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20 | THE COLONY NEWS | JANUARY 2023 | By Mike Vergara, 951- 461-2889 Happy New Year! How has another year come and gone already? In my Planetarium shows, I often touch on Native American/Indigenous Peoples' stories of the sky. The stories of the Nations of the southwestern United States are my favorites. However, by cultural tradition, star stories for some of these peoples are only told in winter. Last year I told the story of how Coyote created the Milky Way. As you might expect, this year I have another story to tell around the winter fire. Have you ever looked at the constellation Ursa Major? The name (in Latin) means the "Great Bear." Today, when we look at this constellation, we see primarily the brightest stars which form the asterism known as the "Big Dipper." The bowl of the dipper is the body of the bear, his legs and head are dimmer stars (which we cannot see from our light-polluted skies), and the handle of the dipper is his tail. Tail? Bears don't have tails that long! Why does the sky bear have such a long tail? There are many tales about this (see what I did there?), but this Iroquois legend is one of my favorites. Once, long ago when the earth was young, there was a giant bear that was pursued by a great chief. Long went the chase, for both of them were strong. Day after day the chase went on, until one day the chief caught the bear by his stubby little tail. The bear roared and fought with all his might, but the chief was able to hold on. Finally, tiring of the battle, the chief began to swing the bear around his head! Faster and faster went the bear, until his tail was all stretched out of shape. Then the chief hurled the bear up into the sky, where the bear got stuck! Even today, the great bear swings in a giant circle in the northern sky. To find where the planets and constellations are, visit http://skymaps.com/index.html. From there you can print your own map of the sky for the month. Clear skies! january Sky january Sky Gaile Yoder In Memoriam

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