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The stars make me happy
Mar. 4th, 2013 09:13 pmPeople wonder why I wait until dark to go on my walk, especially since I had plenty of time for one around 6 when it was still light. There’s the lovely way the houses look in the forested hills, with their big glass windows full of golden light, but mostly it’s the stars.
Tonight I counted – it looks like I know only 10 of the currently visible constellations, and I knew all but three of them when I was 10 or 11: Orion, Canis Major, Auriga, Taurus, the Pleiades, Cassiopeia, the Big Dipper, and the ones I learned more recently, Gemini, Canis Minor, and that “C” shape in the east is the mane of Leo. The stars... that’s trickier. Sirius is obvious, the brightest thing in the sky, except for Jupiter’s flagrant brilliance. Procyon (“before the Dog”?) is the one that rises about where Sirius does, but first. I’m pretty sure that Betelgeuse is the bright reddish star in the upper left of Orion, with Rigel the lower right bluish one, but it could be the other way around. Is Capella the brightest star in Auriga? And is Castor the brightest in Gemini? And which in the Big Dipper is Polaris, the one at the furthest side of the cup?
Okay, I just went in the other room and retrieved my mom’s 1944 cardboard “Handy Star Finder” to figure these things out. Yes to Capella; Pollux is brighter than Castor; Polaris is not in the Big Dipper at all, but the far side of the cup points towards it, in Ursa Minor. And I’m going to check the Internet to get the names of the three in Orion’s Belt, since I know one is Mintaka but no clue which... here we go: Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka. As in “Melody of Mintaka” in the second Cluster novel, Chaining the Lady. Enough for now.
Tonight I counted – it looks like I know only 10 of the currently visible constellations, and I knew all but three of them when I was 10 or 11: Orion, Canis Major, Auriga, Taurus, the Pleiades, Cassiopeia, the Big Dipper, and the ones I learned more recently, Gemini, Canis Minor, and that “C” shape in the east is the mane of Leo. The stars... that’s trickier. Sirius is obvious, the brightest thing in the sky, except for Jupiter’s flagrant brilliance. Procyon (“before the Dog”?) is the one that rises about where Sirius does, but first. I’m pretty sure that Betelgeuse is the bright reddish star in the upper left of Orion, with Rigel the lower right bluish one, but it could be the other way around. Is Capella the brightest star in Auriga? And is Castor the brightest in Gemini? And which in the Big Dipper is Polaris, the one at the furthest side of the cup?
Okay, I just went in the other room and retrieved my mom’s 1944 cardboard “Handy Star Finder” to figure these things out. Yes to Capella; Pollux is brighter than Castor; Polaris is not in the Big Dipper at all, but the far side of the cup points towards it, in Ursa Minor. And I’m going to check the Internet to get the names of the three in Orion’s Belt, since I know one is Mintaka but no clue which... here we go: Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka. As in “Melody of Mintaka” in the second Cluster novel, Chaining the Lady. Enough for now.