Valentine's day is coming up this week and honors St. Valentine, a roman saint in the early Catholic church. It's believed by many church historical scholars that he was a roman priest who was put to death by Roman emperor Claudius for performing marriages of young couples.
At that time, Claudius didn't want young men to marry because he felt married men wouldn't make good soldiers. Father Valentine ignored this edict and was tried and put to death Feb. 14, 269 AD.
In later years, the church canonized the marrying priest as a saint and anniversary of his death became St. Valentine's Day. I realize this history lesson doesn't have much to do with star watching and astronomy, but I thought you'd like to know the story behind the most romantic feast day of the year.
Since then, Valentine's day has taken on the romantic theme that flower-petal pushers, candy makers, jewelers, greeting card companies and many other enterprises have used as key marketing tool. What the heck though; it can be fun day even if romantic expression is "forced" on you.
Love is in the air and it's also in the night time sky. This year, we have a full moon later on this week for Valentine's night. That alone should do the trick for romantic bliss.
In addition to the full moon, there are several good romantic constellation stories up there. One of my favorites involves the constellations Cassiopeia the Queen and Cepheus the King.
I know you've seen Cassiopeia before. It looks like a bright "W," and this time of the year, look for it in the early evening in the high northwestern sky. Its stars are as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper.
That "W' is more or less hanging diagonally. That "W" is supposed to outline the upside down throne of Queen Cassiopeia with our dear queen tied upside down in it. How she got there is all part of the upcoming love story.
Cepheus the King is just to the lower right of Cassiopeia in north to northwest sky. It's a larger constellation than Cassiopeia, but its stars aren't nearly as bright. It pretty much looks like a house with a steep roof leaning to the right. To be honest, you might have to go out in the countryside a bit to really see well, but if you aren't lit up by too much city lighting, you should be able to find it fairly easily.
Astronomically, these two royal constellations don't have much to offer. There are some nice star clusters sprinkled around the pair, especially in Cassiopeia. Just scan your telescope in and around the captive queen and you'll see what I mean.
Along with celestial treasures, their love story makes this cosmic royal pair special. I think it's one of the better stories I love to tell.
Opposites attract
Cepheus and Cassiopeia were the king and queen of ancient Ethiopia who were very much in love with each other. You know how they say opposites attract? Well, that's certainly the case here. King Cepheus was an easy going, jolly old soul who didn't take himself or his power and authority as king too seriously. He loved his subjects and was very much in love with his beloved royal wife.
Queen Cassiopeia, however, was anything but mellow. She was a ruthless and intense ruler who was also very much in love with herself. Even though she loved her kingly husband, she wanted to be top dog of the land, but that was difficult because her good-natured husband was already around. To get her way, Cassiopeia had to find a way to rid of him, at least during the day.
Cepheus was an avid golfer and was one of those guys who cherished his time on the links. Cassiopeia capitalized on this passion. Every day after their royal breakfast, she would get all kissy face with her hubby and would urge him to head out with his buddies to the royal country club to play golf all day long.
Cepheus never turned her down, but was concerned that he was being unfair to his wife, making her run the kingdom all by herself. But Cassiopeia waved him off to the links, pretending that she was concerned about him getting all stressed out.
Mission accomplished. Cepheus went off with his clubs and caddy, and Cassiopeia was the lady most definitely in charge, ruling with tougher than an iron fist. One of the things she liked to do every morning was to parade around the streets and go up to people and ask them if they thought she was the most beautiful woman they had ever seen. If you didn't fall on your knees, kissing her feet and shouting at the top of your lungs adjectives describing her royal beauty, she would have one of her henchmen throw you over his shoulder and toss you into a pit of hungry dragons. You either fed her ego or died. Kissing up to the queen was a national past time, one that would keep you alive.
Her ego grew and grew over the years, and one day it exploded. She shook her fist into the sky and shouted at the top of her lungs that she was not only the most beautiful woman on Earth, she was even more beautiful than Hera, the Queen of gods of Mount Olympus.
That was a big mistake. Hera also had a mammoth ego, and in her case, it was of godly proportions. Upon hearing Cassiopeia's proclamation, Hera charged down from Mount Olympus, riding on thunderbolts. The confrontation between the two queens was truly ugly. Cassiopeia wouldn't back down from her claim and the cat fight rose to epic proportions. Hera definitely had the upper hand, and she tied Cassiopeia up in her throne, and with all her godly strength, heaved the queen into the heavens.
She called out to Cassiopeia, "You think you're so beautiful. How about you stay up there in the sky tied to your throne and show the entire world how beautiful you are." Cassiopeia has been stuck in her heavenly exile ever since. As she revolves around Polaris the North Star every 24 hours in the northern sky, there are times where she is hanging upside down.
So how did Cepheus get up there? When he came home from the golf course the day of Cassiopeia's banishing, he was overcome with grief. He could not bear to go on without his beloved queen, so he begged and begged his buddy Zeus, the King of the Greek gods, to throw him up into the sky to be reunited with his wife. Zeus finally obliged Cepheus and flung him up there with Cassiopeia and the lovers have been together in their celestial home.
Celestial hugging
It's not quite a full moon for you Valentine's Day lovers, but it's close to a full moon that passes by bright planet Jupiter and the constellation Gemini on Tuesday and Wednesday. It's well worth your gaze.
(Lynch is an amateur astronomer and author of the book, "Stars, a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations." Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.)