Friday, August 17, 2007

The sparkling blue-white star near tonight’s waxing crescent moon（峨嵋月） is Spica, the brightest light in the constellation Virgo the Maiden（处女座）.

The moon and Spica appear in the western or southwestern sky at nightfall, and descend in the sky as night deepens. They set beneath your southwestern horizon by mid- to late evening. Shining at some 260 light-years away, the star Spica looks like a single point of light. But it’s really a multiple star system, composed of at least five stars. Two of Spica’s components are very luminous while the other three are practically invisible. The two brighter stars revolve around each other in four days, and both of these stars are many times larger and more massive than our sun.

In mythology, Spica’s constellation – Virgo – exhibits a multifaceted nature in line with the multiple character of its brightest star. According to one story, Virgo is the Greek goddess Cybele , whose lion-drawn chariot is depicted by the constellation Leo the Lion, which is near Virgo on the sky’s dome.

So – at nightfall and throughout the early evening tonight – look for Spica, the brightest light in the vicinity of the moon. Spica is one of the sky’s brightest stars, but you’ll need a dark sky to pick out any other stars in the large, rambling constellation Virgo.