Stars and Daffodils

3/16/08 –3/22/08
by C. Zaitz

Just as the snow is melting to reveal the buds in the ground and on the trees, the winter night sky is drifting into the sunset, making way for the spring stars. We can still see the pretty set of constellations that make up the Winter Circle, but as we continue our orbit, the sun will be in front of those constellations in the coming months. Let’s take a last, lingering look at them.

I will miss the mighty Orion who watches over us on our quick trips between warm car and warm house. If you wink at him, he seems to twinkle back with his saucy grin and gleaming sword, his broad shoulders marked by the stars Betelgeuse and Bellatrix. The tilt of his belt leads the eye up to his nemesis, Taurus the Bull, off his western shoulder. Taurus’ bright eye is the star Aldebaran. It has a definite reddish tinge, as if Taurus was pawing the ground with his hoof and staring Orion down with an angry, bloodshot glare.

If we slide our eyes back to Orion’s belt and continue east, we find the bright blue-tinged beacon Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major, “the big dog.” Procyon is a star in the “little dog” Canis Minor above it, and still further above are the Gemini twins, Pollux and Castor. Above and to the west shines the bright star Capella, nestled in the five-sided constellation Auriga, who rides his chariot high over the winter sky carrying kid goats in his arms. Then back down to Aldebaran, “the follower” in Arabic, who seems to be following the ever delightful and lovely “Seven Sisters” or the Pleiades across the sky. It’s a familiar and comforting tableau; a collection of images that I look forward to seeing, even if it is a brief glimpse between destinations.

Springtime brings a changing scene. The sun lingers in the sky longer, so the stars come out later each night. Leo the Lion takes center stage not long after sunset. His stars look like a backward question mark with a little triangle marking his backside. Leo has a visitor this spring, the giant ringed planet Saturn. It will be drifting through the constellation, and its orbit will take it past the brightest star in Leo called Regulus. Regulus is a form of the Latin word Rex, which means king. I can really imagine a regal, burly, golden-maned lion, lying on his belly, paws curled under, watching over us all night long. Leo used to have a bushy tail, but it has long been severed to make a small constellation with the odd name, Coma Berenices. Coma means “hair,” and the tuft, rather than being the end of Leo, became the symbol of the crowning glory of Queen Berenice, wife of Ptolemy III of Egypt. She bobbed her hair so she could offer it to the goddess Aphrodite to ensure the safe return of her husband from battle. Whether it was her husband’s skill or her coiffured offering, he did return safely, and the locks were put in the sky.

The spring equinox is on March 20tht this year, and as it approaches we can simultaneously watch the march of the constellations and the unstoppable budding growth of new life.


Until next week, my friends, enjoy the view.