Much to Be Gleaned From the Night Skies Heading into Winter
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Scott Levine
As the dog marched ahead, and the sun fell behind the hills across the river a night or two ago, I noticed for the first time that there were more leaves on the ground than on the trees.
The silhouettes against the sky looked like desperate veins, not welcoming branches. Suddenly, with another tug at the leash, the world looked like winter again.
As we leap into the holiday season, our night sky gradually turns toward a part of our galaxy that happens to be rich with bright stars and other interesting objects. Last month, we welcomed the Pleiades cluster to the night. Now, a month later, let’s visit with another old friend.
The constellation Orion is one of the most instantly recognizable patterns in our night skies. In the traditions of the west, we see it as a heroic hunter, protecting the world and saving the Pleiades – the seven mythological sisters – from the attacks of Taurus, the bull, which is the next constellation to Orion’s west, as the waters of the river Eridanus splash at his feet.
These stars appear over and over in many of the world’s traditions, often as a powerful person of some kind – a giant, archer or hunter. Other cultures see this pattern as a deer or other animals. Often, the stories focus on the three stars that make up the asterism that we see as his belt.
That word, asterism, is one of the most exciting in all of casual astronomy. The more common word constellation, describes the 88 regions of the sky that the International Astronomical Union defined decades ago. They’re specific, and unflinching, like borders on a map.
Asterism, though, is truly what sets us free. An asterism is any group of stars that you recognize when you look up. The three stars of Orion’s belt are an asterism within its much bigger, more familiar asterism.
Some cultures even bring in stars from other parts of the sky and view all of those patterns together. The Summer Triangle, which we talked about a couple months ago, collects stars from three constellations. The Winter Hexagon, which we’ll talk about next month, touches six!
With this one word, and clear view of the night, we can visit with people from millennia ago. We can imagine what they saw and learn what different, ancient cultures saw as important. We can let our mind go anywhere it wants. We can lie on our back and play dot-to-dot with the stars, just like we used to, as fireflies flicker in our mind’s eye, imagining the smell of s’mores wafting through our nose.
When I look at the sky on these late fall nights, it’s not a hunter that I see rising in the east, but a galactic crab or an overgrown celestial insect of some kind, climbing the night. The stars at Orion’s shoulders, head, sword and feet look like legs extending out from the three stars at the top of its carapace. What do you see?
These weeks can be busy and stressful, but let’s take a few minutes to head outside, catch our breath and see what we can draw across the sky.
Happy holidays, no matter what you’re celebrating, and clear skies!
Scott Levine (astroscott@yahoo.com) is an astronomy writer and speaker from Croton-on-Hudson. He is also a member of Westchester Amateur Astronomers, a group dedicated to astronomy outreach in our area. For information about the club including membership, newsletters, upcoming meetings and lectures at Pace University and star parties at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, visit www.westchesterastronomers.org.
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