Welcome back or if this is your first time with us, then welcome and hi there to you. This is our first Alternative Astronomy Beginner Lesson for the Fall season as we are learning how to identify the star constellations of the Northern Hemisphere skies.
In this lesson we are going to start off with finding the constellations of Cygnus The Swan and Capricorn The Goat, or The Sea-Goat in the October sky and learn more about the connection between the two.
As always we’re going to orient ourselves to view the special place in the sky we have nicknamed The Real Oracle or The Real All-Seeing Eye. This is the place in the sky where most of the celestial action occurs and is found by facing due South and looking up.
You know you are facing South when your left side is facing where the Sun rises in your area and on your left will be where the Sun is setting.
It’s not just the Sun that rises in the East and sets in the West along this narrow band in the sky called the arc of the ecliptic, so does the Moon, the planets and all the constellations of the zodiac, as well.
Capricorn is one of those twelve constellations of the zodiac you have likely heard of before and so we are going to focus in on Capricorn’s story first.
The reason we share just a bit about the stories or the mythology behind each of these constellations in this getting acquainted phase here is because we are going to be learning more and more about, going forward that these stories about the stars served a far greater purpose than just being used for entertainment purposes like we think of today.
Many of these stories or myths go back to a time before we as people had writing, so the stories are constructed in a way to make them easy to remember, so as to easily pass down the knowledge of the stars in the oral tradition whether we know it or not. Most of us don’t know this, but that’s something we hope to change.
Let’s check out just a little of Capricorn’s story to get us started, from a mainstream source – Wikipedia.
Wikipedia tells us that Capricorn is one of the constellations of the zodiac and is Latin for goat or goat horn. Wikipedia also tells us that Capricorn is located in an area of the sky called The Sea or The Water.
You will hear me refer to this area of the sky in our lessons as the Celestial Sea. It is this area of the sky you will find many constellations that are water related.
Knowing that this area of the sky is the Celestial Sea helps to make more sense out of why Capricorn is represented as a chimera creature that is half-goat, half-fish…a Sea-Goat.
Capricorn is the smallest constellation of the zodiac and we can find mythology about Capricorn in many ancient cultures going back to Ancient Babylon and Ancient Greece.
The satyr, a creature that is half-man, half-goat named Pan is also said to be associated with Capricorn.
Something interesting that connects Capricorn to Cygnus is that they both have the brightest star within the constellation with the same name…Deneb. Deneb is an Arabic word for tail.
Sticking with our mainstream source, Wikipedia will tell us that Cygnus is the Latinized word for swan.
Cygnus is one of the most recognizable constellations of the Summer and Fall skies in the North and is often called The Northern Cross.
Cygnus’ tail star is one of the brightest stars in the sky and is also called Deneb.
There are many Ancient Greek myths involving Cygnus or swans, including the story of Phaeton, who stole Apollo The Sun God’s chariot and lost control of it. Phaeton was struck down by Zeus’ lightning bolt to stop him from doing more damage in the out-of-control chariot he stole.
Swans also show up in the epic of the 12 Labors of Hercules that we have already began looking at over the Summer season lessons.
Let’s find Capricorn and Cygnus in the Northern Hemisphere October sky and see more of the connection between these 2 constellations by continuing with the video below.
Until next time…stay lit and be well,
shannon