O.K., we've got our skies set up for any clear night this Thanksgiving week about 7 p.m. your local time facing west and if you look high above the horizon you will see the 3 bright stars which if we connect by lines make up what is officially called the summer triangle but which every November I unofficially call the Thanksgiving poultry triangle. You see, historically these stars have been associated with cosmic birds. The highest star is Deneb, the bright tail star in Cygnus the Swan. So in addition to our Thanksgiving turkey we have a heavenly swan to be thankful for. The bright star farthest to the left, Altair, is the brightest star in Aquila the Eagle. And the brightest of the 3 stars and closest to the northwest horizon is Vega, the brightest star of Lyra the Harp, which, strange as it may sound, has had more feathery incarnations than the other two put together. You see, Lyra was not always a harp.
In fact long ago before it became a lyre it was a cosmic turtle but before it was a cosmic turtle it was a bird of one sort or other. Ancient records tell us that Lyra's association with birds goes back over 2,000 years. In ancient India Lyra was seen as a heavenly vulture. But when Babylonian kings and their queens strolled through the hanging gardens of Babylon they looked up and identified Lyra as their great mythological bird of storms Urakhga. And later as desert caravans wandered across ancient Arabia people looked up and referred to Lyra as either the swooping desert eagle or would you believe, a cosmic goose which in my estimation is a bit more tasty for anyone's Thanksgiving dinner. It was also once known as a great osprey and at another time as a wood falcon anyone for a wood falcon or osprey drumstick? At any rate, only in the past couple hundred years or so have we in the west seen Lyra exclusively as a lyre, a small harp. In fact at the time of the American revolution these stars were still seen as a bird, an eagle, but with a lyre in its beak. So perhaps we should play lyre music after Thanksgiving dinner?
At any rate, this weekend after you've had turkey up to here why not step outside just after dinner and look for some birds of a different feather. And thank the heavens above you'll never get them in your leftovers. But if you've had it with birds altogether then simply turn east just after sunset and you'll see the exquisite full Moon of November, also called the Beaver Moon, which will light up your entire Thanksgiving weekend.
more in our skies |
