Folks of a certain age are familiar with the phrase “Dog Days of Summer.” Growing up, I thought it meant because the dogs were always panting and looking for shade and it was also a prime time for rabies outbreaks among dogs. Since I have become familiar with astronomy I have learned that the ancient Egyptians thought it was hotter during the summer because the winter star Sirius is in the sky during the day, which meant two suns in the sky at the same time. Sirius is popularly called the Dog Star these days since it is part of the winter night constellation Canis Major.
The ancient cultures had such an incredible understanding of the math of the solar system — and no computers to assist them. Keep that in mind when you are sitting in your upcoming geometry, trig, calculus, algebra… class wondering what use it is. Everything we enjoy from art to music is based on math; computers and musical instruments, the very tones the instruments make, not to mention the various space programs making those amazing trips into outer space, all are made possible because we understand math. Since this is the case, make sure you pay attention because you may decide you want to work at something that will need that math.
This week when you walk around your neighborhood take a look towards the south about nine o’clock. You will still be able to see the Scorpion, still reigning supreme across the void. Facing east will present the Baseball Diamond/Pegasus, rising into the night. Imagining the sky as a large pie divided into four slices may help you locate the objects to which I refer. You might even imagine your favorite baseball team, either kids or pros, are on the starry sky playing on the diamond of Pegasus. You haven’t seen that? Home plate, all the bases, infield, outfield, catcher, they are all there. And for those Title IX folks, the first baseman is a girl AND a Princess, Andromeda.
Pegasus is a window to edge of the galaxy. When you look into the window with just your eyes, few stars are visible. Pick up a pair of binoculars and you will see hundreds of stars; add a telescope, then take a look into the window. Hundreds of thousands of stars will be revealed. If you are keeping a list of what you see then you could possibly include NGC 7772.
NGC means Near Galaxy Cluster which means lots of stars, comparable to the entire Milky Way Galaxy of stars. Other NGC objects include 7814, an edge-on spiral galaxy and 7741, classified as a barred spiral galaxy. If you input these objects into an online search engine you will see how beautiful they are.
The northern portion of the sky pie slices includes the Big Dipper asterism in the lower northwest, the Little Dipper in the lower center region, with the trapezoid of Draco the Dragon wrapped between those two and King Cepheus to the right in the northeast part of the wedge.
Queen Cassiopeia will be lower than Cepheus and slightly more eastward. She looks like a W resting on the left bar of the W. If you locate these northern dot-to-dot pictures, figments of the ancient cultures’ imaginations, then keep checking on them during the next few hours or months and notice how they seem to rotate about Polaris, the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper. These constellations are called circumpolar because of their motion.
Until next week, Do let some stars get in your eyes.
