Dog Days Of Summer
We have been checking the horizon for the Dog Star, Sirius. It is supposed to appear around now about dawn. Our star charts indicate that we are just about at the edge of the time when the Dog Star is first sighted above the horizon, in Central Texas, after its journey to invisibility and being out of sight for 70 days. The astronomers call this first appearance the "heliacal rising."
It is supposed to be a harbinger of hot weather. At least in the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans. It was also the time when the Nile flowed at its maximum and deposited its life giving mud on the shores which were farmed after the waters receded. We checked for one Egyptian city, and Sirius is visible already, in the sky just before dawn.
They thought way back then in B. C. times, before they knew much about the relationship of how the sun moved in its orbit in relation to the earth, that the extra light from this bright star would cause the heat to increase. And it has hit triple digits the last couple of days for the first time this year, and today too, so who are we to argue? Sirius is out there in the day's sky somewhere, heating up everything as far as we are concerned. But rationally speaking, it is a high over Texas that is keeping the weather clear and hot, but we like to think back to the old days.
And the dogs would start panting, trying to stay cool in the hottest months in July and August, which some people speculate had to do with fear of the dogs.
Every year you hear the expression "The Dog Days of Summer". One explanation was a little apprehension. If the dog's panting grew too intense, then perhaps they would become rabid, and start foaming at the mouth so the ancients reasoning was handed down in the manuscripts. Panting was not just a harmless activity that we know it now, to keep the poor canine cool as he lay on a mosaic floor in ancient Herculaneum or Pompeii with the "Cave Canum" sign (Beware Dog!) at the door to the main entrance of the ancient villas of those legendary cities.
Panting by dogs was viewed more suspiciously back then as an intermediate stage, and depending on the appearance of the star on the horizon, and whether it flickered or remained steady, that was supposed to be inauspicious / auspicious sign of the hot season to come.
In our supposedly more rational times, people look at economic indicators now to foretell the future, and use key indexes to predict the coming season's investment or activities. The ancients, in their elegant way looked to the heavens for signs of whether it was wise to begin an activity or refrain from doing anything.
Humans that were overcome with the heat would be referred to as "star-struck", which in modern parlance refers to being taken aback by a celebrity. But in ancient times, they thought that the radiation from the star could cause fatigue and lassitude. The Greek word is "αστροβολητος" or in Roman letters "Astro-boletos".
Some not-so-random associations: A bolide in astronomy is a kind of meteor, we will look into if it has a similar derivation, because a bolide can leave a huge crater when it hits. And a bolete is a kind of tasty mushroom, the most commonly known is a cep or porcini (boletus edulus), which you can usually find at high-end restaurants that specialize in wild mushrooms. We know the ancient Romans were quite fond of boletes, having a specialized cooking vessel dedicated to their cooking - a boletarium as we recollect. But don't cite this as a definitive source, we need to check our references, we could not find it on the Internet anywhere <gasp>.
Here is a book we just put up for sale, on our own website, or if you prefer at one of the websites indicated on the right. Lots of people are getting off the grid, and because of water restrictions for the last 5 years or so are deciding to get their own water, from the sky, and cut their pipes to the utility and live like pioneers (they kept cisterns made of limestone). This is a book by one of the local Texas practitioners of the art of squeezing water from the clouds.
Our link to our My-Lynx Associates online store is in the picture below:
Or if you want to shop at eBay:
We have been checking with our staff Astronomer at Hi-Tech-And-Antique / My-Lynx Associates about the pending emergence of Sirius above the horizon at dawn. Unfortunately he is also the staff astrologer, so we have a hard time discussing science with him. And we need to have a bigger observing tower, we have books stacked up between us and the rising sun, so we can't make the proper observation.
Currently we just have some boxes on the patio in the back. We need a 10 or 15 story tall air-conditioned observatory, sort of like a big lighthouse, with a wet bar and custom-ground lens in a reflecting telescope, which is a little pricey. Maybe we will put up a PayPal donation button to raise the 6-figure sum that we would need to properly do the job, including the elevator and rotating moon-viewing pavilion built in Imperial Chinese style with gold and vermilion highlights. Since we only have around 1,100 books for sale right now, we cannot rely on the book selling business by itself, unless our customers take it upon themselves to buy large quantities of books.
