THE USM SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
207-780-4249     www.usm.maine.edu/planet
70 Falmouth Street     Portland, Maine  04103
43.6667° N                   70.2667° W
Altitude:   10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian date:  2458640.5
                  "Reel men are projectionists."

THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Thursday, June 6, 2019
The Smiling Constellation

[image: corona-borealis-fred-espenak-sq.jpg]

Yes, if one observes the night sky closely, one can actually see a "smile"
in the stars.  This upward stellar arc is more properly known as "Corona
Borealis," or the Northern Crown.   One can see it this evening rising in
the eastern sky.       It is the "smile" separating the Hercules Keystone
and Bootes the Sheepherder.   (We tell school children that Bootes is the
high calorie ice cream cone and Corona Borealis is the smile of the child
who is preparing to devour it.)

[image: hercules-corona-borealis-bootes.png]

Mythologically, Corona Borealis is the crown given to Ariadne by Dionysius,
god of wine and merriment.   Dionysius spied Ariadne as she wept miserably
on the island of Naxos.   The poor girl had been abandoned by the caddish
Theseus, who had promised to marry her in exchange for helping him escape
the Labyrinth in which he and thirteen other Athenian youth were to be
imprisoned, along with the flesh craving Minotaur.     Ariadne told him the
secret:  tie a skien of thread to the entrance and draw it out while
walking through the maze so that it could be followed back toward the
opening.    After slaying the Minotaur, Theseus, Ariadne and the other
Athenians sailed away from Crete en route to Athens.  On the first night,
they stopped at Naxos.   Ariadne awoke the next morning in time to see the
ship sail vanishing over the horizon.     Although she was distraught by
this abandonment, Ariadne was soon consoled by and eventually fell in love
with Dionysius.  Unlike most gods who tended to use mortals as pretty play
things, Dionysius was genuinely devoted to Ariadne.  He gave her this crown
as a token of his eternal love: a crown he set in stars when his beloved
perished.    Among the stars this crown still remains.

Corona Borealis is also known as a "lynchpin" or "bridge" constellation,
meaning that it connects seasonal skies.   Corona Borealis is the lynchpin
constellation bridging the spring and summer night skies.  Delphinus the
Dolphin is the lynchpin constellation connecting the summer and autumn
sky.  Perseus connects the autumn to winter sky and Aquarius is the
lynchpin between the winter and spring sky.           Even though we're
still 336 hours shy of summer, the constellation connecting us to the
summer night sky is ascending high in the east.