Shapley Lecture Series: Dr. Nancy Grace Roman

It’s a bird... It’s a plane... It’s Suuuppperman. Wait...no, it’s a squirrel! A flying squirrel?! There are 4 species of squirrel that live in Ohio: the fox squirrel, Eastern gray squirrel, American red squirrel, and Southern flying squirrel. The flying squirrel is the most common and abundant, though is the most rarely seen due to it being entirely nocturnal and living high in the tree canopy. Flying squirrels do not actually fly, but glide from great heights with the help of a membrane called a patagium. They get a running start along a branch or will propel themselves from a stationary position, then as they are airborne will spread their limbs out into the shape of an X, extending the patagium. They are graceful while gliding and are able to maneuver with great accuracy. Southern flying squirrels are very social and will forage and “fly” together in large groups. They will also den together in the winter, partially for warmth in numbers. They make their nests deep in natural tree cavities and woodpecker holes, and also occasionally build nests from twigs and leaves. Their diet consists of nuts, fruit, fungi, insects, bird eggs, and flowers. They will also visit bird feeders for seeds at night. A trail camera focused on a bird feeder is a great way to monitor flying squirrel activity in your own yard. The flying squirrel is just one of many interesting nocturnal characters visitors can meet at our upcoming Enchanted Forest event. Learn even more about these adorable yet elusive creatures, and if you listen closely you may even get to hear the flying squirrel rap! Written by Michelle Leighty, TWC Environmental Education Specialist

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched on August 30, 2026, at 07:26AM EDT on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Roman isn’t orbiting Earth. Instead, it’s heading for the second Sun-Earth Lagrange Point, or L2 for short, a gravitationally stable region of space about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. The James Webb Space Telescope is also stationed at L2. Roman’s in-flight mission objectives are being checked off. So far, the telescope’s antenna and visor-like sunshade have been successfully deployed, and the Coronagraph Instrument has been successfully activated and has begun its monthslong series of calibrations and tests. The telescope is named after the late Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer and one of the architects of the agency’s modern science program. It is the first space telescope named for a woman. Dr. Roman championed space-based observatories that could study the universe from above Earth’s hazy atmosphere while making their data broadly available to the scientific community. NASA has planned a five-year mission for Roman with the option of adding another five-year mission after that. The telescope has a multipurpose mission. The Roman Space telescope has been uniquely designed to study and solve two of the biggest questions, biggest mysteries, in physics and astronomy, what is dark matter, the stuff holding galaxies together, and what is dark energy, the invisible force making the universe expand faster and faster over time. 95 percent of the universe is made of stuff we don’t understand at all and can’t see directly. Understanding this 95% will allow us to understand how the universe evolved into what we see today and what its ultimate fate could be. The telescope will also be hunting for exoplanets and rogue planets and testing a new coronograph, which if successful, will image Jupiter-sized planets close to their host stars for the first time ever. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be pumping out data. NASA Senior Project Scientist, Dr. Julie McEnery, has said “To put this in context, one month of Roman observations would correspond to a century with Hubble.” Roman’s primary mirror began its journey sitting in storage as a piece of spare hardware for a scrapped US spy satellite. The 2.4m (96 inch) wide mirror was gifted free to NASA for use in the Roman telescope. This mirror is the same size and has the same resolution as the mirror in the Hubble Space Telescope. The real difference between Hubble and Roman is Roman’s camera, the Wide Field Instrument (WFI). This camera is amazing. It’s a 300mp camera built for visible and near infrared light. It has 18 individual image sensors. Each sensor is about the size of a saltine cracker that combines into one image. There is a gap between the sensors; to compensate for this gap NASA is using an imaging technique called dithering to rotate the telescope slightly so that the image overlaps and fills in the gaps. This camera can capture an area 100 times larger than Hubble’s field of view in a single image. Roman is going to take huge, gigantic images. Images stitched together for just one of Roman’s surveys displayed at full resolution on a 4K TV would require 500,000 TVs to display the full survey. That many TVs would cover the entire face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. It will take about 3 months of traveling, testing, and calibrating its instruments before observations can begin. NASA expects to release the first images from the Roman Space Telescope possibly as early as late December 2026 or January 2027. All the data Roman collects will be publicly available. Images will be available to anyone with an internet connection. The Roman Space telescope is going to survey billions of stars and galaxies and show us things we’ve never seen before. It might even surprise us and answer questions we haven’t even thought to ask. Actually, Roman’s mission isn’t far from what its primary mirror was built for. It will be spying for secrets – secrets of the universe. Dr. Roman would be proud. Whether you're a lifelong astronomy enthusiast, a student exploring a future in STEM, an educator, or simply someone who has ever looked up and wondered what's out there, this is an opportunity you won't want to miss. Find details for the Shapley Lecture and register to join us. Written by Robin Gill, TWC Astronomy Education Specialist

