Around this time of year, if the weather is clear, just before dawn you might be able to see Sirius, the brightest looking star in the sky after the Sun.

Sirius, also known as the "Dog Star", lies in constellation of Canis Major, "The Great Dog". It's appearance in the pre-dawn sky marks the "Dog Days" of summer, and to the ancient Egyptians, marked the beginning of the annual flooding of the Nile, upon which the Egyptian nation depended. Apparently this time was important to dog owners, because of the possibility their pets might go mad.

Our ancestors did not have accurate clocks or calendars, but managed the timing of their lives using the rhythms of the sky. The rotation of the Earth, the time between when the Sun lay in the south to the next time it did gave us our day, which we divided into 24 hours.

The time between two consecutive Full Moons gave us our first version of the month (mo(o)nth). The points on the horizon where the Sun rose and set gave us clear markers for the seasons. When the sunrise and sunset points were at their........

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