By Burt Glover

As part of our natural world, stars are often overlooked. In my younger years I fell under the impression that telescopes were needed to properly study them. My older brother had received a reflector telescope for Christmas one year. Closeups of the moon were, of course, astounding. The planets, a little less so. The excitement of looking at the individual blurry spots, known as stars quickly faded.

Back then, I saw the nighttime sky as just an unchanging jumble of bright spots with no meaning, and I didn’t think much more about it. 

This giant hunter, with his sword held high, and knife hanging from his belt, appeared to be in eternal battle with Taurus the bull, with its long horns charging. Of course, Orion has his hunting dog, Canis Major (the big dog), at his heels to help him.

So many stories from this small piece of sky! Betelgeuse, a bright star in Orion’s shoulder may, sometime soon, become a supernova which will light up our nighttime sky. Betelgeuse= Beetlejuice. Don’t say it three times fast, though! 

The Orion nebula, one of the few visible to the naked eye, can be seen in the knife hanging from his belt. His hunting dog assistant contains the Dog Star, Sirius in its collar. It was thought by our ancestors that when this star revolved behind our sun in July and August, it contributed to the sun’s heating power, giving us the “dog days” of summer. 

The Pleiades (translated to the Seven Sisters) is a very small star cluster of stars that occurs in the back of the Taurus the bull, which Orion appears to be battling. The Pleiades has been mistaken by many to be the Little Dipper, due to its shape, but it is not. The Japanese name of this star cluster is “Subaru,” and you may see an emblem of this star cluster on many of the cars that they make today. So many stories!

As the seasons passed, my knowledge progressed. I learned more and more of the constellations, and so many more of their stories.

The zodiac consists of the twelve constellations that the sun, moon and planets appear to travel through in the course of a year. I was surprised to learn that there is actually a thirteenth constellation of the zodiac! With thirteen being such an unlucky number, our ancestors opted to look the other way. It didn’t help that the constellation (Ophiuchus)  depicted to them a voodoo doctor holding a snake that has been torn in two. I have never been one to put much stock in astrology, but I have always been curious. At the time I was born, the moon was in that thirteenth constellation. I’ve always wondered how astrologers would interpret such a thing.

Our ancestors charted their lives by the stars. As the constellations in the sky progressed throughout the year, they served as navigational guides, cues to plant and harvest, stories to pass along to younger generations. The stars that I see tonight will slowly circle around, and reliably be here to see next year at this time. The stars gave the ancients, and can give us, a sense of continuity — a connection with the cycle of life. The same is true of many animals, whose migration, feeding, and mating rituals are guided by the stars. 

These years, I don’t need to see a calendar to know that, when I see Orion rising in the early morning summer sky, winter is on its way. Seeing Virgo and Leo on the horizon in the cold of winter gives me hope that spring is near. Once you realize there is more to the night sky than a jumble of stars, you realize how much more there is to see. 

Meteor showers arrive many times throughout the year, the best known being perhaps the Perseid in August and the Leonid in November. There are also comets, lunar eclipses and planetary occurances to dazzle. Weather phenomena are there to astound. I’ll never forget seeing my first “Moon Dogs” — rainbows surrounding the moon from ice crystals in the atmosphere.

Stars are an essential part of our natural world. And you don’t need a telescope to see them! As our ancestors and so many birds and animals could attest, the nighttime sky brings the circle of life together.

________________

Contributor Burt Glover became an accidental naturalist during his earliest childhood days exploring the dirt roads, backyards, polo field and barns of the Magnolia-Knox-Mead neighborhood of 1950s Aiken. Birds are his first love, and he can identify an impressive range by song alone. He asserts that he is an observer, not an expert, on the topics of his writings, which range from birds, box turtles, frogs and foraging, to wasps, weeds, weather and beyond.