You will be called upon to help a friend in trouble.
It isn’t easy, this star business, and it’s terrifically hard to learn the night sky in any season, unless you have someone with you who knows it well already, and can tell the tales that make the forgetting impossible. Well, January’s a good month to get started. Around 8 p.m. Local time, there are constellations visible even in city-lit night skies that are easy to spot, packed up with the tales that should appeal to the kid in all of us.
Start by facing South, and looking to the West...
That great diamond or square-shaped group of stars setting on its side on the western horizon is Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek legend, created by Neptune from sea foam and blood from the snake-filled head of his mother, Medusa, when Perseus slew her.
Pegasus went on to become the favorite conveyance of a mere mortal named Bellerophon, and the two went on to various incredible deeds including the conquest of the dreaded Chimera, a really unique creature made of body parts from lions, serpents and goats. (See? This stuff is even better than Miami Vice, and just as complicated.) Eventually, Bellerophon got a little fat-headed, and when he demanded that Pegasus take him to Olympus to live as he thought he deserved, among the gods you see, the smart steed threw him – back to Earth, that is, where he wandered alone the rest of his days. Pegasus’ next job was thunderbolt carrier for Zeus, and this part of the story always bothered me. How does a great and powerful steed go from hero to pack horse?
January’s Full Moon is called the Long Night Moon, being the Full Moon nearest the Winter Solstice. It is also sometimes known as the Moon After Yule, or the Wolf Moon, probably after the Anglo-Saxon name for the month: Wulfmonath. The latter is an allusion to the hunger of the wolves this time of year, which made them bold enough to leave the forests and enter villages in search for food.
The most popular of the ancient pagan celebrations was this, the "birthday of the Unconquered Sun". An anniversary painlessly transferred in early Christian times to the birth of Christ, biblical evidence suggests a date to the contrary. Astronomically speaking, it is Midwinter. On December 21st, 2008 at 7:04 AM EST, the Sun will reach its lowest point up off the horizon at local high noon, and from this day on until the June Solstice, it will only climb higher in our sky, bringing warmth and life to the Earth. The Romans celebrated the Solstice on December 25th, and the preceding week was the Saturnalia, a raucous week of merrymaking, social revelling and debauchery. Try as they might, the Medieval Church never did get rid of all of the paganism attached to the holiday.
The Full Moon of November was called in Colonial times the Frosty or Snow Moon. The Hopi Indians knew it as the Initiate Moon, the Algonquin called it the Beaver Moon, and the Lakota Sioux called it the Moon of the Falling Leaves.
On the night of November 16th/17th the Leonid Meteor Shower will peak in the wee hours of the morning. This shower is maddeningly unpredictable.
In 1933, it was described as 'like a child's sparkler held against the sky.' In 1966 it burst forth over the central western states in the greatest meteor display in recorded history. In other years, it has failed to show up at all.
Throughout history, the last night of October was traditionally celebrated as the eve of Winter by the ancient Celts... and the beginning of their New Year. In ancient Ireland a new and sacred fire was kindled on this night, from which all the fires of Ireland would be lit. The Celts believed this date a crack in time, when the dead could revisit the living.
Astronomically, we are midway between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice, the year's quarter days. The Sun is now rising half-way down on the southeastern horizon towards the point at which it will rise in the dead of Winter. It is a cross-quarter day, and one of peculiar significance. This was the ancient pagan Feast of the Dead, when all sorts of things went bump (and sometimes more) in the night.
The full Moon of October is called "The Hunter's Moon". The ancient Greeks identified the Moon with Diana, goddess of the hunt. The Sioux called October's Moon The Dying Grass Moon. In China, it is the tradition to eat 'mooncakes' about the time of this full Moon (or September's, depending on their lunar calendar), to mark the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in 1368. Rebel messages were concealed in these cakes, which were filled with nuts and candied sweets. They say it is this Moon which ties lovers together with invisible threads. Have a mooncake together.
The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (68% of Full)
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