Here's a new video I just posted entitled "March comes in like a Lion," which I made today to encourage everyone to go outside and take in the glorious spectacle of the constellations of March, if at all possible.
The video starts by touring the glorious lineup of constellations visible to us at this time of year. At this particular point in our orbit around the sun, the constellation Orion is still very dominant in the evening sky (along with the beautiful Hyades and Pleiades), while at the same time we can see Leo rising up in the east followed by Virgo, and accompanied by the entire length of the constellation Hydra.
If you know where to look, you can also see the dazzling and mythologically-important Beehive Cluster (also known as Messier 44, or M44).
The appearance of the Lion near the "center stage" of the heavens reminds me of a topic discussed in this previous post from July of last year, and the concept of the "Lion's Gaze." Special thank-you to researcher and explorer Richard Cassaro for his insightful 2015 article on the subject of the "Lion's Gaze," which undergirds the discussion of this topic in my later blog post and in this newest video.
I hope that you will have the opportunity to get outside to witness the breathtaking lineup of constellations visible this month, if it is at all possible for you to do so. Note that the moon is waning right now, although still a sliver this evening and the following evening. As the month progresses the moon's sliver will become more and more full, on its way to full moon on March 20th (which happens to also be the day on which the earth will hurtle through the point of spring equinox this year).
After the night of the full moon, the moon will of course begin to wane again, and star gazing will once again begin to improve. The moon also rises later in the evening each night, so that after full moon it will be rising later and later and creating better constellation viewing conditions. Therefore, if you miss the window for best viewing during the next nights while the moon is relatively new, there will be another good period for star gazing etc beginning a couple days after the spring equinox this year.
Regardless of whether or not you have the opportunity to go out to see the stars in person, perhaps more important is the practice of fixing the gaze upon the source, as explored in the Lion's Gaze discussion, and the teaching that we should not be chasing after substitutes when the source of what we are looking for out there is already available to us within.
I hope that you will have the opportunity to get outside to witness the breathtaking lineup of constellations visible this month, if it is at all possible for you to do so. Note that the moon is waning right now, although still a sliver this evening and the following evening. As the month progresses the moon's sliver will become more and more full, on its way to full moon on March 20th (which happens to also be the day on which the earth will hurtle through the point of spring equinox this year).
After the night of the full moon, the moon will of course begin to wane again, and star gazing will once again begin to improve. The moon also rises later in the evening each night, so that after full moon it will be rising later and later and creating better constellation viewing conditions. Therefore, if you miss the window for best viewing during the next nights while the moon is relatively new, there will be another good period for star gazing etc beginning a couple days after the spring equinox this year.
Regardless of whether or not you have the opportunity to go out to see the stars in person, perhaps more important is the practice of fixing the gaze upon the source, as explored in the Lion's Gaze discussion, and the teaching that we should not be chasing after substitutes when the source of what we are looking for out there is already available to us within.