It is supposed to be a harbinger of hot weather. At least in the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans. It was also the time when the Nile flowed at its maximum and deposited its life giving mud on the shores which were farmed after the waters receded. We checked for one Egyptian city, and Sirius is visible already, in the sky just before dawn.
They thought way back then in B. C. times, before they knew much about the relationship of how the sun moved in its orbit in relation to the earth, that the extra light from this bright star would cause the heat to increase. And it has hit triple digits the last couple of days for the first time this year, and today too, so who are we to argue? Sirius is out there in the day's sky somewhere, heating up everything as far as we are concerned. But rationally speaking, it is a high over Texas that is keeping the weather clear and hot, but we like to think back to the old days.
And the dogs would start panting, trying to stay cool in the hottest months in July and August, which some people speculate had to do with fear of the dogs.
Every year you hear the expression "The Dog Days of Summer". One explanation was a little apprehension. If the dog's panting grew too intense, then perhaps they would become rabid, and start foaming at the mouth so the ancients reasoning was handed down in the manuscripts. Panting was not just a harmless activity that we know it now, to keep the poor canine cool as he lay on a mosaic floor in ancient Herculaneum or Pompeii with the "Cave Canum" sign (Beware Dog!) at the door to the main entrance of the ancient villas of those legendary cities.
Panting by dogs was viewed more suspiciously back then as an intermediate stage, and depending on the appearance of the star on the horizon, and whether it flickered or remained steady, that was supposed to be inauspicious / auspicious sign of the hot season to come.
In our supposedly more rational times, people look at economic indicators now to foretell the future, and use key indexes to predict the coming season's investment or activities. The ancients, in their elegant way looked to the heavens for signs of whether it was wise to begin an activity or refrain from doing anything.
Humans that were overcome with the heat would be referred to as "star-struck", which in modern parlance refers to being taken aback by a celebrity. But in ancient times, they thought that the radiation from the star could cause fatigue and lassitude. The Greek word is "αστροβολητος" or in Roman letters "Astro-boletos".
Some not-so-random associations: A bolide in astronomy is a kind of meteor, we will look into if it has a similar derivation, because a bolide can leave a huge crater when it hits. And a bolete is a kind of tasty mushroom, the most commonly known is a cep or porcini (boletus edulus), which you can usually find at high-end restaurants that specialize in wild mushrooms. We know the ancient Romans were quite fond of boletes, having a specialized cooking vessel dedicated to their cooking - a boletarium as we recollect. But don't cite this as a definitive source, we need to check our references, we could not find it on the Internet anywhere <gasp>.
Here is a book we just put up for sale, on our own website, or if you prefer at one of the websites indicated on the right. Lots of people are getting off the grid, and because of water restrictions for the last 5 years or so are deciding to get their own water, from the sky, and cut their pipes to the utility and live like pioneers (they kept cisterns made of limestone). This is a book by one of the local Texas practitioners of the art of squeezing water from the clouds.
Our link to our My-Lynx Associates online store is in the picture below:
Or if you want to shop at eBay:
| Its for Sale on eBay | |
|
We have been checking with our staff Astronomer at Hi-Tech-And-Antique / My-Lynx Associates about the pending emergence of Sirius above the horizon at dawn. Unfortunately he is also the staff astrologer, so we have a hard time discussing science with him. And we need to have a bigger observing tower, we have books stacked up between us and the rising sun, so we can't make the proper observation.
Currently we just have some boxes on the patio in the back. We need a 10 or 15 story tall air-conditioned observatory, sort of like a big lighthouse, with a wet bar and custom-ground lens in a reflecting telescope, which is a little pricey. Maybe we will put up a PayPal donation button to raise the 6-figure sum that we would need to properly do the job, including the elevator and rotating moon-viewing pavilion built in Imperial Chinese style with gold and vermilion highlights. Since we only have around 1,100 books for sale right now, we cannot rely on the book selling business by itself, unless our customers take it upon themselves to buy large quantities of books.
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