The Thoughts of Wesley son of Cornelius

“God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.” (Genesis 1:16)

The picture below shows a detailed picture of the winter heavens from the Northern Hemisphere and looking east. Due to our atmosphere, city lights, and pollution you will never see this view with your own eyes. However, on a clear winter night, you will be able to see some of the detail.


I ended the last post with the star Rigel. In the above picture, I have labeled Rigel as number 1. (Can you make out Orion? It is not easy!) I will now rotate around the winter sky clockwise.

The star numbered 2 is called Sirius. Sirius is the brightest star in the nighttime sky. The name of the star comes from Greek, meaning glowing or scorching. Sirius is not just one star but two stars rotating around each other. Sirius is the head of the Big Dog (Canis Major) constellation.

Continuing clockwise, the star numbered 3 is called Procyon, meaning before the dog. Due to Earth’s rotation, Procyon, apart of Canis Minor, appears to be leading the Big Dog constellation. Like Sirius, Procyon is also a binary star.

In Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux were two mischievous twins. They are represented in the constellation Gemini (Latin for twin) as the heads. In the above picture I have labeled Pollux 4a and Castor 4b. Pollux is believed to be a single star that is 30 times more luminous than our Sun. However, current studies have shown that Castor is a sextuple (that is 6 star) system.

The top star, numbered 5, is named Capella. Capella means little she goat. In Roman mythology Capella was the goat that suckled Jupiter (that is Zeus in Greek myth). Jupiter accidentally broke off her horn and created the Cornucopia, Horn of Plenty. The star is actually a quadruple star system.

The last star, numbered 6, is named Aldebaran. The name comes from the Arabic to follow. I will explain the meaning on a later post. The unmanned Pioneer 10 spacecraft was released in 1972 to be the first spacecraft to go through the asteroid belt. It is currently heading in the direction of Aldebaran. It should reach this lone star in about 2 million years.

Finally, we return back to Rigel. We have just traveled the Winter Hexagon.