When Charley Pride sang “Snakes Crawl at Night” he wasn’t talking about the constellations but he might as well have been. When twilight gives way to darkness there are two snakes stretching nearly halfway across the sky. The first is Hydra the female water snake, which is also the largest constellation. It is so long it takes eight hours to rise completely. At 11 pm these evenings it stretches along the horizon with its head in the west and its tail to the south. In this position the snake takes only three hours to nestle underground
Almost as long but more U-shaped is Serpens, the only constellation that is in two parts, separated by Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer. The western half is called Serpens Caput, the head of the snake, and the eastern half is the tail, Serpens Cauda. Ophiuchus represents Asclepius, a son of Apollo, who learned the healing arts by watching a snake bring another back to life. The Rod of Asclepius, a snake entwined around a staff, is the symbol of medicine and health.
If you like things in threes you can look at serpentine Draco as a snake instead of a dragon. Its tail begins above the bowl of the Big Dipper, with the body curling around the Little Dipper before arcing back toward the foot of Hercules. If that doesn’t suit you then you can go Down Under to see Hydrus the male water snake slithering around the south celestial pole.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Saint John is at 5:46 and sunset will occur at 8:56, giving 15 hours, 10 minutes of daylight. Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 5:40 and set at 9:03, giving 15 hours, 23 minutes of daylight.
The Moon is at first quarter on Saturday, nearing Spica on Tuesday and near Antares next Saturday. By midweek Venus sets around 11:30 followed by Jupiter half an hour later. On Tuesday telescope users might see Jupiter’s Red Spot near the middle of the planet around 10 pm. Now in the evening sky Mercury sets an hour after sunset this weekend, but that increases by five minutes each night over the week. By 5 am midweek Saturn will be about 15 degrees above the eastern horizon, twice as high as Mars to its lower left.
Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
