Aug

3

Big Dog.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 3, 2007 |

August is typically the hottest period of the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the period some people call “Dog Days”, a term which dates back to the Greeks who believed only dogs were crazy enough to go out in the heat. Anyone who’s owned dogs knows it’s more likely humans who are the crazy ones, but that’s really another story.

The term may also come from the fact that the Dog Star, Alpha Canis Majoris, and its constellation, Canis Major, the Big Dog, rose shortly before dawn at this time of year. The brightest star in our sky, it’s actually a binary star comprised of Sirius A, a blue-white star larger than our sun and, at just 8.6 light years away, practically a next-door neighbor, and Sirius B, a white dwarf.

The ancient Egyptians noticed that Sirius rose before dawn at around the same time that the annual flooding of the Nile occurred. They named the star Sopdu, later renamed Sothis by the Greeks, and believed it caused the Nile to flood.

This month Just Write will be doggedly pursuing dogs, dog-earing pages and sifting through doggerel and dogma, sitting out under the dogwoods, and, doggone it, it won’t be just a dog and pony show. It’ll be something you can really sink your canines into.


Comments

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

<< Post Navigation >>

« « Book ‘Em: The Truth Is In Here. | Dog Days: Saving Gracie. » »