THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM

70 Falmouth Street      Portland, Maine 04103

(207) 780-4249      usm.maine.edu/planet

43.6667° N    70.2667° W  Altitude:  10 feet below sea level Founded January 1970

2021-2022: XXXIX

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous amounts of energy merely to be normal."

-Albert Camus

THE DAILY ASTRONOMER

Monday, November 8, 2021

November 2021 Night Sky Calendar Part I

WINTER STARS RETURN

Heavens above, doesn't November pour forth pathos by the metric ton! Those sad, desiccated leaves scattered about the frost-bitten soil serve as perfect metaphorical representations of soul-searing grief, irretrievable loss, and the innumerable rich moments that went by unexperienced while we were imprisoned within the maelstrom of our own ceaseless thoughts. What with the stone grey skies, eldritch forests and the first onset of winter chill, it is little wonder that our reflections engender such poignant anguish.

Then again, although the beginning of autumn's last full month might herald winter's impending arrival, it also reminds us that the seasonal cycles continue with cheerful inexorability. The leaves that once shaded us against July's furious Sun will now slowly dissolve into and eventually deeply enrich the receiving Earth. Their appearance notwithstanding, most of those barren trees have not perished, but, instead, have merely lapsed into a fleeting dormancy in preparation for spring's eventual return. And the Sun, which will soon seem like little more than ornamentation, continues to impart its copious energies onto the planet. It is simply the tilt of our revolving Earth that deprives us of its enveloping warmth. Our bullet-fast world will lean our hemisphere back toward Sol's life-sustaining flames soon enough.

Until then, let's revel in the winter realm of incandescent winter stars sparkling onto crystalline snows and mirror bright lake ice. After all, Orion and his menagerie of attendant animals are now rising in the evening.

Taurus, the fearsome bull who sired the monstrous Minotaur onto the Cretan queen Pasiphe, leads the procession. This v-shaped constellation is the first to ascend above the horizon. As the Sun only departs this zodiac constellation at summer's inceptionTaurus the Bull infiltrates the midnight sky by early autumn and is now in sight after sunset. Taurus also protects the seven sisters from the lusty Orion who has persisted in his pursuit of them for lo these many centuries. These sisters, also known as the Pleiades Star Cluster, rests comfortably on the bull's shoulder.

One finds Orion's two dutiful hunting dogs on the hunter's eastern side. Mythologically, they serve as Orion's faithful companions who assist him in chasing and sometimes killing quarry. They are rarely ever spoken of except in reference to Orionm except they are both mentioned in the Laelaps/Teumessian fox myth. In this story, Laelaps was a hound capable of catching any animal it pursued. Although originally a gift from Zeus to his lover Europa, it was eventually owned by Cephaleus, husband of Procris, third daughter of Athenian king Erechtheus. Cephaleus commanded Laelaps to catch the Teumessian fox, the only animal that could never be caught. The paradox of an uncatchable animal being chased by a hound that could catch anything so exasperated Zeus that he turned them both into stones and cast them into the sky as Canis Major (Laelaps) and Canis Minor (CTeumessian fox.)

Lepus the Hare, a faint constellation, lies below Orion's legs. This constellation represents one of the animals that Orion has slain and is preparing to devour. Its only function is to lie at Orion's feet looking terribly limp and pathetic.

Monoceros, the Unicorn, is well concealed within the dark space just east of Orion's belt. Although the Unicorn is both ancient and one of the best known of all mythological creatures, the constellation representing the unicorn is of more recent vintage. Dutch cartographer Petrus Planicius (1552-1622) crafted this constellation in the early 17th century in a dark region within the winter triangle, a star pattern consisting of Betelgeuse, Sirius and Procyon.

Monoceros: Don't let the graphic deceive you. The stars comprising Monoceros are vanishingly faint.

These animals, along with the Gemini Twins, Auriga the Charioteer and Eridans the River, all surround Orion and so travel with him through the sky.   Although they'll all ascend into prominence this winter, they are now finally appearing in the eastern evening sky and so are all this month's featured constellations.

Tomorrow, we begin the itemized calendar listing.  

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