Sacred monuments

About 20 miles east of St. Louis, Mo., is the site of Cahokia, a pre-Columbian settlement that once housed around 25,000 residents. All that remains today is a number of manmade mounds, the largest of which is Monk’s Mound, named after a French Trappist monastery built on its top in the early 1800s.

Monk’s Mound is a huge structure consisting of four terraces built over a period of time from A.D. 900 to A.D. 1200. It stands more than 100 feet with a base of 1,037-by-790 feet that covers 14 acres. It’s estimated that 22 million cubic feet of earth was brought to the site with baskets for construction. The mound was tiled to allow for drainage and to prevent erosion.

A stone structure has been detected about 40 feet down into the mound but has never been excavated. Why was it built? Researchers believe that the king, who the Cahokians believed was a direct descendent of the sun, had his palace atop the mound. The importance of the sun to the Cahokians is shown by the fact the mound was surrounded by 48 posts in a 410-foot circle that has been dubbed “Woodhenge” after a similar structure in Great Britain. The posts could predict the solstices and equinoxes, a vital bit of information to an agricultural community where life revolved about corm growing and knowing the times to plant and harvest was essential. The posts marking the equinoxes were aligned with the fronts of the mound as if showing it “giving birth to the sun.” An offertory pit at the post for the winter solstice yielded artifacts of sacrifices given, in all likelihood, to get the sun to drive away the winter.

Focus on the planets

Mercury peeks briefly above the southeastern horizon about a half-hour before sunrise as February opens and then shortly disappears into the sun’s glare.

Venus dominates the southwestern sky shortly after sunset, where it is easily the brightest object in the night sky other than the moon. Check the extremely close pairing of Venus and a thin crescent moon on the evening of Feb. 23.

Mars, in spite of its recent publicity, continues to fade in size and brightness as its distance from Earth increases. Look for Mars high in the southeast, well to the upper left of Venus, during the early evening hours.

Jupiter rises in the east about 8:30 p.m. as February opens and is coming up at sunset by month’s end. Jupiter continues to grow in size as it approaches its March opposition, but the giant planet’s belts and major moons are already easily visible in a small telescope. Check out Jupiter on the evening of Feb. 9, when all four of its major moons are on one side.

Saturn is high in the southeast as twilight gives way to dusk. The rings of Saturn are tilted to provide a stunning sight and the night of Feb. 24 brings a half dozen of its moons into view if you have a powerful enough telescope.

Uranus and Neptune are lost to view in the solar glare during February.

February events

1 Sunrise, 6:55 a.m.; sunset, 4:05 p.m.

2 Today is Candlemas or Groundhog’s Day, a cross-quarter day marking the midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox. The bright “star” to the lower right of the moon tonight is Saturn.

3 The two stars to the moon’s left tonight are Castor and Pollux of Gemini, while Saturn is to the moon’s upper right.

6 Full moon, 3:49 a.m. The full moon of February is known variously as the Wolf Moon, Hunger Moon or Snow Moon.

7 Jupiter shines below the moon during the late evening hours.

13 Moon in last quarter, 8:40 a.m.

14 Happy St. Valentine’s Day!

16 The moon is at perigee, or its closest approach to Earth, today.

17 The sun enters Aquarius on the ecliptic.

19 The sun enters the astrological sign of Pisces but, astronomically, has just entered Aquarius.

20 New moon, 4:20 a.m.

21 The Muslim New Year 1425 A.H. begins at sunset.

23 The thin crescent moon lies extremely close to brilliant Venus in the west at dusk.

24 Mardi Gras or “Fat Tuesday,” the day before the start of Lent.

25 Mars perches on the tip of a thick crescent moon in the southwest at dusk. Venus lies to their far lower right.

28 Moon in first quarter, 10:24 p.m. The moon is also at apogee or greatest distance from Earth today.

29 Leap day. There are 97 leap days every 400 years used to bring the calendar year into alignment with the tropical or seasonal year. Sunrise, 6:15 a.m.; sunset, 5:22 p.m.

Clair Wood taught physics and chemistry for more than a decade at Eastern Maine Technical College in Bangor.