Five planets; Nine planets?

Five planets; Nine planets?

This has been a busy week for solar system news. For early risers, you can see all five of the naked-eye planets at the same time before sunrise. This week also saw the announcement of some new research suggesting there may be an undiscovered planet out there, way out past Neptune.

Sky map showing the approximate locations of the five planets visible in the pre-dawn sky.

We’ll start with the easy one. There are five planets in our sky that can be easily seen with the unaided (or “naked”) eye – without a telescope or binoculars, but most of the time only two or three are visible at any given time. For the next several weeks, though, you can see all five at once. Just wait for a clear morning, get up early, and head to a location where you have a clear horizon to the south and southeast. You’ll want to observe about 45 minutes before the sun comes up, while the sky is still dark enough.

The first thing you will notice is Venus, shining brightly in the southeast. Venus has been visible before dawn for months now, and since it is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon, a lot of people have noticed it in the southeast as they get up for work or school before the sun rises. The next-brightest object in the sky is the planet Jupiter, which was close to Venus last fall but has since migrated across the sky towards the southwest. That’s two planets.

In between Venus on your left and Jupiter on your right, there are a bunch of bright-ish objects. About halfway between the two, and higher up in the south, is a fairly bright object that you might notice has a slightly red-orange hue. That’s Mars, planet number three on our list of targets.

Between Mars and Venus is number four: the ringed planet Saturn. Saturn’s rings aren’t visible without a telescope, but it is the most distant planet you can see with your unaided eye, at over 1.5 billion kilometres away from Earth.

Number five on our list is the most difficult one. The planet Mercury is tough to see, because it is so close to the sun we can only see it in the brightening twilight sky. Mercury appears to the lower left of Venus and very close to the horizon. As the days pass, it will rise higher in the sky as it orbits the sun, and then drop back down below the horizon again. You probably will only have a couple of weeks to see Mercury unless we have very clear skies and you have very good eyes, since the lower it gets the harder it will be to find. Binoculars can help you track it down in the twilight.

If you want to add a sixth planet, just look around: the Earth is a planet, too. And the moon will move through the seen in the first week of February, along the path from Jupiter to Mercury in our sky. It’s a great time to watch the morning sky!

Now, the other “planet” announcement this week, which suggests a new planet has been “discovered”. It hasn’t – at least, not yet. As usual, the social media sites blow everything out of proportion. Some new research suggests that some of the odd observations of objects at the very edge of the solar system could be explained if there were an undiscovered planet orbiting the sun at an incredible distance, far beyond Neptune. The trouble is, we don’t have a lot of data on what’s out there, so there are many possible explanations for the strange stuff we’re seeing. Definitely a story worth following, but don’t change the textbooks just yet.

Scott Young

Scott Young

Planetarium Astronomer

Scott is the Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum, developing astronomy and science programs. He has been an informal science educator for thirty years, working in the planetarium and science centre field both at The Manitoba Museum and also at the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Scott is an active amateur astronomer and a past-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

The Log Cabin Gets a 21st Century Upgrade

The Grasslands Gallery was developed as one of the first galleries at The Manitoba Museum when it opened 45 years ago. The Log Cabin exhibit in this gallery has been used intensively by our school programs ever since, and hundreds of thousands of visitors have enjoyed its pioneer flavour.

Whenever you hear someone say “pioneer flavour”, you know it’s time for a change.

A log cabin in the Grasslands Gallery, with the close corner "cut out" to reveal inside the cabin. Inside is dimly lit and from this distance, not much detail can be seen.

The Log Cabin exhibit before changes.

A log cabin in the Grasslands Gallery, with the close corner "cut out" to reveal inside the cabin. Inside is strategicly lit to show a fire place, rocking chair, spinning wheel, and more. At the exterior of the opened corner a digital display is mounted for visitors to engage with.

The Log Cabin exhibit after changes.

The Log Cabin just didn’t seem as engaging as it could be, so we put in new spotlights and removed a plex-glass wall that was meant to protect the artifacts, but really just created a visual barrier. But most of all, I wanted our visitors to learn about the amazing artifacts in the cabin. Some of them had been there for almost half a century, but had never had their stories shared with the public.