Happy #WildlifeWednesday from the star-nosed mole! This bizarre hamster-sized mole with a striking snout is semi-aquatic and lives in wet lowland areas throughout Ohio. Using its large front paws and thick claws, the star-nosed mole excavates extensive underground burrows and tunnels. They also use these paws to swim, turning the palms outwards and moving their appendages in a maneuver resembling the breaststroke. The mole hunts both day and night, consuming earthworms, terrestrial and aquatic insects, mollusks, crustaceans, amphibians, and small fish. Essentially blind due to its tiny eyes and subterranean lifestyle, it uses the remarkable snout for which it is named to process sensory information while hunting. Let’s talk about that nose! The “star” is formed by 22 finger-like tentacles called rays. With tens of thousands of nerve endings and sensory receptors called Eimer’s organs, the snout of the star-nosed mole is the most sensitive touch organ known in the animal kingdom. The rays are constantly in motion and can touch multiple objects in under one second as it searches for food in its dark tunnels. The nose can determine in under 8 milliseconds whether something is edible, the fastest response to a stimulus known in animals, and the star-nosed mole is recognized in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the fastest forager on the planet. That’s not all! The amazing proboscis of the star-nosed mole allows it to smell underwater, which was previously thought to be impossible for mammals. Using the star-like structure of its nose, the mole blows 8-12 small air bubbles per second over objects in the water. The bubbles are quickly drawn back into the nostrils and sniffed to determine if the items are food. The stupendous star-nosed mole will be one of the characters at our upcoming Enchanted Forest event. Come learn even more about this unusual creature and its incredible nose. Smell you later! 

Happy #WildlifeWednesday! Monarch migration is underway! Eastern monarch butterflies are currently flying through Ohio on their way from their summer breeding grounds in Canada to their overwintering areas in Mexico. The monarchs will migrate thousands of miles, traveling up to 100 miles each day from late August through October, reaching their roosting sites in November. The best time for viewing the largest numbers of butterflies during migration in Ohio is the first 3 weeks of September. The migrating butterflies rely on steady food sources along their journey, including native milkweed and flowers. Loss of grassland and prairie habitats have contributed to the decline of these charismatic butterflies as well as other pollinating insects such as bees, wasps, and moths. Late summer and early fall (right now!) is the perfect time to gather seeds from milkweed pods for planting. Providing more habitat and monarch “waystations” along their flyways contributes to their conservation. Native milkweed species to plant in Ohio include common, swamp, butterfly, and poke milkweed. Milkweed is the sole host plant to the iconic monarch caterpillar, which feeds exclusively on the leaves. Monarchs migrate both individually and in groups, sometimes congregating together in spectacularly enormous numbers to rest and re-fuel, a dazzling sight to nature lovers and photographers. Monarchs can be seen any time of day, though morning is better viewing, before the afternoon temperatures get too hot. They bright orange beauties can be admired flying in the air overhead, as well as be spotted in trees, bushes, grasses, and gardens. The Wilderness Center is a great place to look for monarchs! Come visit our prairie overlooking Wilderness Lake and hike the Prairie Loop trail soon for excellent opportunities to see monarchs up-close and on the wing.

