• Euclid spacecraft launches into deep space
• Announcing our new Explorer-in-Residence
• Our biweekly wildlife roundup
• The moon as you've never seen it
• An epic journey with Maple Leaf Adventures
• Cunard: Luxury at sea

Humans have watched over starshine for thousands of years. Constellations danced in prehistoric cave art from 40,000 years ago. The stars of the Pleiades glowed in the Nebra Sky Disc, an incredible dinner plate-sized stellar map made in the Stone Age. And Egyptians aligned their pyramids north with the belief that pharaohs became stars in the northern sky after they had died. Then, ancient Alexandrian scientists like Euclid and Ptolemy used math to chart the path of the stars. 

We have come a long way since then but still have far to go.

On July 1, a new European spacecraft named Euclid was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with Canada helping to charter the new lights in the dark. Like an ancient sea voyager, the Euclid spacecraft will journey to a faraway location, roughly 1.5 million kilometres away from us on the opposite side of the sun.

From an early age, Mario Rigby was taught that sustainability was an important practice. In the small German village of approximately 3,000 where Rigby grew up, each child was given the chance to select a toy from a box of used toys. These toys were passed down from child to child. The children would take care of the toy they had chosen so that, when they were finished with it, it could go back into the box to be passed along. Being raised with this circular, sustainable way of using products has inspired Rigby to share his message of sustainability far and wide.

“My message is to explore the world in ways that encourage you to become even more curious and explore even more but also to do it in a sustainable way,” says Rigby. “To me, to be an Explorer-in-Residence is essentially becoming the face of an organization that prides itself on exploration, research and discovery. There are so many possibilities with this opportunity, and I am excited to try out any one of them.”

Plus: "Poptart" the humpback whale spotted with newborn calf, world-record poison ivy found in Ontario, wing spots give monarch butterflies migration boost, and the ups-and-downs of mountain chickadee breeding

By Thomas Lundy and Luke Faulks

The Vancouver Island marmot, a species found only on Vancouver Island and Canada’s most endangered mammal, just received a boost in their numbers thanks to the birth of 14 pups.

The pups were the first born at Calgary-based Wilder Institute’s new conservation breeding and research facility, the Archibald Biodiversity Centre. The Wilder Institute transfers marmot pups born in Alberta over to the Marmot Recovery Foundation in British Columbia, who then release them into the wild — a big boost with less than 400 currently left in the wild — or in some cases retain them in their breeding programmes to maintain genetic diversity. In July, a decision will be made on the fate of the 14 pups. 

The baby boom follows the opening of the new Archibald Biodiversity Centre this year, described as a “marmot dream home.” New features available to the marmots include soundproof walls to allow undisturbed sleep, separated walls to prevent quarrels, and an extended underground dig-out curtain in the outdoor habitat that allowed them to perform natural behaviours such as digging underground burrows. This means that the marmots may choose to give birth underground rather than in the more human-accessible nest boxes — a consequence of which is that more surprise pups could be on their way.

Mapping the moon is surprisingly difficult. It has mountains, suspected caves and vast lava-painted terrains. Unlike Earth, cartographers are working with only a few satellites and surface missions worth of data. Yet this map released by the United States Geological Survey presents the entire surface in stunning 1:5,000,000 scale — a view of the moon’s complex geology never before seen as a comprehensive global map.

The southern polar view of this map will guide future moon explorers, including Canadians. Earlier this year, the Canadian Space Agency announced Canada will send an astronaut to orbit the moon as part of the Artemis II mission, scheduled to happen no earlier than November 2024. That astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, will surely bring to bear his past geology field training at craters in the High Arctic with Gordon Osinski from Western University in London, Ont., during his flyby.

Artemis II — flying three NASA astronauts and Hansen — will inform future landing missions, starting with Artemis III on the far side of the moon’s southern pole no earlier than 2025. All of these explorers will need good maps to do their work, which is where this kaleidoscopic example comes in.

Veiled from most travellers by a mountainous spine, north-western Vancouver Island is still remote and wild—a juxtaposition to the Island’s populated cities and tourist resorts.
 
We invite you for a rare journey aboard the luxury expedition vessel, Cascadia, to a special place few ever visit. Guided by expert locals from the northernmost tip of the Island down to Brooks Peninsula (a glacial refugium), you’ll travel shifting topography observing white sand beaches unrolling between forest and sea to become jagged coastline home to colonies of puffins.

This expedition of epic scales takes place in the traditional territories of Kwakwaka’wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth peoples. We’ll explore Indigenous culture and history with friends from the village of Kyuquot, who share food and traditions with us.
 
Our Vancouver Island Wild Side expedition runs this July 16-22, 2023 (7 days) starting at $8,250 before taxes, based on cabin category. You can also book for July 21-27, 2024 (7 days) starting at $8,670 before taxes, based on cabin category. Including special extras, guests are accompanied by RCGS Ambassador Brian Hodgson, writer, explorer and former intelligence officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)

Check out these other upcoming trips:

- Consummate Explorer Package with Ocean Quest
- Patagonia Birds and Wildlife with Kim Gray
- New Brunswick and Grand Manan with Marlis Butcher