Find out what you can achieve with three larch trees, five trainees and a vision. This project was funded through the Elan Links Partnership and Social Value Forum.

Artist Residency Program

Between 2018 and 2023, partnering with CARAD Rhayader Museum and Gallery and Arts Council Wales, thirteen artists from across the world took part in our Elan Links Artist in Residence Program. From sound to vision, a huge variety of work was created in response to the beauty of the Elan Valley. We would like to share this work with you – to find out more, click the name of the artist below.

Elan Valley Archive Project

Elan Valley has a rich store of archived materials, dating back to the 1700s, from plans, maps, letter and telegrams, some relating to the building of the dams, right through to plans of every building constructed on the Elan Estate. Watch archivist Thomas Tolhurst explain the work undertaken to preserve these precious historical artefacts, during the Heritage Lottery Funded Elan Links project.

Archaeology

The Elan Valley Estate has a unique landscape and rich heritage – find out about the work undertaken during the Elan Links Programme to identify and safeguard historic sites.

Peatland

Peat is a hugely significant carbon store and the peatlands in the Elan Valley Estate are in poor condition. Find out about the work that was undertaken during the Elan Links programme to restore essential peat bogs.

Curlew

Curlew numbers have been declining at an alarming rate throughout the United Kingdom. Find out how the Elan Links Curlew Project has identified and protected precious curlew nests during the breeding season throughout the Elan Valley Estate.

Conservation Cattle Grazing Program in the Elan Valley

Find out more about how important conservation cattle grazing is to improve the uplands of the Elan Valley and the work Elan Links undertook to increase awareness amongst the farming community with great results..

Improving Our Woodlands Project

The Elan Links, Improving Our Woodlands Project has enabled management of the Elan Valley’s temperate rainforest to protect the rare lichens found here. Thinning out the dense re-growth has enabled light to reach the veteran oaks on which the lichens grow. This is followed by light grazing with cattle for a few months of the year which graze on brambles and some, but not all of the new tree seedlings which appear.

Elan Meadows Project

Across the UK, 97% of our traditional wildflower meadows have been lost. Elan Valley, however, is home to many upland hay meadows – including a coronation meadow – all of which are a wonderful sight in full bloom and are of enormous benefit in pollination. Elan Valley’s meadows retain fantastic floristic diversity and insect life but scientific studies have shown that appropriate management such as liming and occasional applications of farmyard manure are needed to keep these meadows thriving. Watch this video to see the work Elan Links has done to restore these precious meadows.

The post Elan Links: People, Nature, Water appeared first on Elan Valley.