THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
207-780-4249      www.usm.maine.edu/planet
70 Falmouth Street     Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N                   70.2667° W
Founded January 1970
Julian date:  2457763.16



*THE DAILY ASTRONOMERWednesday, January 11,2017*

*Job's Coffin*

is the rather strange name sometimes applied to one of the sky's most
beguiling asterisms.  Located within Delphinus the Dolphin, this four star
rhombus comprises most of the Dolphin's body.   As this prominent
summer constellation
will soon set into the evening twilight, we wanted to take this opportunity
to admire this jewel box star pattern.

Delphinus is associated with the heroic dolphin who rescued the young
musician Arion from his pirate captors.    These pirates had abducted Arion
and stolen the gold he won in a recent competition.   Realizing that the
boy would incriminate them. the pirates resolved to kill him and toss his
body overboard.  When Arion found himself against the ship's port side and
semi-encircled by the pirates, he knew that he was doomed.   He humbly
requested one last opportunity to perform on his lute before dying.  The
pirates, all of whom were secretly fond of his music, consented.  They gave
him the instrument which he played with unsurpassed beauty.  His harmonies
moved the pirates, but did not induce them to be merciful.  However, the
music summoned a pod* of dolphins, which gathered at the ship's edge.    At
the moment when the music ended and the pirates approached him, Arion
tossed himself overboard.   Delphinus, the fastest dolphin, carried him
swiftly to safety, back to the Corinthian king -and his patron- Perimander.
Arion recounted his ordeal to Perimander, who promptly executed the pirates
when they returned to the port.       Apollo, the God of music, was said to
have elevated Delphinus into the sky as a tribute to him for his heroism.


*​Job's Coffin:  **an asterism within Delphinus the Dolphin, a
constellation that is *
*well over in the western sky just after dark.  *

We can see Delphinus low in the western evening sky tonight.  Poised just
outside the Summer Triangle, Delphinus appears to have just emerged from
the Milky Way's star streams.   It is the westernmost of the "ocean"
constellations, which includes Aquarius the Water Bearer, Pisces the Fish,
Cetus the Whale and Pisces Austrinus.
Nobody is quite sure why the main part of Delphinus is called "Job's
Coffin." The asterism's origin was unrecorded.     Perhaps this name
derived from the time when the Christian authorities attempted
unsuccessfully to transform the constellations into Biblical characters.
Job's Coffin is one of the few transfigurations that remained after they
abandoned this effort.
Though summer is still 160 days away, the summer constellation Delphinus
the Dolphin (and its main asterism "Job's Coffin,") are observable in the
western sky for about an hour after dark.  Soon, the dolphin will dive into
the twilight, destined to adorn our summer evening sky later this year.



*Collective nouns are amongst the most delightfully unnecessary constructs
within the English language.   They vary so widely than unless somebody has
an extra 200 terabytes of memory crammed into their  hippocampus, nobody
can memorize them all.   However, contemplating the creative terms of
venery, some of which are medieval in origin, will engender a cheerfulness
even on dreary days when the cocoa runs out.   Examples includes, a murder
of crows, a parliament of owls, an intrusion of cockroaches,  a fluther of
jellyfish (which my spell checker didn't like one bit),  an exaltation of
larks, a congregation of alligators,  a mischief of mice, a pandemonium of
parrots, a pod of dolphins, and, yes, a barrel of monkeys.