The Dog Days of Summer

It’s like Groundhog Day in August. Today’s forecast? Hot. Humid. Sticky. Lethargic. Tomorrow’s forecast” Hotter. Stickier. More lethargic. We are firmly entrenched in the Dog Days of Summer.

I look down at the dog and see that he feels the same way. It seems that all he wants to do is lay around, stretch, scratch himself, eat, and occasionally wander around the house and act like he is in charge.

I can relate.

Then again, that’s what dogs do all year round – not just in the summertime – that’s their job. So what is with the whole expression “The Dog Days of Summer?” It doesn’t really make sense. Our dog is no lazier in August than he is in June. So, I pulled myself out of my sticky indifference just long enough to find out where the expression came from. It turns out that it is new knowledge for me. You probably always knew this, so give yourself a hearty, self-congratulatory pat on the back while I explain it to those of us who did not know. Or care.

“The Dog Days of Summer” have nothing to do with my dog. Or your dog. Or anybody’s dog. But it does have to do with one specific dogs: Canis Major.  That’s right – the Major Dog.

For those of you not fresh on your astronomy, Canis Major is a constellation that looks like this:

It is kind of hard to see it if you don’t know what you are looking for, but if you go outside on an exceptionally clear night, you can see the lines and it makes more sense.

And the brightest star where his collar goes? that is named Sirius, (yes, like the satellite radio) or – wait for it – The Dog Star.

It is pretty easy to find in the summer sky because most of us can find a total of 3 constellation: The Big Dipper, the Little Dipper and Orion.  All you need to do to find Canis Major is find Orion, and his faithful dog is there at his heel. Like this:

Or, again, on an exceptionally clear night:

Last night I thought about going out to look for Canis Major but it was hot and sticky, and – you know – Netflix. But take my word for it: Canis Major is up there with Orion, and has been for a very long time – and THAT is where the expression the “Dog Days of Summer” comes from.

By now you can tell that I am extremely well-versed in all things astronomical, (I’m a Virgo.) but to explain it better, I will lift an entire chunk from the History.com article found here.

“It’s a throwback to the time when ancient civilizations tracked the seasons by looking to the sky. The ancient Greeks noticed that summer’s most intense heat occurred during the approximate 40-day period in the early summer when Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, rose and set with the sun. To them it was simple math. The daytime addition of the warmth of Sirius—ancient Greek for “glowing” or “scorcher”—to the blaze of the sun equaled extreme heat. According to Greek mythology, Sirius was the dog of the hunter Orion, and the ancient Romans placed the star in the constellation Canis Major (Latin for “Greater Dog”). The Romans thus referred to the sweltering period when the rising of the sun and Sirius converged as the “dies caniculares” or “days of the dog star.” By the 1500s, the English world began to call the same summertime point on the astronomical calendar as the “dog days.” 

Due to a wobble in the Earth’s rotation that shifts the position of the stars in the night sky, the dates of the “dog days” now fall several weeks later on the calendar than they did thousands of years of ago. The ancient Egyptians 5,000 years ago noticed Sirius’s heliacal rising, when it was visible just before sunrise, just prior to the annual flooding of the Nile River and the summer solstice. Today, the precise dates vary by latitude, but the Old Farmer’s Almanac reports the traditional timing of the “dog days” in the United States is between July 3 and August 11.”

See? We are nearing the tail-end of the Dog Days right now.

Greeks, earth wobbles, heliacal risings. It is like being back in school – which is exactly where my youngest is heading as we speak. Yes, here in Gilbert our young-ones start school when they should still be trying to find a cool spot on the tile floor and begging for treats.

There you go: Orion’s trusty dog, Canis Major is with him in the summer sky, (Apologies to my Southern Hemisphere readers.) and that is why we have the Dog Days of Summer.

And now we return to our regularly scheduled swelter.