Good morning Grandad! That was a great star show last night.
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| Eggs a la Grandad |
Yes, even Job in the Bible was impressed with the
stars ‘down-under’ - he called them the 'chambers of the south'. We’ve even got
21 of the 30 brightest stars!
So can you smell them?
Smell what?...the stars? All I can smell is yummy bacon and eggs.
No, all the dead animals around us in the bush,
lying there for hundreds of years, waiting to be turned into fossils for the
museums.
Don't be silly Grandad! Animals have
to be buried very quickly in sand or mud otherwise the bones all get scattered
after the body has rotted.
Ah!…so you need a huge flood to make fossils
hey? Oh silly me – I’ve been listening
too much to David Attenborough with his ‘millions of years’.
Uhh!...he’s just guessing like everybody else.
Look, the
sun’s coming up!
That’s what it looks like but actually we’re
moving towards the east during the day while the sun stays in front of the same
stars. As we move around the sun during the year it will seem to slowly move
along a line in front of 12 groups of stars called constellations, spending a
month in front of each one.
The sun looks like it moves along a line?? That’s probably the line David in the Bible
was talking about! Which constellation
is behind the sun right now?
Gemini - the twins.
Gemini? That’s one of the star signs
people believe in! I bet you don’t find those constellations in the Bible.
The 12 constellations aren’t named in the Bible
but guess what?...the twins are – Castor and Pollux. They were the badge on the
side of the ship that took Paul prisoner to Rome.
Really??...fancy the Bible telling us that! What about other constellations?
…in the Bible? Sure. Job also spoke of the brightest star in the
north which we call Arcturus, the Orion constellation, and the Pleaides or
Seven Sisters cluster. Remember I showed you Arcturus high in our northern sky
last night.
Yes, but that doesn’t mean God recognises constellations.
It does when He answers Job, asking him if he can
bind the Pleaides or loosen Orion’s belt. Now astronomers tell us that is what’s
happening.
Cool! God’s must have a sense of
humour too.
God also asked Job: “Can you bring out Mazzaroth in his season”, and I know what
you’re going to ask - it means ‘distinction’, you know…‘special’.
Hey, that could be the line of 12 special constellations. We could look for
them tonight and see if they tell the story of the gospel about Jesus, like
Paul said.
We won’t be able to see them all tonight but we
could make a start; later in the year we’ll be able to see more and Orion the
hunter too. Like the Pleaides he’s mentioned 3 times in the Bible, he
represents all constellations, he is the brightest in the sky and he’s right
over the equator so everybody gets to see him. He will look upside down to us
so we have a funny name for his belt and sword – ‘the saucepan’!
Wow – I can’t wait! When will we be able to see him…and those Seven Sisters?
We’ll see them by December - all except Myrope
the youngest sister who’s a bit shy…unless we bring our binoculars. Did
you know?...that’s why Subarus have only got 6 stars on their badge. That’s
fair dinkum!
Aw Grandad! You’ve been doing too
much stargazing!
Which constellation will we look at first?
Which constellation will we look at first?
I suggest we start with Virgo because that lines
up with where the gospel story begins in the Bible and Virgo is high in our
northern sky just after tea.
NEXT: The kids find a scorpion
http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/grandkids-find-scorpion.html
NEXT: The kids find a scorpion
http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/grandkids-find-scorpion.html
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