November Ends

At the rock in the meadow above my home, the Poke berries have lost their purple sheen that delighted my eye. They are dried and wrinkled like raisins. The yellow flowers of goldenrod have faded to brown. Little balls of fuzz cover the branches, each holding dozens of seeds. Like miniature dandelions they long to hitch a ride on the wind, settle down where they will grow into new plants.

The Maples and Dogwood along the road have dropped their red leaves, just as Sweet Gum, Tulip Tree, and others have dropped their gold. Only blackberry vines grace the land with a tinge of red.

Thanksgiving night, the sky was clear. Orion pursued Taurus the bull. The three stars of his belt pointed upward toward Aldebaran, fiery red eye of the bull, and downward toward Sirius, the dog star. Pleiades preceded them all. The air felt like ice, a small price for such beauty.

 

This night

November 27, 2013, 9:00 PM

Ray Zimmerman

Cassiopeia, the queen, shines with vigor, high in the northern sky. She is almost opposite the Big Dipper, a pattern within the Great Bear (Ursa Major) which has retreated toward the Horizon. Some people once said the bear was retreating to her den for the winter, followed by her cub. Others said that she was the nymph Callisto, and the cub was her son, Arctus, fathered by Zeus. Zeus turned them into bears and put them in the sky to protect them from the wrath of his wife Hera.

Tonight the haze obscures Dipper, Bear, and Cub. Even the North Star, which marks the tail tip of the Little Bear is behind the clouds. My neighborhood is dark, with only a few lights from the houses, but the city below is brightly lit. Despite these lights, I faintly see the Pleiades, the seven sisters rising high above Aldebaran, the red star in Taurus the Bull. Orion and his hounds are obscured by haze and city lights. On a clear night, the Great Dog, Canis Major, is clearly visible from here. Its bright star, Sirius, outshines all others, brightest star in the sky. Sirius itself is dimmer than only a few other celestial objects, the sun, the moon, and the planet Venus outshine it, and perhaps a few of the other planets.

A newly sighted comet approaches the sun right now. If it survives to make the outward journey, it will light up our winter skies. Even with the haze, and with the hoped for comet yet to appear, the grandeur of tonight’s sky is well worth braving the 28 degrees registered on my outdoor thermometer.

Cassiopeia http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations/cassiopeia

Ursa Major  http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Ursa_Major.html

Ursa Minor and the Little Bear http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/UrsaMinor.html

Callisto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callisto_(mythology)

Pleiades (images) https://www.google.com/search?q=pleiades&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=XayWUovFBtK_kQeJhIC4BQ&sqi=2&ved=0CDsQsAQ&biw=806&bih=468

Aldebaran http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/aldebaran-is-taurus-bloodshot-eye

Canis Majorhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8CgDGhYKe8&noredirect=1