dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (12/22/85)
The evening sky in December contains a celestial river. More on Eridanus -- when we come back. December 22 The River of the Sky In the evening hours this month, the southern part of the sky contains a constellation so faint and so meandering that you may have trouble seeing it. This winding line of stars is called Eridanus the River. The River of Heaven, or Great River of the Sky, is now in the south each evening. To see it, try to trace it from its source -- which is the star Beta Eridani. Beta is a fairly bright star located near the belt of Orion -- itself a distinctive celestial marker made up of three medium-bright stars in a short, straight row. From its source near Orion, the river flows into the southern sky -- where it swells up in a great loop under Cetus the Whale. It continues its winding path until it reaches the star called Achernar, from an Arabic word meaning "the end of the River." But Achernar is located so low in the south that it's not even visible above about 30 degrees north latitude. The celestial river might represent a real river on Earth -- the Ganges, Euphrates or Nile. In mythology, the river was the final resting place of the son of the sun-god Apollo -- who let his father's sun-chariot get out of control and nearly destroy the Earth. The king of the gods hurled a thunderbolt at the boy and killed him. And his charred body fell into Eridanus. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin