Star Light Reports
May 2008
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“Star light, Star bright...the first star you see at night…" is Sirius the brightest star in the sky. Sirius is the lower left of Orion the Hunter and is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major the Big Dog. Also in the summer, watch for Scorpio the Scorpion in the west—it looks like a very large letter ‘S’. Also to the left of Scorpio, look for the Teapot asterism in the west—it is the constellation Sagittarius—the ‘steam’ coming out of the spout is really a tremendous amount of stars at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. May is named for Maia-- the eldest of the Pleiades, the 7 daughters of Atlas. June is named for the goddess Juno- queen of the gods and the principle goddess of the Roman Pantheon. She is the wife and sister of Jupiter, the king of the gods—that’s right, he married his sister. Quintilius and Sextilius were the original names for July and August in the ancient Roman calendar. Quintil and Sextil are Latin for five and six and named for the 5th and 6th months when March was the first month of the year. Quintilius was renamed in 44B.C. to Julius in honor of Julius Caesar’s birth month. Sextilius was renamed to Augustus in 8 A.D. for the first Roman Emperor—Augustus Caesar. It is wonderful to watch the Moon rise out of Corpus Christi Bay in May, June Quint and Sext. Tuesday May 20th 9:12 p.m. waning gibbous - 99% full Wednesday June 18th 8:51 p.m. Full (exactly at 12:18pm. 5/18/08CDT) Thursday June 19th 9:38 p.m. waning gibbous - 99% full Friday July 18th 8:33 p.m. Full (exactly at 3:00am) Saturday July 19th 9:38 p.m. waning gibbous - 99% full Wednesday August 18th 8:51 p.m. Full (exactly at) Thursday August 19th 9:38 p.m. waning gibbous - 99% full Owen Hopkins for Summer 2008 |
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