Summer Triangle

I remember first learning about the summer triangle when I was about 7 years old. Tucked away in the pages of H.A. Rey’s The Stars, I discovered that the stars with the greatest magnitude in Cygnus, Lyra, and Aquila form a large triangle in the summer night sky. This curiosity is not a proper constellation, I was told, but an asterism– an accidental shape appearing through a purely fortuitous interplay between members of established constellations. It was not until college that I was reminded of the summer triangle by my astronomy professor, David Slavsky, who arranged for members of our class to meet atop one of the tallest buildings on Loyola University’s Lake Shore campus at 3 a.m. in order to witness a rare meteor shower.

Tonight, I happened to glance up at the night sky while transferring one of my sleeping boys from the car to the house and was surprised to discover the summer triangle staring back down at me.

To the extent that anything like constants exist in this world, they are embodied in the stars.