Observation 4.4

Date: April 19, 2014

Observation:
Before I get into this picture, I would like to state that this picture was actually taken in March. If you can look at the sky in the picture you might notice one constellation, Orion. You are able to see Orion's Belt on the top right and corner but I did not point it out in the second picture because I did not find it necessary.

Anyways, I have previously talked about the constellation Canis Minor, or the Little Dog but I never realized that I never talked about its companion Canis Major, also called Big Dog. (You can obviously see Canis Major easier than you can with Canis Minor. There is a star that I pointed out which is the star Sirius. This star is also very bright in the sky and if you noticed, the stars in Orion's Belt is pointing right at it! If you can recall, I have always looked at Orion's Belt as the Three Wise Men who were on their way to see Baby Jesus and the star Sirius represented the bright star that they followed to get there. Just another interpretation of the stars.

The story of Canis Major is fairly short and simple in that it is the other guard dog of Orion and that it too was on the pursuit to capture Lepus the Hare which is found under Orion. And that's it.


Now the constellation I would like to bring to your attention is Monoceros, the Unicorn, which is placed right in between Canis Minor and Canis Major. Not many people know or can actually see this constellation because it doesn't have any bright stars. But what this constellation does have in it, is the Rosette Nebula. This nebula is the home to many new stars and its expansion caused the formation of neighboring clusters.

The sad thing about Monoceros is that it was just a gap filler in the skies. Every portion of the sky has its own constellation just to ease the pain of trying to find stellar objects in the sky and space. So although this constellation has no story behind it, a unicorn was chosen for this spot because a unicorn appears several times in the Old Testament of the Bible.

Well, that is it for now! Keep looking up!