All winter long, I’ve been meaning to write about the little constellation Aries the Ram, and finally, on this last weekend of winter, I’m getting around to it. It’s a good thing, because Aries is about to leave our nighttime sky.
Right after evening twilight, look for the distinctive little constellation in the low western Snohomish County sky. In fact, right now you can use the very bright planet Venus to help you find Aries. Venus is hunched right next to Aries. Just above Venus, look for two moderately bright stars right next to each other that are diagonally orientated. Just below them and a little to the left is a third dimmer star.
Together, all three stars kind-of-sort-of resemble a ram’s horn. The actual constellation is larger than that little horn you see, but most of the rest of the stars of Aries are really faint. The two brighter stars of the horn are Hamel and Sheratan, and the dimmer star below them is Mesarthim. Hamel is a giant star in our Milky Way galaxy that dwarfs our sun with a diameter of at least 13 million miles. Our own sun’s diameter is less than one million miles. A trip to Hamal would require you to put about 65 light years on your spaceship. In case you’re new to this column, just one light year equals nearly six trillion miles!
So how did Aries the ram get in the night sky? What’s the story? Well like most constellation stories, or what I call celestial soap operas, it’s a sordid tall tale. Different cultures have different stories, but the one I like the most comes from Greek mythology. This old yarn is a story of heroism. Aries the ram was one of Zeus’s many pets. Aries was very special. He wasn’t your everyday ram. His coat was made of golden fleece and he sported wings allowing him to fly the friendly skies above Mount Olympus.
Zeus wasn’t exactly the a faithful follower of the sanctity of marriage, and had many girlfriends, even after he married Hera, the queen of the gods. One lovely Mount Olympus afternoon Zeus and his favorite pet ram met several of Zeus’s secret girl friends for a picnic in a hidden park close to the foot of Mount Olympus. It was quite a time for all concerned. Suddenly, out of the clear blue sky the voice of Apollo, the god of the sun,rang out. He was trying desperately to get the attention of Zeus, wherever he was. From the reins of his sun chariot high above everything, Apollo could see a group of small children a few miles away that were having a very unfriendly encounter with a really hungry lion.
Apollo couldn’t do anything himself, because if he left the sun chariot all you-know-what could break loose if the sun crashed to Earth. So the only thing Apollo could do is shout his lungs out for some divine help from Zeus. Finally, the king of the gods heard the screams of Apollo and decided to take action. It wasn’t so much that he cared about the kids, but Zeus wanted to impress his posse of ladies. So Zeus pointed Aries in the right direction and sent him flying off on a rescue mission.
The lion was within seconds of reaching the children when out of the blue Aries swooped from the sky like a cruise missile. He scooped up the children on his back and flew them off to safety. Aries winged his way back to the local market place and reunited the kids with their greatly relieved mother.
For the rest of his life Aries set out on missions of mercy and rescue. When Aries died, Zeus rewarded him for his bravery and placed his body into the heavens to become the constellation we see today. The little ram did a lot of good!
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,” available at bookstores at www.adventurepublications.net
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