When We’re Perpendicular to the Milky Way ~ from the archives

In the land of the “Storyteller’s Night Sky” there’s a lot of whimsy and rhyme and ‘once upon a time’, all meant to capture the majesty, the beauty, and the mystery of our celestial world in a way that celebrates our place within it.

For several years I have been at work on a project I call “The Star Tales of Mother Goose”, and here to have some fun in it with me today, as we make our way under the starry skies of May where the Mother Goose Rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” comes to life in the constellations overhead, are Caroline Barlow (guitar/vocals) and Aliana Lee (vocals).

You’re invited to listen again and again so you can sing along with our song to the stars, where you’ll find the “cat” is our constellation Leo, the Lion, chasing the “little dog”, Canis Minor over the western edge of the world. The “fiddle” is the starry group Lyra, rising up in the northeast on May nights when the Moon comes to New Phase among the stars of Taurus, the Bull (there’s a cow jumping over the Moon).

Also on May evenings, the plane of the Earth’s orbit is perpendicular to the galactic plane, and our Milky Way seems like a flat dish hugging the horizon, so it seems to disappear, or run away from view, while the ‘spoon’ (the Big Dipper) is on high overhead!

Hey Diddle Diddle from The Storyteller’s Night Sky on Interlochen Publuc Radio.

Hope you’ll sing along and share the tune!

Mary