The Dog Days (a period of 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11) are named for the Dog Star, Sirius, which is visible with the rising Sun at this time of year.
Named in early times by observers in countries bordering the Mediterranean, the period extended 20 days before to 20 days after the conjunction of Sirius (the dog star) and the sun.
4 comments:
Ooooooooooh! Great post! I love showing our students the constellations and going stargazing with them! Many of our students have never seen dark skies like what we've got up here! They mostly come from cities like Seoul, Tokyo, Mexico City, Sao Paolo, etc. They're always so amazed to see so many stars!!!
Fascinating! I did not know any of that!
Now....how in the heck did they get a dog out of that star configuration? Somebody was drikin' way too much wine or smokin' sumpthin'.
I wish they wouldn't have named it after a dog, cause as much as I love dogs.....I hate the dog days of summer!!!!!I don't do hot weather well!
Happy 4th Shannon
C
Yeah it's funny how the kids from the big cities have never noticed the stars because of all the streetlights.
Never knew why they called them Dog Days of Summer until I read this.
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