The Log Cabin represents the lifestyle of people in the Red River Settlement between 1812 and the 1860s. This included people of various backgrounds, including Métis, Scottish settlers brought by Lord Selkirk to start an agricultural colony, First Nations, HBC workers, French Canadians, and more. While there were certainly some distinct cultural traditions among these different groups, there was also a good amount of blending, and this can be seen in some of the artifacts. In fact, by the 1860s you could say the Red River Settlement was as much a blended society as it was multi-cultural colony.

Some of these artifacts include the Alexander Sutherland Violin, which is more than 200 years old; the Catherine McPherson Spinning Wheel, made for her in the 1830s and based on a French model provided by the Bishop at St. Boniface; and the Rupert Franks chair, which was made for little Rupert when he was one year old in 1837.

Closer view into the interior of the cabin exhibit in the Grasslands Gallery. In front of a fireplace artifacts can be seen in the room such as a spinnin wheel, a small chair, a rocking chair, and a violin, which is mounted on the far wall. In the foreground part of a digital screen is visible, where visitors can learn more about the artifacts.

The Log Cabin exhibit after renewal.

A view of a page on the digital exhibit screen that accompanies the Log Cabin in the Grasslands Gallery. There is a high quality image of the violin along with details about the owner, Alexander Sutherland, and the violin itself.

Screen shot of the Alexander Sutherland Violin.

When I started researching the objects in some depth, I was reminded again that the small details were important, and actually quite fascinating. How could we show folks the wear and tear produced by tiny feet on the footrest of the Rupert Franks chair? Also, how would our visitors be able to see the label inside the violin, a label which tells its own interesting story?

We decided that a high-definition touch screen with high resolution, beautiful images, would let visitors explore and see what the curators were seeing. I always remind myself that the museum and its stories belong to all Manitobans. So come to the museum and explore your artifacts! As you do so, you’ll learn about the amazing stories of people who lived hundreds of years ago and in their own way helped make the province that we live in today.

 

The Manitoba Museum would like to acknowledge the financial support provided for this project by the Province of Manitoba through the Heritage Grants Program.

Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Curator of History

Roland Sawatzky joined The Manitoba Museum in 2011. He received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Winnipeg, M.A. in Anthropology from the University of South Carolina, and Ph.D. in Archaeology…
Meet Dr. Roland Sawatzky

John Macoun: The Botanist Who Changed the Map of Western Canada

Last year an interview I did for the BBC Northern Ireland documentary Brave New World – Canada aired on television (see more here). This documentary, by journalist William Crawley, is about the Irish Ulster immigrants that came to Canada and shaped our nation. I was asked to talk about John Macoun, an Irish-Canadian botanist who explored Western Canada in the late 1800s. As only a small portion of my interview aired, I wanted to post a full response to all the questions I was asked to provide some additional insight into John’s life and character.

What sort of man was John Macoun?

John was a man who was obsessed with botany, with collecting plants in particular. The thrill of discovering a new species of plant really drove him. This obsession meant that he was willing to endure a lot of physical discomfort in order to find new species.

 

Why is he such an important figure in Canadian history?

People like to say that Macoun changed the map of western Canada. Prior to his expeditions with Sanford Fleming in the 1880s, the planned railway route through western Canada was going to go through the Parklands along the historic Carlton trail, parts of which eventually became the contemporary Yellowhead highway. Macoun’s explorations, reports and speeches led people to believe that the southern parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan were just as fertile as the more northern parts. As a result, the railway went along a more southern route and many of the largest cities in the prairies, like Brandon, Regina and Calgary sprung up along it. Had the railway gone along the original route these cities may not have existed at all, or may be substantially smaller than what they are today.

Formal black and white posed photograph of John Macoun, an older man wearing a suit and bow tie, with a full beard, bushy eyebrows, and hair thinning on top.

Joohn Macoun, Irish-Canadian botanist.

An 1877 Canadian Pacfici Railway map of Canada with a small photograph of John Macoun in the bottom right hand corner.

The original 1877 Canadian Pacific Railway was set to go along a more northerly route.

A dry, desert like landscape with some very low-growing green-brown vegetation on sandy ground and dunes.

Why did people think Manitoba and Saskatchewan so unsuitable for farming?

Peoples’ impressions of the prairie were largely based on a report by Captain John Palliser who travelled through the southern prairies from 1857 to 1860. Palliser described an area in southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta as being a desert but he did have some good reasons to call it that. Palliser travelled through the area during a severe drought. His route took him through several large active sand dune complexes. Migratory Bison were still grazing the area and keeping the grasses short. To top it all off he encountered several large grass fires in the area. So the mixed grass prairies would have looked fairly desert-like at the time.