On August 28, 2026, we will be treated to the full Sturgeon Moon and a partial lunar eclipse. The full Moon occurs at exactly 12:18AM EDT. The partial lunar eclipse reaches its maximum at 12:12AM EDT. See more about the eclipse below. If you’re up early you can catch this full Moon before it sets at 7:11AM EDT and of course it will still look big, full, and bright when it rises at 8:17PM EDT later that evening. Native American names for full Moons are rooted in their knowledge of the natural world and their observed changes to this world from month to month. August’s Moon gets its name from the lake sturgeon, the largest freshwater fish in North America. In late summer, and particularly in August, these fish were quite abundant and easy to catch. They were an important food source for many Native American tribes who lived in what are now the St. Lawrence, Hudson Bay, Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Coosa River watersheds. The importance of this fish made it the perfect inspiration for the name of the August Moon. Today, many people are not familiar with the lake sturgeon. The origins of these fish trace back to around 136 million years ago. Their long history and the fact that they look prehistoric have led many to refer to them as living fossils. These once abundant fish that were so important to so many Native American tribes are now quite rare due to overfishing in the 1800’s, pollution and damage to their habitat. Although Sturgeon Moon is the most common name for August’s full Moon there are so many others. There are names associated with plants and harvesting such as the Lakota name Moon of the Ripening. The southern plains Ponca tribe call this the Corn is in the Silk Moon, and the Assiniboine people call it the Black Cherries Moon. There are August Moon names associated with animals. For instance, the Arapaho call this Geese Shedding Their Feathers Moon and the Cree call it the Young Ducks Begin to Fly Moon. Summer heat and drought conditions have given rise to names such as the Catawba name Dry Moon and the Shoshone name Hot Moon. The Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest call it the Mountain Shadows Moon. Although we couldn’t witness the total solar eclipse on August 12 the August full Moon will treat us to a deep partial lunar eclipse beginning late on Thursday, August 27, and ending early in the Morning on Friday, August 28. A lunar eclipse always occurs about two weeks before or after a solar eclipse. A partial lunar eclipse happens when the Earth moves between the Sun and the Moon but the three don’t form a straight line in space. When this happens part of the Moon’s surface is covered by the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow, the umbra, and the rest is covered by the lighter outer part of the Earth’s shadow, the penumbra. During this eclipse Earth’s umbra will cover about 96% of the Moon at maximum eclipse which is why it’s called a “deep” partial eclipse. This part of the Moon may glow coppery orange or red in color, very much like a blood Moon. This leaves only a sliver of the Moon covered by the penumbra shining a bright silvery color. The penumbral eclipse begins at 9:30PM, August 27, when the Moon begins moving into Earth’s penumbra shadow. The umbral part of the eclipse begins at 10:30PM as the Moon moves into Earth’s umbra shadow and begins turning red. At 12:12AM, August 28, the maximum umbral part of the eclipse is reached. At 1:51AM the umbral part of the eclipse ends and at 3:01AM the penumbral part of the eclipse ends. In total the eclipse lasts 5 hours and 38 minutes. If you have the opportunity, take time to enjoy the full Sturgeon Moon and the partial lunar eclipse.

Happy #WildlifeWednesday! Behold the beauty of the Indigo Bunting! This stunning sky-blue bird can be regularly spotted at TWC during the summer months, the males glowing like sapphires with their vibrant plumage. They are members of the Cardinalidae family, which includes cardinals, grosbeaks, and buntings. Preferred habitat includes brushy and weedy forest edges, open deciduous woods, creeksides, and farmland. At TWC Headquarters they can be spotted in the woods along the trails as well as taking dust baths out in the open on the rural roads. A slow drive down Alabama Avenue and Foxfield Street can often treat visitors to an Indigo Bunting sighting. When they aren’t foraging in low grasses and brushes or bathing, they like to find the highest perches in the area from which to sing all summer long. One of their nicknames is “blue canaries.” These small songbirds feed on seeds, insects, spiders, flower buds, and berries. They can also be attracted to backyard feeders with thistle and nyjer. Indigo Buntings are nocturnal migrants, using the stars to navigate. Scientists studied this behavior using captive buntings in a planetarium in the 1960s, determining that the birds possess an “internal clock” that allows them to adjust their angle of orientation to a star, even as the star moves through the sky. The fall migration south of these brilliant birds occurs September through October, so they will be leaving our area in the near future. Be sure to visit TWC soon to enjoy the beauty of the Indigo Bunting!

Happy #WildlifeWednesday! We are celebrating today with some interesting facts about the Virginia opossum! The Virginia opossum is the only species of opossum found in Ohio and is also the northernmost marsupial (animal that carries its young in a pouch) in the world! It is an omnivore and has 50 teeth, more than any other North American land mammal, and is able to eat a wide variety of food such as fruits, vegetables, eggs, carrion, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, and other mammals. Most young are born in the spring, between March and June. Newborns are the size of a honeybee and they climb into the mother’s pouch, where they will stay for about 2 and half months to grow and develop. They will then stay with their mother and siblings for another several months, riding around on their mother’s back while they learn survival skills. Opossums rarely contract rabies. Their body temperature is lower than that of other mammals and cannot host the virus. They also have a natural immunity to snake venom. One of its defense mechanisms is feigning death, or “playing possum.” This fear response to a predator or other threat is involuntary. The unconscious opossum will lay motionless and secrete a vile smelling fluid, deterring animals that eat live prey and convincing them it is dead or diseased or otherwise unappetizing. Compared to other mammals, the Virginia opossum has a notably short lifespan. The maximum life expectancy in the wild is only 2 years, and most survive only half that long. Even in captivity with veterinary care and a safe environment an opossum is not expected to live past the age of 4. Opossums are excellent climbers, using the opposable thumbs on their hind legs and their hairless prehensile tail to aid with gripping branches and objects.

