Observation 4.7

Date: May 22, 2014

Observation:
So with the spring sky coming up, there is a chance to find some new constellations! One of the first constellations that I noticed in the sky today was the constellation Ursa Major. I already made a blog post about this constellation in the past so if you want to brush up on that story, feel free to look back. Right next to Ursa Major if the constellation Boötes or the Bear Driver. If you look at it though it sort of looks like a boot, but that is not where the name comes from. In the constellation is the star Arcturus and there is a very easy way in finding this constellation. What you do is find Ursa Major and then follow the arch of the pan handle to Arcturus; or better said "Follow the arch to Arcturus". Arcturus is very easy to find because it is one of the brightest stars in the sky. Another tidbit is that if you continue to follow the arch from Arcturus you can find the next brightest star in the spring sky called Spica which is located in the constellation Virgo, but that will be in another observation.

Now for the story. Boötes actually represents Arcas, the son of Zeus. His mother was Castillo, other wise known as Ursa Major, who was the daughter of King Lycaon. Now one day Zeus came down to dine with King Lycaon. Lycaon, who wanted to see if his guest was actually Zeus, took Arcas and cut him up and fed him to his father. Obviously recognizing his own son, Zeus burned with rage and tipped over the table, ruined the whole feast and killed Lycaon's sons and turned Lycaon into a wolf. He then took the pieces of Arcas and brought him back to life. Now his mother, who was impregnated by Zeus and had Arcas, was turned into a bear due the goddess Hera's jealousy of her having a child with her husband. When Arcas turned into a handsome teenager, he came across this bear while hunting in the woods. Castillo, noticing her son, tried to greet him warmly but she could only growl. This was obviously taken in the wrong way as Arcas took to chasing her transformed mother. Castillo ran to the temple of Zeus, where the god himself took Arcas and his mother and put them in the sky where they will always be running through the heavens.