Sagittarius and Follow the Arch

The Tea Pot of Sagittarius is centaur with a bow and arrow but even since the British started drinking all that tea they’ve seen the tea pot and we can see why. There’s a trapezoid with a wider bottom sitting close to the South South East horizon in March with a clear handle on out left and a spout on our right.

Out of the spout the milky way seems to flow watch it come from there and go right over your head and across the heavens, milk for the tea. Above is a small configuration known as the tea spoon it’s pretty clear too. And as if all that was not interesting enough, Sagittarius is also home to the heart of our Milky Way Galaxy. Yes, it is possible to see the galaxies center. This means all the stars that we see spiral around this point in the sky. Well cosmic time is so long we never see the motion but motion there is and we can have the privilege of gazing at it’s core. While contemplating those wondersWhen you see a “quarter moon,” which really looks like a half moon to us, it’s an example of a strangely named moon in my opinion, ah the names of things, go figure. You just have to learn it. You can see there point. After all how to account for all the moons we don’t see around behind. But since we see half why not name them for what is visual to us? Guess my visual artist type is showing.This time of year notice the bright star in the East rising higher each night through out March and April, it’s Arcturus. It’s always in a relationship with the Big Dipper which is also rising just ahead of it and to the north. The handle of the dipper makes an arch of stars and if you follow them away from the dipper they go right to Arcturus and so the one liner: follow the arch to arcturus and spike to Spica. Spica not quite as bright but definitely noteworthy it’s further along the same arch and is Virgo’s sprig of wheat. Since I’m a Virgo it’s a nice constellation for me though very dim and not very exciting. But Spica’s cool. And that relationship with the other constellations across the sky north to south is exciting. An asterism is a relationship between constellations like the summer triangle made up of three constellations so this to is an asterism following obvious stars across the sky in a curved line.