![]() In fact, it would seem that with the passage of time, all the stars gradually shift westward while new stars move up from the eastern horizon to take their place.Īs our Earth whirls through space around the Sun, its motions cause night and day, the four seasons and the passage of the years. Those stars that were low over the western horizon during the early evening hours would, within a matter of a few weeks, disappear entirely from our view, their places being taken up by groups of stars which, a few weeks earlier, were previously higher up in the sky at sundown. ![]() No big deal here, since, after all, the Sun does the same thing during the daylight hours.īut with the passage of time, we would notice something rather puzzling. They would sweep across the sky during the night, finally setting beneath the western horizon by dawn. Were we to watch the night sky on any one night from dusk to dawn we would notice certain stars rising from above the eastern horizon in the evening hours. And on fall evenings, it’s the Great Square of Pegasus that vies for the stargazer’s attention. Spring evenings provide us with a view of the Sickle of Leo, the Lion. Have you ever wondered why most star patterns are associated with specific seasons of the year? Just why, for instance, can evening sky watchers in the Northern Hemisphere only enjoy Orion the Hunter during the cold wintry months? And during summer evenings it’s the stars of Scorpius, the Scorpion that dominate the southern sky.
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