I recently discovered that something I'd always taken for granted as a concrete fact is actually more like Jell-O. Turns out, my North Star isn't the same as Alexander the Great's. Have I got a story for you...

Thank you for reading MuseInks. I'm Ami Hendrickson, writer, ghost, and editor in chief of Soul Sparks Press. Each Thursday, I share thoughts for readers, writers, and other fabulous people.

Feel free to forward this to other wonderful people you know.
If someone awesome forwarded this to you, please subscribe here for more!

Musings

This past week, I read The Night Sky, a Usborne Spotter's Guide. It's a little book—under 70 pages—packed full of star charts and slightly over-the-top artist's renderings of planets and celestial objects.

Many years ago, when Rheo was little, we had a subscription to Sky & Telescope Magazine, which featured articles that often challenged us (lots of physics, as I recall). But we loved those star charts! We'd take our little telescope outside and look for planets and cool craters on the moon.

Sometimes we even found them!

One thing I learned from The Night Sky is that Polaris has not always been the star that marked the North Celestial Pole.

As Earth rotates around its axis, the star closest to the pole appears fixed in place while the other stars that are farther from the pole appear to trace a giant circle over the course of a night.

As the millennia pass and the Earth noodles through space, our relative position to the stars gradually changes. Our home planet has a bit of a wobble (think of a children's toy top that begins to lose its oomph, and starts to wibble and wobble like a drunken sailor). Over a period of approximately 26,000 years, the Earth's axis does the same sort of wibble-wobble, causing its poles to trace a sort of slow circle in the sky -- which results in different stars lining up to each pole as time marches on.

​https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ybNDY87pU77rAyZUV7QJGf.gif​

Right now, for instance, there is no readily recognizable bright star that corresponds to the South Pole. But during the time of Alexander the Great, Beta Hydri was the Southern Pole star.

Some 4,700 years ago, when Sumeria was a prominent civilization, the Northern Celestial Pole star was Thuban (now in the constellation Draco).

Then, as the Earth wibbled, that pole star changed. From 1,700 BCE to about 300 CE, both Kochab and Pherkad (found on the far side of the Little Dipper) were Pole Stars. In fact, archaeologists believe that Kochab was one of the stars used in the orientation of the Great Pyramids of Giza.

When Alexander was "Great," Kochab, not Polaris, was his North Star.

Kinda throws a wet blanket of science on the claims of astrology, knowing that though we see the same stars the ancients did, since they're not in the same places, they can't hold the same significance.

Still—

There's something pure and primal about looking into a clear night sky.

Do you have a favorite star, constellation, or celestial object? For me, there is something compelling about the red star Betelgeuse and the nebula in Orion. I also get mesmerized by the Magellanic Clouds on either side of Hydrus.

MuseNews

Taxes are (finally!) finished!

[Monty Python Narrator's Voice] "And there was much rejoicing in the land."

Rah!

Getting past the finish line took not one, but two lengthy meetings with Vicki, my fabulous Tax Lady, who stocks her office with about 58,000 calories worth of chocolate to stuff yourself with while she plugs a year's worth of numbers into her magic software. I love Vicki dearly, but am always glad when I can cross my annual meeting with her off my calendar.

Book Updates:

More than a week after its release, Paris Polo Match continues to sit at #1 in both the US and Canada.

I am so incredibly grateful to everyone who has bought it and recommended it. (Not going to lie: those reviews are SO important. They're like the cream cheese frosting on carrot cake—a critical part of the full experience.)

Next Week:

What does it take to make a 40 year-old movie feel fresh, engaging, and new? How about dancing in the aisles? Have I got a story for you...

Till next week,

May your night skies be filled with unknowable wonders. And may your North Star never change.

I love you all!

Ami

Ami Hendrickson
​Book Coach, Author, Editor, and Corgi Mom
💬 Say Hi on LinkedIn!
Or on Instagram!
Or on... Pinterest!​
Or on TikTok...