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Founded January 1970
Julian date: 2457763.16
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Wednesday, January 11,2017
Wednesday, 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.
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.