Do you know your zodiac sign? Would you know how to find it in the night sky? To help learn about the astronomy and mythology behind the constellations of the zodiac, UW-Milwaukee's Manfred Olson Planetarium recently began a new series of events based on the zodiac. This month, they are highlighting Aries, which is visible just around sunset, according to planetarium director Jean Creighton.
"Aries, frankly, is a somewhat underwhelming constellation. It looks like an arc and it’s crossed by the path of the sun," she says.
While Aries can be associated with the planet Mars or the god of war, the constellation Aries is a ram — specifically a golden ram in Greek mythology, according to Creighton.
"There are twins, Phrixos and Helle, and they are the daughter and son of a king ... in mainland Greece," she explains. The king had remarried, and his wife wasn't so keen of his children and hoped to get rid of them in hopes of supplying a new heir.
"Their biological mother Nephele was so worried about the future of her children that she took a magical ram and had them fly on the ram from mainland Greece to what would now be the Black Sea."
Sadly, Helle fell into the ocean (in what is now known as the Hellespont), and the brother who safely arrived offered the ram as sacrifice to thank the gods for his safe passage. Aries is also the golden fleece that Jason of the Argonauts went to get, she adds.
Even though Aries is hard to spot in the night sky, Creighton notes it does have a meteor shower around dawn on June 10th.
"When a meteor shower seems to be emanating from a constellation, it does get the name of the constellation, so this one is called Arietids," she notes.
To learn more about Aires, UW-Milwaukee's Manfred Olson Planetarium will have a live, interactive show Constellations of the Zodiac: Aries on April 1 at 7 p.m.
