Welcome back everyone, let’s see some more stars. In this piece we are going to set our sights on finding Cancer The Crab and Hydra The Sea Snake in the Spring Northern Hemisphere sky and we will use what we’ve already learned about finding Leo the Lion in a previous lesson (click here) to help us.
Star Constellations in the month of May: Leo The Lion
We are starting with an image of what is going on in the sky story as we face South and look up into the Northern Hemisphere sky at the beginning of the month of May, or in the area of the sky we have nicknamed The Real Oracle or The Real All-Seeing Eye in the sky. This information will hold for the entire month of May, but we will start looking at the first of May the hour after the sun has set for the day. We are setting our sights on finding Cancer The Crab and Hydra The Sea Snake.
These two constellations are a bit of a challenge to identify for different reasons, as we will see, so to make things easier on ourselves we will use what we’ve learned about finding Leo to help us.
During the month of May, you will find Leo The Lion lined up at the special cross of the N-S Meridian Line and the arc of the ecliptic.
Remember that Regulus, Leo’s heart star, makes Leo’s body easy to identify first. Leo’s head stars are a bit dimmer, but easier to see once you’ve found his body.
Star Constellations in the month of May : Cancer The Crab
From Leo’s location, look to the West or your right when looking up to find the dimmer constellation of Cancer The Crab.
If your eyes go to far to the West or your right, you will run into the very bright head stars of Gemini The Twins, Castor and Pollux.
We last looked at Gemini when it was at the special cross of the N-S Meridian Line and arc of the ecliptic area during the Spring Equinox, 6 weeks ago. Notice Gemini is moved further westward, so if you run into Castor and Pollux when looking for Cancer, you will know you’ve gone too far to the right (west).
Cancer is between Leo and Gemini’s location, so finding these easier to spot constellations makes it easier to find the dimmer constellation of Cancer between them.
Just because Cancer is a dimmer constellation in the sky, that doesn’t mean that there are any lack of starring and supporting roles in many stories and ancient myths from Ancient Egypt to the modern day that we find Cancer being represented. This includes a breakdown of the famous kid’s cartoon Spongebob Squarepants that we have decoded in our private videos. No, Spongebob is not a representation of Cancer, but his boss Mr. Krabs is.
Star constellations in the month of May: Hydra The Sea Snake
Hydra is where we are setting our sights on next.
Let’s find Leo again at the cross of the N-S Meridian Line and arc of the ecliptic, then just drop your eyes straight down the N-S Meridian Line and find Hydra crossing over with his head right between Cancer and Leo, closer to the horizon.
Because Hydra sits lower to the horizon, to get a good look at the very long constellation, it’s best to choose a viewing area that gives you a line of sight above any taller tree lines present in your area to see it stretch across the Real All-Seeing Eye in the sky from the East.
Hydra is specifically a sea snake because of it’s location in this area of the sky known in ancient times to be called The Celestial Sea.
We will see Hydra playing starring roles in many famous stories that we will be decoding (and have been in our private videos) where Hydra is playing a villian role, maybe slithering around like a snake in the grass, or a garden, chasing after men and women much like Hydra is chasing Orion (The Man) across the May sky at sunset sky.
Some of the info in this piece comes from our book series Constellations by Campfire for the Spring Season. (click here).
Constellations by Campfire is a book series to help even the complete beginner learn the star constellations of the Northern Hemisphere sky by season of the year with full page star maps and easy instruction.
You can find the video version of this lesson below and until next time…
stay lit and be well,
shannon