The Dog Days of Summer
The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. These are the days of the year with the least rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere (living in Florida, I get experience rain daily during this time.) The Term dog days is from ancient times, when the night sky was unobscured by artificial lights and different groups of peoples in different parts of the world drew images in the sky by “connecting the dots” of stars. The images drawn...