Corona Borealis, a Latin name that translates to "Northern Crown," has always been one of my favorite constellations. It's small, but very distinct, and as evening twilight ends, it's putting on a great show nearly overhead in the very high southern sky.
The little crown of stars sits near a much bigger constellation: Bootes the Hunting Farmer, the constellation that actually looks like a giant celestial kite. Arcturus, the brightest star we see in the summer sky, marks the tail of the giant celestial kite. Even with just the naked eye, Arcturus has a distinctive orange hue to it and is shining at us from about 215 trillion miles away.
With a little imagination, Corona Borealis looks somewhat like a crown or a tiara that a beauty queen like Miss America would wear. The constellation reminds me of a little cereal bowl. In Australia, it's seen as a boomerang and truly that's what it really does looks like.
To be perfectly honest with you, Corona Borealis isn't much of a constellation astronomically. There really isn't much to be seen within its boundaries with your telescope that would make you jump up and down, even if you have a larger scope. There are no prominent star clusters or nebulae or galaxies. In fact, amateur astronomers like me have a nickname for the Corona Borealis. We call it "Core Bore."
The brightest star in the Northern Crown is Alphecca, pronounced al-feck-ah, a hot bluish-white star about 75 light-years away. The light that we see from Alphecca tonight left that star in 1938, a few years before the U.S. got involved in World War II. Like a lot of stars, Alphecca is an Arabic name that roughly translates to English as "broken," referring to the fact that it's the bright star in a broken ring of stars which is what Corona Borealis resembles. Actually, it's only a half ring of stars.
The best things about Corona Borealis are the stories about the constellation. Probably the most familiar one comes from Greek mythology. It goes like this. Princess Ariadne was the daughter of the evil king of Crete, King Minos, who was one bad dude. Just for sick kicks, the evil king would sacrifice seven young men and seven young women to his pet Minotaur, an incredibly ugly beast that had the body of a bull with a disheveled human head. Hey, that sounds like a boss I worked for in the nineties.
During another sick ritual, Minos forced about a dozen unarmed young men to take on his Minotaur in battle. They had no chance with the beast and met their demise. What's worse is that the king forced his daughter Ariadne to watch the annual slaughter. During one of the massacres, Ariadne made eye contact with Theseus, a really handsome stud. Theseus caught the princess's eye and gave her a sexy wink. It was love at first sight. To save her new love, she scrambled back to the castle and grabbed a sword, hid it under her cape, and secretly slipped it to Theseus when the guards weren't looking.
When it was Theseus's turn for battle, he sliced and diced the Minotaur. With the guards in shock, Theseus bolted from the scene and ran right into Ariadne's arms. The couple stole a chariot and headed for the sea. There, they grabbed a boat and rowed their behinds off to the Island of Naxos for the night.
Sometime during the night, however, Theseus ditched the princess and boated away. The sad truth was that he really didn't have any feelings for Ariadne and was just using her to escape his certain fate. It was cruel, but he was desperate.
In the morning, the princess woke up without her new love and realized he was gone. She began sobbing uncontrollably. Fortunately, Bacchus, the god of wine, ruled over the Island of Naxos. You should see his wine cellar. Anyway, the kindly old bachelor god Bacchus consoled Ariadne and convinced her she could do better. He, of course, thought of himself as the better. He had his servant fetch the finest wines out of his cellar and after a few bottles, Bacchus and Ariadne were head over heels in love.
They eventually married, and at their wedding, Bacchus showed Ariadne just how much he loved her. The wine-sipping god took off his crown and threw it high into the night sky with all his might. It flew so high that it sprouted stars. Bacchus proclaimed to his new wife that it was her eternal crown, symbolizing their everlasting love. What a romantic. Ariadne is long gone, but her crown shines on in our summer skies.
I also love the North American Shawnee Indian legend that has this half ring of stars as the homes of maidens that occasionally dance in the fields on Earth. During one of their terrestrial vacations, a great Shawnee warrior named Algon stole the heart of the loveliest maiden who ran off with him. The other maidens were dismayed and sadly flew back to the heavens without their beloved sister. Over time, the wayward maiden greatly missed her sisters and one night decided to leave Algon. She flew skyward and had a heck of a reunion with her sisters. She's represented by Alphecca, the brightest star of the half ring.
Along with their joy, the maidens felt sorry for Algon and one day charged to Earth and gave him a celestial piggyback ride to the heavens where he became the bright star Arcturus. Now the great warrior could shine on with all of the lovely maidens.
I hope you enjoy the little crown of summer as much I do on these precious warm summer evenings!.
Celestial hugging
Very early in the evening on Wednesday and Thursday in the low western sky, even before the end of evening twilight, the new crescent moon will up close and personal with the very bright planet Venus and the bright star Regulus. It should be a lovely sight you can clearly enjoy with the naked eye. On Wednesday, the moon will be a little to the lower left of Venus. On Thursday, the crescent moon will be just below and to the left of Regulus. You can see the diagrams on my Facebook page. The link is below.
(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 or go to www.facebook.com/mike.lynch.12327.)