Sun rises at 5:37am
Sun sets at 6:40pm
Lunar phase: 2nd quarter waxing gibbous
Moon rises at 12:53am, Saturday
Moon sets at 11:47am, Saturday
This weekend, the starry sky is on display beneath a moon that will glow round but not yet full. Absent in the evening, the brightness of the moon may diminish some of the lesser stars from the early morning hours, but plenty of brilliant magnitude one stars plus the planets will be visible and worth studying.
Let’s use the evening hours to try to find three bright stars in our southern sky: Arcturus, Antares and Spica. Gazing south, raise your sight to a high aspect around 8:30 to 9:30pm. Your two brightest stars are Arcturus, on the left or eastern side, and Spica a bit lower and to the right (western) side. Looking low near the horizon, more or less straight below Arcturus, you should see Antares.
Arcturus marks the knee of the constellation Bootes, one of the many warriors imagined by our ancestors to adorn the night sky. Antares is the tail of the scorpion in the constellation Scorpius. Spica is the blade of wheat held by the Maiden’s hand in the constellation Virgo.
The star Spica is often associated with springtime and summer nights. That’s because Spica first lights up the early evening sky in late March or early April. Spica then disappears from the evening sky around the September equinox. This holds true for the entire Northern Hemisphere.
The legend behind the constellation Virgo is worth retelling, though long and somewhat sorted. It offers a mythological explanation for winter’s cold. It starts with Hades, the god of the underworld, who is said to have abducted the maiden Persephone, aka Virgo, goddess of the harvest, and took her away to his underground lair.
Persephone’s father, Demeter, was overcome with grief, which resulted in the abandonment of insuring fruitfulness and fertility. The legend explains that winter cold came and turned the once-green land to a frigid waste. Other tellings say that the summer heat scorched the Earth and gave rise to pestilence and disease.
According to the myth, Earth would not bear fruit again until Demeter was reunited with her daughter. Enter Zeus, king of the gods, who stepped up and insisted that Persephone be returned to her family. Zeus strangely instructed Persephone not to eat until she was reunited with her mother. Sneaky Hades purposely gave Persephone a pomegranate to take along, knowing she would eat it on the way home, which she did. Because of Persephone’s slip-up, Persephone has to return to the underworld for a number of months each year. When she does so, Demeter grieves, and winter reigns.
Virgo, the Maiden, is thus associated with the harvest and fertility. The star’s name Spica comes from the Latin word spicum, meaning a blade of wheat which Virgo holds in her left hand.
Each evening, if you watch at the same time, you’ll see Spica slowly shift westward, toward the sunset direction. Eventually, Spica will get so close to the sunset that it’ll fade into the glare of evening twilight. Once Spica disappears from the evening sky, we at northerly latitudes must harvest our crops and put away firewood, because the cold winter season is on its way.
Thank you for keeping up with the Night Sky articles designed for St. Maarten viewing. If you are out later on in the week, each star rises about four minutes earlier each day than written here, and the moon rises 50 minutes later. Night Sky is researched and compiled by Lisa Davis-Burnett. Earthsky.org is a key resource for information and images. Questions or comments? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
