There’s a lot of history unfolding in connection with the sky this month, including the meteor shower that’s happening right now, the Eta Aquarids. This shower peaks overnight Monday to Tuesday, and is best after the gibbous Moon sets in the early morning hours, like 3:30 am, and after the constellation Aquarius has risen in the southeast.
These days it’s pretty well known that meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the trail of stuff left by a comet when it whizzes through our planetary system from the Oort cloud. Though the comet is named for the discoverer, the meteor shower is named for the constellation region in front of which the radiant appears. In this case, the parent comet is none other than Halley’s, first recorded in the 3rd century BC but observed by Edmund Halley in 1682, when he determined that it was a “periodic comet’ meaning it regularly returns. The constellation that gives its name to this week’s shower is Aquarius, the water man, and the eta aquarii star is in the region of the water pot.
Then there’s the nursery rhyming with the stars that is so much fun this month, when Cygnus the swan, that ole mother goose, takes wing up over the Northeast horizon, trailing the Milky Way. The name Mother Goose was first written down by Jean Loret, pop journalist in the court of Louis the XIV, but her rhymes weren’t written down well after Charles Perrault published his Tales from the Past with Morals, the Tales of Mother Goose in the 1690s.
Bearing in mind that Charles Perrault wrote Mother Goose fairy tales and not nursery rhymes, it’s still fun to know that one of the most well-know nursery rhymes, Hey Diddle Diddle, can be found overhead this month. I also like Sing a Song of Sixpence with the King in his counting house, the queen eating honey in the parlor, the maid hanging up her clothes. You can take this little ditty out stargazing and meteor hunting tonight, and look for the King Cepheus in the North ~ he looks like a house and his foot rests on the Milky Way (where all his money is!). The Queen is Cassiopeia, a mighty “w” visible early in the evening looking North. We can imagine her honey pot is the beehive cluster at the heart of the constellation Cancer, where Mars is hanging out this week.
Then there’s the maid, Virgo, reclining on the ecliptic, which is actually her clothesline. To find the brightest star in Virgo, start with the Big Dipper, follow the arc of its handle to the star Arcturus then speed on to Spica, in Virgo. From there it’s an easy step to Corvus, the crow, or blackbird that nips off her nose!
And bear in mind, while you’re out singing ditties to the stars ~ most of the star names in Aquarius are connected with good fortune, so this week’s meteors will bring an extra boost of good luck for all your wishes.
