Sky and Telescope - October 2015 - 45

OBSERVING

Northern Hemisphere's Sky

Fred Schaaf welcomes your
comments at fschaaf@aol.com.

Fred Schaaf

Legends in Three Directions
The stars of the October sky spell out a trio of ancient tales.
(Tarazed), Alpha (Altair), and Beta Aquilae (Alshain).
The two ﬁgures are celestial lovers, separated from each
other for neglecting their heavenly duties. It's the "river"
of the bright Milky Way that separates Vega and Altair,
and therefore these lovers, all year long - save for "the
seventh night of the seventh moon" (usually celebrated
in early August) when they cross a bridge of magpies
and are together for just one night. If Vega is imagined
to be the lady herself, the greater pattern of Lyra is her
loom. For amateur astronomers, this instrument, which
supposedly spins out celestial tapestries, is even more
marvelous for oﬀering Epsilon (ε) Lyrae (the Double
Double) and M57 (the Ring Nebula).
The myth of the hunters pursuing the bear, low
in the northwest. Various Native American tribes see
a bear in the bowl of our Big Dipper. The tail of Ursa
Major holds three hunters of the bear: Robin (Alioth);
Chickadee (Mizar), who carries a pot (Alcor); and MooseBird (Alkaid). Following these in a continued curve are
the additional hunters Pigeon, Blue Jay, Horned Owl,
and Saw-Whet Owl, represented by Gamma (Seginus),
Epsilon (Izar), Alpha (Arcturus), and Eta (η) Boötis
(Muphrid), respectively. The Boötes foursome sets as
the bear circles under the North Star, but circumpolar
Robin, Chickadee, and Moose-Bird stay up to kill the
bear, whose blood splashes red the breast of Robin and
then, down below, the foliage of October. ✦
η

Perseus

α

κ

β

ε

Pleiades

AKIRA FUJII

For many lands in Earth's northern temperate zone,
October is the month of painted leaves. Few sights in
nature can match the wonder of the changing colors of
the fall foliage, especially in places like New England,
where the hues are most varied, bright, and vivid.
Yet the stars of October evenings are even more the
stuﬀ of which legends are made. At this time, you can
see the stars of the greatest star-myth of Western (European) culture and greatest star-myth of Eastern (East
Asian) culture, both high in the sky. And low down you
can see the stars of one of the greatest of Native American star-myths - the one that oﬀers an explanation for
the marvelous color change of fall leaves.
The myth of Perseus, in the northeast and east.
Six constellations help tell the Perseus tale: Cepheus and
Cassiopeia (king and queen), Pegasus (winged horse),
Andromeda and Perseus (chained maiden and hero), and
Cetus (oﬃcially whale, but traditionally sea monster).
The legendary ﬁgures of these constellations glimmer
in our imaginations as we observe them on October
evenings - though at the time of our all-sky map (page
42), Cetus lies right on the east-to-southeast horizon with
one star, Alpha (α) Ceti, not quite risen.
There are visual and scientiﬁc realities of these constellations as captivating as the characters and story of
the classical Perseus myth. They include the prominent
naked-eye patches of M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy), the
Double Cluster of Perseus, and the Alpha Persei Cluster
- plus the more challenging naked-eye deep-sky objects
M34 (open star cluster in Perseus), NGC 752 (open star
cluster in Andromeda), and M15 (globular star cluster
in Pegasus). And the constellations of the Perseus myth
contain the three most important prototype variable
stars: the eclipsing binary Beta (β) Persei (Algol), the
long-period variable Omicron (o) Ceti (Mira), and the
Cepheid variable, Delta (δ) Cephei. Algol represents the
severed head of monstrous Medusa - a mythological
ﬁgure who seems to be known to more of my college
students these days than even Perseus or Andromeda.
The myth of the weaving maiden and the cowherd, high in the west and southwest. Depending
on the source, the woman at work is either Vega or the
entire pattern of Lyra; the cowherd (or prince in some
versions of this East Asian legend) is either Altair or
the compact straight line of three stars, Gamma (γ)

Sk yandTelescope.com October 2015

45
http://www.SkyandTelescope.com
Sky and Telescope - October 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - October 2015
