04/22/2014 – Ephemeris – The Great Bear and the Fisher Star

Ephemeris for Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22nd.  The sun rises at 6:46.  It’ll be up for 13 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 8:36.   The moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 3:31 tomorrow morning.

This evening the Big Dipper is practically overhead.  The Europeans and some Native Americans say it as the hind end of a bear with dimmer stars making up the rest of the bear.  The official constellation of which the Big dipper is a part is Ursa Major, the Great Bear.  The native Americans were smart enough to depict the handle stars of the dipper as three hunters following the bear, rather than the bear’s unnaturally long tail.  The Anishinabek Indians who settled around here saw instead of a bear a weasel like creature, who did have a long tail called Fisher or Fisher Star, who through a great adventure, with his other animal friends, brought summer and the rest of the seasons to the frozen earth.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The Great Bear as the Europeans saw it. Created using Stellarium.

The Fisher Star. Created using Stellarium.