The Southern Sky
It was clear and -10C on the deck this morning at 5:30. I took my coffee outdoors (to prove my Canadianness) and gazed at the sky for a few minutes. A star at the apex of a triangle formed by Sirius and Betelgeuse caught my eye.
Procyon is a bright star; it stands alone in a dark patch of southern sky.
When my fingers thawed later, I did some research on it. Procyon is the eighth brightest star in the night sky and one of the closest; only 11.5 light years from earth.
Procyon rides the sky above Monoceros, the Unicorn.
Depending on which folklore you follow Procyon is a dog, a carpenter, a pillar propping up the sky, or a wolf. I like the Macedonian “wolf’ version, because I measure space-time in wolves.
When I was a kid, a wolf lived under my bed. The terrifying beast couldn’t get me when the light was on, and blankets provided an impenetrable shield, but for that instant between flipping off the light switch at the bedroom door and getting under the covers, I was vulnerable.
I practiced racing into bed at the speed of light. If I could flip the switch and get under the sheets before the light disappeared, the wolf wouldn’t get me.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t come close to achieving the speed of disappearing light. The wolf had a brief nightly opportunity to devour me.
My wolf evasion experience is the only reference I have to understanding the speed of light. The distance from the switch to my bed was only about three meters but the time it took for light to travel that far was impossibly brief. Light speed is very, very fast. Just ask a wolf.
If the speed of light is impossible for a human brain to compute over a distance of three meters, imagine how far it must travel in a minute, or a day, or a year!
Procyon might be a relatively close star, but 11.5 light years is incomprehensibly distant.
Bear and I in 2013.
My hair still had dark tinges …
…When the Light Left Procyon.
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