The diminutive but distinct constellation Corona Borealis has been out all summer long and is now making its final curtain call in our evening sky for 2016.
By this time next month, because of the Earth’s orbit around the sun, Corona Borealis will be nearly below the western horizon as darkness sets in. Right now it’s still hanging in there in the low western sky.
Corona Borealis is Latin for “The Northern Crown” and you can certainly make the case for how the Greeks and Romans saw it as a crown of shining jewels in the sky. To me it looks much more like a cereal bowl, even though it doesn’t have all that much snap, crackle and pop.
I love how the Australians refer to it as a boomerang. It’s easy to see how the constellation got that name Down Under.
In China it’s known as a “cord” and according to the Shawnee Indian legend, these stars are the homes of maidens that occasionally danced in the fields on the earth.
As night falls look for my cereal bowl in the western Everett sky just to the upper left of the constellation Bootes the Hunting Farmer.
Bootes looks more like a giant kite than a hunter, with the brightstar Arcturus at the tail. Arcturus is easy to find by using the Big Dipper’s handle. Just extend the curve of the handle down to the lower left and you’ll run right into Arcturus. It’s extra easy because Arcturus is the brightest star in that part of the sky in the early evening.
The brightest star in Corona Borealis is Alphecca, pronounced al-feck-ah, a hot bluish-white star about 75 light-years away. The light that we see from Alphecca tonight left that star in 1941 as America was entering World War ll.
Celestial hugging this week: On Tuesday and Wednesday, in the early morning twilight hours the waning crescent moon will pass by the bright star Regulus and the planet Mercury.
Look about a half hour before sunrise in the low eastern sky. What a way to start the day.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, “Stars; a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications available at bookstores at http://www.adventurepublications.net
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
