3-2-21

My son loves the stars. He enjoys going to the beach at night in the summer, and pointing out the constellations he recognizes. There are just a few he knows, and sadly, I’m not much help. Unlike my son, I’ve never been interested in astronomy. But for his sake, I try. One year for Christmas, his grandparents bought him a telescope, and so I set it up for him so that he can stargaze. Still, I’m not entirely sure how the telescope works — beyond pointing and looking — or what’s he looking at when he focuses on a particular bright spot. Even Venus and Mars look like stars — to me. Still my son enjoys exploring the heavens. And maybe at this juncture in his life that’s enough. 

Last summer, we went to Michigan for summer vacation. While camping in the Upper Peninsula, and then in Northern Wisconsin, we spent a great deal of time outdoors at night. The sky — unless it was cloudy — was brilliant. Without the presence of light pollution — street lamps, excessive headlights — the stars seemed infinite. My son and spouse spent countless hours sitting around a campfire marveling at the stars and even contemplating the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.

Along with astronomy, my son enjoys reading and learning about mythology. It all started several years ago when he devoured the Percy Jackson books. They introduced him to the Greek gods and his interest in mythology exploded, expanding to encompass other cultures and religions. 

When I asked G3, last month, to select a new research topic he immediately chose stars. But stars is a broad topic. As he started to look for online sources at the library, he narrowed down his topic to study where astronomy and mythology intersect. What role does mythology play on the interpretations of our sky?  

Surprisingly, my son doesn’t grumble about doing research papers. Sure he grumbles about practically every other assignment I give him, but research doesn’t stress him out. In fact, he went so far as to say, “I really like writing this paper.” I smiled. That’s a huge win. Not only because it makes me happy, but because doing research and writing research papers is a useful skill. Reading articles and extracting information, taking notes, and compiling it all into a cohesive essay are skills that aren’t focused on nearly enough in middle school and high school. And if he’s enjoying it, even a little at this stage, school will be that much easier for him as he gets older. 

The most challenging aspect for him at the moment is finding material because his reading level doesn’t match his interest level. Sure he’s reading is where it should be for fifth grade, but he wants to know things on a deeper more intricate level than is available for middle schoolers in the database. 

Oh and I think he really wants to be British because he refuses to spell color like an American. So the misspelling is intentional. Hey, there are bigger battles to fight. I’m not getting caught up in a war over a ‘u.’ It’s totally not worth it. 

You can read his essay about constellations here:

Myths and Stars

In what way do giant gases heat and energy collided with stories of old? Stars make constellations which are pictures of the stories found in myths. Constellations are the basis of my research paper. To me, constellations aren’t just stars, they are stories to many people. The reason I wrote this paper was because I love myths and astronomy, so constellations are perfect for me. My favorite constellation is Orion, The Great Hunter, in Greek myths. He is the only constellation in the universe to have three consecutive stars.

Stars are giant balls of gas and dust. Over time, gravity pulls together a ball of gas and dust. It heats to more than 10 million degrees kelvin. Then nuclear fusion makes the ball so energetic it gives off heat and light. Some stars shine for billions of years. The sun is the only star in our solar system. Some stars began their light travel to earth millions of years ago.

A star can die one of three of ways. After a star has reached its main point in life, there are two paths to death.The first is that it becomes a white dwarf like Happy in Snow White. After the white dwarf stage, there is the black dwarf stage, then it just fades like Obi Wan Kenobi when Darth Vader killed him. The other path a star can take is it blows up. When it blows up it can be reborn into a neutron star or it can become a black hole.  

All different stars have different colours unlike my mother’s mood which only has two —yellow for mellow and red for anger. The more colour a star has the cooler it is and it is likely to live longer. The less colour a star has the hotter it is and the more it is likely to live a shorter life. A blue star can be 100 time brighter than the sun. The sun is a yellow dwarf. In about 10,000 years, it will grow so large it will suck the in earth. Then it will become a white dwarf.

Before everyone had a GPS sailors used the stars as navigation.  In the north, they used the North Star. In the south, they used the Southern Cross.

Stars are the constellation’s body. Myths are its soul. Ever since the first humans on Earth, people have looked into the night sky. When they did, they remembered their creation stories and their myths. The people thought they had proof of their stories and made more stories based on the stars. The ideas they had are now called constellations. Constellations depict gods and heroes from religions all over the world. Astronomers recognize 88 constellations. 

In many religions, stars represent the home of gods or Heaven. Xilbalba, or the Milky Way, was a road to the afterlife according to the Mayan people. The Yakut people of Siberia thought that gods looked at them through the stars which they thought might be windows. In America, the Navajo thought that the Coyote threw a blanket of crystals into the night. This made the Milky Way. Villagers in the Pawnee tribe created their villages to look like constellations. Ursa Major, according to the Seneca people, is a great bear that is hunted by six men across the sky. Paiute people thought that the Moon was the stars’ mother. She ran across the night sky with them, but when day broke, the stars’ father — the Sun — came out and ate them. 

Everyone has a connection with stars. Each month has a horoscope and each horoscope has a constellation. Since every birth is during one month or another, everyone has a horoscope. Every horoscope has a personality and some people think that is where a person’s personality comes from. Take myself for example. I was born in January so my horoscope is Capricorn. My traits, according to Capricorn, are nosey, reliable, and caring.

Now you see why stars and constellations are special too many people, including me. These stars made villages and back up stories of old.

Bibliography

“Stars” Gale Middle School Online Connection, Gale, 2020.

“Constellations.” Science Weekly, vol. 11, no. 13, 8 Mar. 1995, p. 1.

Blackwell, Amy H. and Elizabeth Manar. “Constellation.” UXL Encyclopedia of Science, 3rd ed., 2015.

Topash-Caldwell, Blaire. “Connected With the Sky: The Constellations of the Neshnabe.” Michigan History Magazine, vol. 104, no. 3, May-June 2020, p. 36+. 

Wickersham, John M. “Stars. ” Myths and Legends of the World, Macmillian Reference USA, 2000.