03/12/2018 – Ephemeris – The Fisher is rising as spring approaches

Ephemeris for Monday, March 12th. The Sun will rise at 8:00. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 7:45. The Moon, 4 days past last quarter, will rise at 6:05 tomorrow morning.

Now in the evening the Big Dipper has moved up in the northeast. The Anishinaabek peoples around the Great Lakes, like the Ottawa and Chippewa saw instead of a dipper or a bear: Ojiig the Fisher. It’s a magical weasel-like creature who, with some animal friends, brought summer to the Earth. The story is too long to relay here, but my telling of it is here. For his trouble he was slain, and was placed among the stars of the sky by the Great Spirit Manitou where we see him today. His blood is said to paint the trees with the fall colors. However as the Fisher rises in the northeast in late winter and early spring it is a signal for the maple trees to bring forth their sweet sap.

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

Addendum

Finding the Big Dipper and the Fisher at 9 p.m., March 12, 2018. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium and GIMP.

The Anishinaabek constellation drawings are from Ojibwe Sky Star Map Constellation Guide  by Annette S. Lee, William Wilson, Jeffrey Tibbets and Carl Gawboy available locally and online.  They are part of the latest editions of Stellarium, a free planetarium program.  Links to it are on the left.  Other information and links are available within the Sky Lore tab.

Here’s one of the links: http://www.nativeskywatchers.com/.  It also contains links to Lakota star maps and lore.