Lately, the temperatures have registered in the high 80s and even low 90s. On TV, I heard that some areas have had two heat waves, which meant that the temperature reached 90 degrees for three days in a row. Our hottest days usually do not occur until the end of July and extend through August.

During this period, the hot and dry days are known as the dog days of summer.

The Egyptians believed that the heat of July and August occurred because of Sirius, the dog star. When Sirius rose with the sun, the people experienced scorching heat, which they believed brought forth fever in men and madness in dogs.

The ancient Egyptians revered Sirius which was also known as either the Nile Star or Star of Isis. Sirius’s annual appearance, just before dawn at the summer solstice, heralded the coming rise of the Nile, which Egyptian agriculture and life depended upon.

In the Aeneid, Virgil wrote, “The dog star, that burning constellation, when he brings drought and diseases on sickly mortals, rises and saddens the sky with inauspicious light.”

The Aeneid by the Roman poet Virgil completed in 19 BC, stands as a monumental work of classical literature that transcends its historical context. The epic poem follows the protagonist Aeneas as he navigates a journey filled with challenges, divine interventions, and his ultimate destiny of the founding of Rome.

About 3000 B.C., Sirius rose near June 25. The star was called the divine sepet when referred to in many temple inscriptions and was identified with the soul of Isis.

The name Sirius is derived from the Greek word for sparkling or scorching, however, some connection with the Greek name for the Egyptian God Osiris has also been suggested.

The Greek, Roman and Egyptian name suggests a common origin from an older tongue (Sanskrit), in which the name Surya (The Sun God) simply means the shining one. Plutarch called the star the leader and, in the time of Homer, it was known as the star of autumn while in many other civilizations, it was known as the dog star of the sun.

Today Sirius has many names: the sparkling one, the scorching one, the dog star and the Nile star. It is the brightest of the fixed stars, and here in the northern hemisphere, we see Sirius throughout the winter months. Unlike the Egyptians, who associated the approach of Sirius with scorching heat, we view Sirius when experiencing sparkling frosty nights and snow-laden trees.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, we see Sirius rising at about 9 p.m., however by Christmas evening, the star can be seen coming over the eastern horizon by 7 p.m., and by New Year’s Eve, the star dominates the southern sky, reaching culmination just at midnight.

Sirius is nine times brighter than the standard first magnitude star and 23 times brighter than our sun. At a distance of 8.7 light years, Sirius is the fifth nearest known star. Among the stars viewed with the naked-eye, it is the nearest of all, except for Alpha-Centauri. The vastness of space is dramatically illustrated by the fact that even such a nearby star is 550,000 times more distant than our sun.

Sirius belongs to the Canis Major, a constellation that is so far south that in our latitude it takes a very clear night to see its faintest stars, even though Sirius outshines all other stars in our night sky.

Between 1834-44 an astronomer by the name of F. W. Bessel found that Sirius has a wavy irregularity in its motion through space, and he concluded that Sirius had an invisible companion. In 1862, this was finally proven true by Alvin Clark, using an 18 1/2 inch refracting telescope, which at the time was the largest refractor in the world. The telescope is still in use at the Dearborn Observatory, Northwestern University, in Illinois. Sirius’s companion was naturally called the pup, with the official name of Sirius B.

Unless conditions are very good, the pup can only be seen with a telescope. Usually, it is completely lost in the overpowering glare of the light from Sirius.

Then in 1920, it was reported that Sirius B might also have a duplicate. This suspected third star has been reported by R. T. Innes, South Africa, and by Van de Bos, the well-known double star expert, however due to the great difficulty in the observation of the star, it has not been possible to verify these reports. This third star might explain the slight irregularities in Sirius’s orbit.

In 1973 a thorough study by the United States Naval Observatory, concluded that there is no evidence for the existence of the third star in the Sirius system.

The dog days of summer will not last for long, and after they have passed, it won’t be long until we are able to see the dog star in our winter sky. Then, we’ll probably be wishing for some of the summer’s heat.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.