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

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.)

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.