Hello, this is Mary Stewart Adams with “The Storyteller’s Guide to the Night Sky”.
This week looking southwest an hour after sunset, the planets Mars and Saturn can be seen near the brightest, or ‘alpha’ star in the constellation Libra, the scales. This star’s name is “Zubenelgenubi”, from the Arabic, and it means the “southern tray of the scales”.
With Mars and Saturn in the region of the southern scale, we can imagine that the two planets are literally ‘hanging in the balance’ this week.
To ‘’hang in the balance’ is an Old English term from the 15th century that means to be in a precarious situation, unsure of the future. This ‘hanging in the balance’ is often the fate of fairy tale heroes and heroines, and is the perfect set up for a late August evening of storytelling.
To the north of Saturn and Mars we find the constellation of the starry crown, Corona Borealis, so with the two planets in the region of the southern scale and the starry crown above them, the late 19th century rendering of the Sicilian tale “Catherine and Her Destiny” is fitting:
Though Catherine is born a princess, she is cast out into the world alone, dogged by the lady “Destiny” who sends her struggling through the years. After much time and experience has passed, Catherine’s Destiny is convinced that it is time for her ‘happily ever after’, but not before Catherine’s fate is weighed in the scales of a mighty king. Though Catherine has but a ball of silk to verify her worth, no treasure is great enough to tip the scales into balance until the king places his own crown thereon.
Find a link to the complete story at the Interlochen Public Radio website, and find the story in the planets and stars looking southwest an hour after sunset. Mars will appear left of Saturn and is reddish in color. Saturn will be slightly above and has a golden hue. Zubenelgenubi will be faint, as though completing the point of a triangle to the right of both planets. The starry crown will be north of this trio.
I’m Mary Stewart Adams, from Emmet County’s International Dark Sky Park at the Headlands.
Catherine and Her Destiny: http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/145/the-pink-fairy-book/4824/catherine-and-her-destiny/