 

Image: Captain John Palliser travelled through dry, desert-like areas in western Canada during a drought.

Did Macoun set out to prove them wrong, or was he surprised by what he discovered?

Initially he seemed to be holding back judgement until he saw the area for himself. He was certainly happy to discover that the prairies were full of lush grasses and seemed suitable for agriculture. It was not at all like the desert he heard of. Of course had he travelled the area when Palliser did his impressions would have been different, perhaps a bit more cautionary and less enthusiastic.

 

What did he find as he travelled through Manitoba and Saskatchewan?

The prairies that Macoun saw were already different from what they had been when Europeans first arrived. Populations of wild Bison, Plains Grizzlies, and Passenger Pigeons were in decline. Antelope and Elk populations were also decreasing. In fact, he encountered a group of First Nations people in Saskatchewan that were on the verge of starvation because the Bison were gone. He also travelled through the area during a historic wet period. The high moisture and lack of grazing animals would have resulted in a much lusher prairie than Palliser would have seen.

A Red River Cart on display in a museum gallery. A wooden cart with two large wheels on either side and two hitching posts stretching out in front to attach to an animal.

What did Macoun do on this and subsequent journeys through the prairies?

John liked to get up early in the morning to collect and press plants. The plants would have been sandwiched in between blotting paper and cardboard to provide air circulation. John often spent the entire day walking to spare their pack animals, which would have been hauling plant presses, and supplies in Red River carts. Sometimes he travelled by canoe which was quite dangerous as he wasn’t particularly skilled at handling a boat. He spent a lot of time looking for areas that were appropriate for agriculture, and noting where you could get good water and timber. He recorded his observations in a journal along with comments on the weather and the distance he travelled each day.

 

Image: John travelled across the prairies with a Red River cart, such as this one in the Grasslands Gallery at the Manitoba Museum, to carry provisions and plant specimens.

A poster showing a boy crawling between sheaves of bundled wheat in a wheat field during harvest under a clear blue sky. Text reads, "Canada West / Canada - the New Homeland".

What was his conclusion as to how fertile the land was and it’s suitability for agriculture?

Most Canadians were accustomed to farming under wetter conditions or using irrigation, as most were originally from wetter areas in Europe like England, Scotland, and France. They didn’t have much experience with dryland farming so they considered the prairies too dry for agriculture. Macoun recognized that adequate soil moisture is usually present in the spring when wheat needs it the most so he thought that cultivation of this crop was possible. Unfortunately, he underestimated the frequency and severity of droughts and during the dirty 1930s much of the farmland in the driest areas of the prairies was abandoned.

 

Did the government act on his report?

They sure did! Politicians were very eager for settlement to occur in the southern prairies as they were concerned about American expansion into Canada. They also wanted the wealth that would be created if farmers were to grow crops for export. So the Canadian Government launched an advertising campaign to encourage mostly European immigrants to settle the prairies.

 

Image: The Canadian Government tried to lure European settlers to the prairies with posters such as this one.

A pressed buttercup specimen with plant and collection details noted on the lower right corner of the page.

What in your opinion has been Macoun’s legacy?

In his lifetime, Macoun collected over 100,000 plant specimens for Museum collections and about 48 species were named after him including Macoun’s Buttercup (Ranunculus macounii) and Macoun’s Gentian (Gentianopsis macounii). His prediction that the prairies would become the breadbasket of Canada was also true and prairie people are proud of that achievement.

But the flip side is that less than 20% of the original mixed grass prairie, less than 5% of the fescue prairie and less than half a percent of the tall grass prairie still remains in Canada. The prairies have more endangered species than just about any other ecological region in the country. In fact, I study endangered prairie plants and try to prevent them from going extinct in part because of John. So as a prairie lover I have mixed feelings about him. On the one hand I respect him for his scientific achievements but on the other, if he hadn’t been quite so enthusiastic about the agricultural potential of the prairies, perhaps there would be more of it left today.

 

Image: This buttercup species was named after John: Macoun’s Buttercup (Ranunculus macounii). TMM-B-37290.

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Curator of Botany

Dr. Bizecki Robson obtained a Master’s Degree in Plant Ecology at the University of Saskatchewan studying rare plants of the mixed grass prairies. After working as an environmental consultant and sessional lecturer…
Meet Dr. Bizecki Robson