Fireflies and Constellations

Fireflies in Southold

Surrounding Custer Observatory is a large field owned by the Town of South. In the last few weeks there has been a noticeable burst of activity in the field at dusk! Thousands of Fire Flies are in flight across the field at dusk looking for a mate! I am new to observing Fire Flies although I remember them from childhood. I never gave them the closer look that they deserved after capturing them and putting them in a jar. My only goal at that time was to watch the blinking of their soft light in the dark. 

I recently became aware of a reported decline in our Fire Fly population and a Citizen Science project to keep track of Fire Fly populations across the United States. Seeing a friend, Steve Bellavia, post a photo of this night-time flurry of activity reminded me of the Citizen Science project and thought I should add the Custer location to the map of this project.

On subsequent nights I decided to try my hand at more night-time photography and photograph the soft light of the night-time flight of these fascinating childhood insects. At the same time I decided to catch some and put them in a large jar, something I have not done since I was young, only this time it was in the interest of science! I brought them indoors to photograph them and try to identify the species based on a photo ID page on on the Museum of Science's Firefly Watch website. According to their photos I had caught a Photorus firefly.

These fireflies produce a green light. In the sky is the constellation Scorpius and the straight blinking line in the sky is an airplane.

These fireflies produce a green light. In the sky is the constellation Scorpius and you can see part of the Milky Way on the left side of the image.

These fireflies produce a green light. In the sky is the constellation Scorpius, part of the Milky Way  and the straight blinking line in the sky is an airplane.

These fireflies produce a green light. In the sky is the constellation Scorpius and the straight blinking line in the sky is an airplane.

These fireflies produce a green light. In the sky is the constellation Scorpius and the straight blinking line in the sky is an airplane.

The Custer dome was rotating at the time of this timed exposure, a happy accident, so the dome opening appears larger then it is.