
Source: Wikipedia
Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is just starting to appear just over the horizon right before dawn, a few degrees from East. Below Orion it slips back below the rim of the Earth before the sun swallows it up, but in the coming days it will start to rise earlier and earlier, and rising higher and higher. The rise of Sirius marks the time when the Nile rises so it was extremely important to the ancient Egyptians. It was a way to keep track of when planting season began. And it’s thanks to the Romans that we refer to this time of year got its name. Originally they called this period “the days of the dog star”, but that was eventually shortened to “the dog days”. This is when summer is supposed to be the hottest, and the last chance to have fun before school started. According to folklore the dog days are supposed one of the times when ghosts are most active, maybe because, like snakes, they’re cold-blooded. Some folklore also warns this is when the morning dew can poison open wounds, and it was believed to be a time when snakes go blind. That last one at least may have a little bit of truth to it; snakes get milky-eyed just before they shed and it’s probably not a coincidence many start sloughing off their old skins at the end of a long and active summer. Being cold-blooded the warmer days are a good time for them as well as when their predators are less likely to be active.
Sirius is one of our closest stellar neighbors, at just 8.6 light years away. If we could travel at the speed of light we could get there and back in under eighteen years, with plenty of time to stop and look around and maybe see if there any dogs around there. Some stars are so large and so bright their light reaches us from hundreds, even thousands of light years away. They could have burned out long ago but we still see them, afterimages of a fiery life. Sirius is so close what we see may not be that different from the way it is now. It’s also actually two stars. Sirius A is about twice the size of our sun while Sirius B is a white dwarf roughly the size of Earth. Canis Major, the constellation Sirius is in, has its own companion, Canis Minor, and they’re both companions to the hunter Orion.
These days I usually wake up just before dawn because the dog who sleeps between me and my wife thinks that’s when he should have breakfast, so we’re all up and about while Sirius is still poised just above the horizon. There are hills to the east of where I stand, and so many trees I won’t be able to see Sirius until late winter when it will be high in the evening sky. I only know it’s there thanks to star charts. It’s as much of a morning companion as the sun itself, and the dog who stands next to me out in the yard, marking a tree.
What a lovely post for the dog days of summer, Chris. Many thanks.
Ann Koplow recently posted…Day 4262: Hopes and Dreams
Now that we’re moving into the dog days of September I appreciate this comment from you even more.