Dog Days of Summer

I went out this morning, well before sunrise, to look at the heavens. Well up in the East, the Seven Sisters peeked through the Georgia haze. Trees blocked the horizon. Was the Dog Star there? Bet I could see it in South Texas! 

We’re in the midst of Dog Days, approximately mid-July to August 11, the hottest part of the year. When the Dog Star, Sirius, rises just before the sun does. Sirius is the brightest star in the heavens. The ancients thought it was shedding heat on us!  

It’s the big, bright star in the constellation Canis Major, the biggest of the dogs following at the heels of Orion, the Mighty Hunter. Canis Major is one of the ancient constellations (now we call them “Asterisms.”). The Dog Star, orienting us stargazers in the winter sky. 

August is also the last chance for a vacation before the world picks up pace again. For us writers, a brief respite from the computer. I took three friends down to Savannah for a perfect weekend – dining on seafood, riding the tourist trolley among Savannah’s colonial squares, marveling at architecture and formal gardens. No computers, no manuscripts. (But I did gather a character or two ...).

And August is birthday month. My brother, my mother, my grandmother Crossley, my first wife, my son Greg, the Lady D, numerous friends. Passages duly marked and remembered, celebrated. Is the Fat Lady singing? 

How about your August – birthdays or other momentous events, before we begin to shut down the Summer and limp into Autumn (and football, T.G.!)?  Soon it’ll be time to pick up the cudgel again, and swing for the fences. And as they say, "Turn our faces to the West." Till then -- just before sunrise, look for the Dog Star.

Dac

8/28/2008 

Btw – Sirius is circumpolar in Antarctica. It goes around the sky but never sets. So much for the "southern hemisphere Dog Days".

Comments

[breana]

It won't surprise you that I often can't tell the stars from the satellites, except when I notice them moving. We get a good view of both out here, where it's clear and dark and flat. Happy star-gazing, my friend!

[Mike Draney]

"Pick up the cudgel and swing for the fences" that's a great baseballism! And before we get back to America's corporate sport, maybe you could favor us with a posting on what ought to be America's pastime, baseball!

How about the Texas angle of the aptly named Colt 45's turning into the Astros, moving into air-conditioned but sterile Astrodome, which forced them to invent....Astroturf. I'm not sure if baseball players hate the stuff as much as football players (so many more ACL injuries on the gridiron) but I know I hate the stuff, and there's really no substitute for an outdoor daygame, in Texas or anywhere else.

Cheers,

Mike D.

[Sharon]

Oh, such wonders of the heavens to look up for! But 5:30 am is too early for me. I have this wonderful telescope that unfortunately sits in my basement; too many mosquitoes in summer and way too cold in winter. I have but a two week window, in spring and fall to find the perfect night to be outside star gazing, and I always seem to miss it.

However, one of the benefits of being so far north is that I have seen the Aurora Borealis a few times. And I don't need a telescope for that. I haven’t seen it lately. It's probably not as spectacular as it could be; we've only seen it as wavy greenish streaks across the sky.

By the way, I am positive I have seen the Southern Cross from the island of Vieques, just off the coast Puerto Rico. Vieques is just a little more south than the BVI.

salud

[Ed Underwood]

Dac -
Taking time to star-gaze is a great way to put life in perspective. Perhaps you can settle a long-running point of contention. Can you see the Southern Cross from the Virgin Islands? Friends on vacation in BVI were sure they saw it. The islands are 18 degrees north. Let me know. Thanks for the ever-entertaining blog.