The shooting stars of August, the Perseid meteor shower, are the brightest and most popular meteors of the year. And the best part is you don’t need any special equipment to see them - just your eyes. The Perseid meteor shower occurs when the Earth passes through the debris stream left behind by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, a periodic comet which returns to the inner Solar System every 133 years. You may have already seen one of these shooting stars and not realized it! We start seeing a few of these meteors around Mid-July. We see a few more every night until the peak or maximum is reached. This year the maximum will occur on the morning of Wednesday, August 12, and maybe into the morning of Thursday, August 13. Perseid meteors tend to increase in number as the night goes on. The shower is often best just before dawn. Fortunately, the Perseids occur during new Moon this year giving us perfect sky conditions for observing the meteors. Perseids will be visible each night through late August after which Earth is clear of the comet debris field. Just know that the number of Perseids streaking through the night sky tend to fall off rapidly after their peak. Darkness and patience are the keys to seeing shooting stars. Find a dark place with as little light pollution as possible – the darker the better. In truly dark skies having absolutely no light pollution people might see upwards of 90 meteors per hour on a moonless night. We won’t see that many in Ohio, maybe 20 to 40 per hour. The darker your observing spot the more you will see. Meteor showers seem to fly away or radiate from a common point in the sky called a radiant. The Perseid meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus giving them their name. The best way to observe the Perseids is to sit or lay with your back or the top of your head towards the northeast, the direction of Perseus at 11:00PM. This allows you to observe as much sky as possible directly above you. This shower is known to produce rich, bright streaks and more fireballs than any other annual meteor shower. Dress for the weather, bring a comfortable chair or blanket and your choice beverage. Happy meteor watching!

Owls are fascinating creatures- silent phantoms of the night capturing our imagination like no other bird can. There are roughly 250 different species of owls around the world. They are found on every continent except Antarctica. All owls are members of the bird group called Strigiformes. They are further divided into two families – barn owls (family Tytonidae) and true owls (family Strigidae). The main difference between these families is true owls have round faces and barn owls have heart shaped faces. Around 230 owl species are classified as true owls and the remainder are classified as barn owls. Most owls, about 70%, are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night. The remaining 30% are either diurnal, active during the day, or crepuscular, active during twilight. Bringing this closer to home, 19 owl species are found in North America and 8 of these can be found in Ohio. Ohio’s owls include seven true owl species and one barn owl species. The true owl species are the barred owl, eastern screech owl, great horned owl, long-eared owl, northern saw-whet owl, short-eared owl and snowy owl. Ohio’s only barn owl species is the American barn owl. Ohio’s owls are a diverse group. Four of these, the American barn owl, barred owl, eastern screech owl, and great horned owl are year-round residents. The short-eared owl and the northern saw-whet owl visit as they migrate through Ohio to warmer climates. And the snowy owl and long-eared owl spend their winters here, though both are considered rare to see in Ohio. They also vary in size ranging from Ohio’s largest resident owl, the great horned owl, standing as tall as 25 inches and weighing in at up to 5 pounds to our smallest owl the northern saw-whet owl being about the size of an American robin. Six of Ohio’s owls are nocturnal. The other two – the snowy owl is diurnal, and the short-eared owl is crepuscular. Being nocturnal is an evolutionary adaptation that gives these owls the edge they need to live and thrive. Most of their prey animals are active at night and by hunting at night, they are not competing with eagles and hawks. Darkness allows the owls to be stealthier, making their odds of a successful hunt much higher. Nocturnal owls have evolved several physical adaptations that make them well suited for the night. About one-third of nocturnal owl species have asymmetrically placed ear openings – meaning their ears are placed at different heights and angles on each side of their head. This gives the owl a three-dimensional location of its prey by detecting tiny differences in time, loudness and height. They can accurately pinpoint prey in complete darkness, under snow, or under forest floor plant litter. The great horned owl can hear sounds 10 miles away. Owls also have excellent night vision – their large eyes are built for seeing in the dark. As an example, a barn owl’s retina is 93% rods and 7% cones. Rods work in low light levels allowing the eye to see only in shades of gray, called scotopic vision. Not as necessary for nocturnal owls, cones work in bright light allowing the eye to perceive color. Owls also have specialized feathers that allow them to fly without making a sound. As predators, owls sit at the top of the food chain. They provide a valuable service to the ecosystem as natural pest controllers with the larger owls eating a variety of rodents and the smaller owls eating bugs and beetles that can damage crops and gardens. They provide ecosystem balance by keeping prey populations under control and healthy and they serve as indicators of ecosystem health. If owl numbers drop it means the ecosystem has become unbalanced and that pollution or habitat loss is affecting the area. Light affects habitats where owls live. It affects their hunting, their nesting, and every aspect of their lives. Let’s turn off all unnecessary lights to help these birds thrive at night and continue to play their part in the ecosystem.