Women's Hiking: Jan 3 & 5th

The Discovery Center's Womens Hiking Group will meet at Lewisboro Park in NY this week, Tues., Jan. 3rd and Thurs., Jan. 5th.
Located on the south side of 35 between Mead Street and Bouton Road in South Salem.
Meet at 9:30am.

Cassiopeia's Story - The W in the Sky

Constellations have been the GPS for travelers throughout history. To make them easier to remember, often stories were told about them. Sometimes the story involved multiple constellations. In Cassiopeia’s case, beside herself, five other constellations are involved – Cepheus, Andromeda, Cetus, Perseus, & Pegasus – at least in this version.

Cassiopeia was the vain wife of King Cepheus of Ethiopia. (They are the only husband and wife among the constellations.) Together they had a daughter Andromeda. One day, Cassiopeia boasted she was more beautiful than the sea nymphs. The sea nymphs, who were goddesses, were outraged. One of them, Amphitrite appealed to her husband Poseidon, God of the Sea, to punish Cassiopeia for her vanity. Poseidon sent a sea monster Cetus to destroy Ethiopia. With his kingdom in peril, Cepheus consulted an oracle for advice. He was told the only way to save his realm was to sacrifice Andromeda to Cetus. Reluctantly, he had his poor daughter chained to a seaside rock. Just as Cetus was about to eat her, he felt a sharp pain in his back. He turned and there was the hero Perseus atop the winged-horse Pegasus, sword in hand. The battle between monster and hero raged until Perseus who had just returned from slaying the snake-headed Medusa dragged her head out of a sack. One look at Medusa’s face turns living creatures to stone. Cetus looked and was immediately solidified. Smitten, Perseus claimed Andromeda for his bride and took her home. While the gods made constellations of them all, the arrogant Cassiopeia was condemned to circle the star Polaris forever in her throne. This results in her hanging upside down in an undignified position for half the year. But even then, she is fussing with her hair.

The DC Women's Hiking Group will hike this week Tues., Dec. 20th and Thurs., Dec. 22nd at Pierrepont State Park.
Meet in parking area off of Barlow Mountain Road at 9:30am.
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
The group will meet again when school starts up on Tues., Jan. 3rd.

Constellation of the Month - Cassiopeia, the "W"

Cassiopeia is a "W"- shaped constellation almost directly overhead and slightly north in December soon after sunset. Cassiopeia is an interesting constellation for several reasons.

1. It's Circumpolar: It's one of a few constellations that never rise and never set. They just (appear to) go in circles around the North Star -- every day a circle, and every year a much slower circle. At 6AM tomorrow it will be low in the sky to the north, and 6 months from now in the evening, it will be about the same place.

If you lived at the North Pole, all the stars you could see would be circumpolar. But they'd only be half the stars in the sky, because the other half -- which you would never see -- would be circumpolar for those penguins looking up from the South Pole.

2. It's always opposite the Big Dipper, with the North Star about midway between them. So, if you look north from Cassiopeia, and keep going north and lower in the sky, you'll find the Big Dipper low in the north. 3 months ago and 3 months from now, they were opposite each other east to west.

3. The band of the Milky Way goes through it. We're in the Milky Way galaxy, which is shaped like a disk. When we see it as a fuzzy band of many, many stars, we're looking along the plane of the disk, so we see what looks like a band of stars. When we look anywhere except along this plane we just see a few stars that are close, and that's what the rest of the sky (outside the band) looks like.

The DC Women's Hiking Group will meet Tues., Dec. 6th and Thurs., Dec. 8th at Scott Preserve in Redding, CT at 9:30am.

From the north down Rt 7. Turn left onto Old Redding Rd (I believe that is where Walpole used to be). Right after you go under the RR bear right onto Mountain Rd. Take Mountain Rd to Peaceable St and turn left onto Peaceable. The parking for the open space is on the left. I don't remember how far along on Peaceable it is, but I believe if you come to an electrical substation on the right you have gone too far.
There is limited parking, so please carpool, if possible.

The DC Women's Hiking Group will be hiking at Saugatuck Falls in Redding, CT this Tues., Nov. 29th and Thurs., Dec. 1st.
The address is 65 Diamond Hill Road. Between mailbox 65 and 73 follow to parking on the left side. Meet at 9:30am.

Women Hiking Group - Nov 15 & 17

The DC Women's Hiking Group will hike at Bennett's Pond on Tues., Nov. 15th and Thurs., Nov. 17th.
Take Route 7 north to Bennett's Farm Road on the left.
The park entrance and parking area will be on the right.
Meet at 9:30am.