Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, July 13th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 16 minutes, setting at 9:26, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:11. The Moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 1:55 tomorrow morning.

Friday I looked at the constellation of Cygnus the swan and the informal constellation or asterism made from most of its stars the Northern Cross. Cygnus is the official International Astronomical Union constellation name. However the indigenous Anishinaabe people of our area had another bird in mind when seeing these stars, which are now fairly high in the east in the evening: Ajijaak, (pronounced a-ji-jock) a Sand Hill crane. While the swan is flying, neck outstretched to the south through the Milky Way, the crane is flying northward with its long legs trailing behind. The bright star Deneb is at his head. Where I live I see more cranes than swans these days and hear their creaking-door-like calls, and see a pair from time to time in a field south of where I live.

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

Addendum

The IAU Cygnus the swan and the Anishinaabe Ajijaak the crane constellations demonstrated via an animated GIF image. Note the bright star of the Summer Triangle. Click on the Image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium (both star lore images are embedded in Stellarium). The Anishinaabe image is from Ojibwe Giizhig Anung Masinaaigan – Ojibiwe Sky Star Map created by A. Lee, W. Wilson, and C. Gawboy.