Reconnect with Antiquity Amid the Starry Sky  

“The sad and solemn night

Hath yet her multitude of cheerful fires;

The glorious host of light

Walk the dark hemisphere till she retires;

All through her silent watches, gliding slow,

Her constellations come,

and climb the heavens, and go.” 

                       William Cullen Bryant circa 1860                                                                                                                                                                             

       A moonless week like this one is what turns people on to amateur astronomy by appealing to the genetic, celestial DNA that seems to flow through mankind.

       And if you go out and recognize the mighty Orion the Hunter taking command of the night, you are well on the way to being an amateur astronomer.

       To gaze upon the stars, the Moon and planets is to make a connection with every human being who has looked up at the dazzling night sky and wondered.

       That’s because when it comes to the pattern of stars tossed the sky, no one owns the original.  These are the same stars of Orion—or Taurus or Gemini—that all people who’ve walked the Earth have laid their eyes upon.

Ancient Zodiac Mosaic

       It’s exciting for me to think about not just great astronomers like Galileo and Copernicus looking at these same stars. But people like the Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Jesus and the Egyptian builders of the pyramids, all saw the same stars I do tonight.

       There are 6,000 or so stars seen with the naked eye from both hemispheres of Earth, and their positions have changed very little during the 10,000 years of civilized man.

       To the stargazers over the centuries, these patterns of stars have become friendly acquaintances whose positions give us a sense of time and familiarity with the seasons.

       Monuments like Stonehenge were built to the rhythm of the stellar seasons, while civilizations worshiped the sighting of certain stars which seemed to trigger the time to plant or harvest.  And then there are the mystical events that often terrorized ancient people when the Sun disappeared behind the Moon, and the Moon disappears in the Earth’s shadow—the total solar and lunar eclipses.

       Even though each star in the night is moving through the Universe at speeds around 30,000 mph, the distance between the stars is so vast that it takes millions of years to see any change in the familiar constellations.   

       So, nothing seen tonight in 2014 is any different than what Moses of The Bible saw thousands of years ago. Confucius was inspired by the same stars that the writers of the Psalms when they so beautifully penned the praises to the Creator.

       “The heavens declare the Glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.”  Psalm 19:1

Photo by MarQ

       After years of watching the parade of constellations rise and set, a history of people, places and things become engrained in the subconscious of the avid stargazer. And it is those memories, like seeing distant relatives, which draws me to the stars, no matter what time of year.

       But Winter is always special, as the brightest stars and boldest constellation patterns are on display.  Many of the brightest stars of the night have distinctly Arabic names, kept by the star-mappers over antiquity.

       Orion’s shoulders are Betelgeuse and Bellatrix; his knees are Rigel and Saiph. The three stars of the distinctly angled belt of the giant hunter are, from left to right, Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

The name of each bright star adds to the personality of the night sky. Let your imagination run wild as you realize each star is like a human—a specific size and temperament—each star with its own alien planets and their moons, as well as possible comets, asteroids and other objects yet unknown.

These are also the winter nights to behold the brightest star of all, Sirius, well below Orion and also called the “Dog Star” in the Big Dog, Canis Major. And way above it is Procyon, in the Little Dog, Canis Minor. 

       Above Orion is the “V”-shaped stars making the horns of Taurus the Bull, one of the oldest recognized star patterns going back to forgotten civilizations.  The animal’s eye is reddish Aldebaran, “The Follower.” Just what this star is following is in the Bull’s shoulder, the cluster of Seven Sisters, or The Pleiades, a source of celestial folklore from the Chinese to the Native North Americans. Another fainter star cluster, The Hyades is at the point of the “V,” and they are the half-sisters of The Pleiades in mythology.

       A purely Roman constellation is above Orion and another ancient one.  Founding brothers of Rome, mythical Castor and Pollux head the side by side string of stars making up Gemini the Twins. 

       A Greek man with a strange name of Auriga is the inventor of the chariot.  And he is immortalized by a lopsided wheel shape group of stars. Auriga’s brightest star, Capella, is a yellow one.

       Different cultures in different eras of mankind have arranged the stars and given them names in their native tongues. Whole cultures have put the stars into patterns that immortalize their gods and heroes.  Today, the names of 88 constellations are universally agreed upon, as are the stars names on the modern celestial charts.

       The patterns of the constellations look the way they are only from our perspective in the Solar System. 

       From any planet or object orbiting our Sun, the constellations look the same.  But if we rocketed to the nearest stars, that would change the perspective and alter the familiar dot-to-dot patterns. 

       Connecting those points of light into arbitrary formations have merely served as landmarks to navigate the celestial realm as seen from Earth. Some stars are near, some are far, but seen side-by-side they make up patterns that are given borders by their specific sky coordinates.  

Photo by MarQ

       Modern light pollution has robbed the night of its faintest stars once seen by the naked eye. Few of us can see the Milky Way from our own suburban backyards.  And the number of stars realistically seen from an average neighborhood is maybe half of what it was just 50 years ago.

       When someone gets in the country or mountains on a dark, moonless night and takes the time to look up, their dark adapted eyes can leave them breathless with the splendor of the night.

       The many multitudes of stars that can be seen from a dark observing sight gives the 21^st Century stargazer a hint at what could be seen in the night sky just 200 years ago when there was no electricity.  For thousands of years, the skies were so dark for civilized cultures to ponder.  Modern man can hardly imagine the impact.  The false science of astrology is one lasting influence. 

       Again, unlike the Mona Lisa painting in the Louvre, or the statute of the Pieta at the Vatican, no one owns the original when it comes to the night vault of stars overhead.

       They are there for the asking, ready for you to examine, marvel at or mediate upon. 

       Looking up, like every person who has walked the Earth, gives you some cosmic connection to be enjoyed and cherished.

       And this moonless Winter week is a terrific time to make that connection…something I’ll be enjoying, and hope you will, too.