~~~~~~~Dog Days~~~~~~~?

Question

What do you think dog days of summer mean ?

Answer 1

What a great question!

I found this website with this explanation:

What are the "dog days of summer"?

Are you familiar with the Dog Star? I have heard the star rises and sets with the sun. I am trying to ascertain if it is fact or fiction. Does the term "dog days of summer" come from the star?

Well, the dog star is actually Sirius which is the brightest star in the night sky and it does rise and set with the Sun at some times during the year - when it does this it is said to be in conjunction with the Sun.

Since Sirius is the brightest star that we can see in the sky, it might be thought reasonable to guess that it adds some heat to the Earth when it is in the sky, although that amount is now known to be insignificant.

The name "dog star" came from the ancient Egyptians who called Sirius the dog star after their god Osirus, whose head in pictograms resembled that of a dog. In Egypt, and in ancient Rome, Sirius was in conjunction with the Sun in the summer (ie. it was up in the sky at the same time as the Sun) and ancient Egyptians and Romans argued that it was responsible for the summer heat by adding its heat to the heat from the Sun.

The called the period of time from 20 days before to 20 days after the conjunction "the dog days of summer" because it coincidentally fell at the time of year when it was very hot.

The exact time of conjunction changes with the precession of the equinoxes so that now the conjunction of Sirius with the Sun is a little earlier in the northern summer than it was during Roman times, and as time passes it will move out of the summer season altogether (note: the conjunction is in the southern winter (both now and in Roman times), so ancient civilizations in the southern hemisphere could not have come up with this myth).

August 2002, Jagadheep D. Pandian (more by Jagadheep D. Pandian), Karen Masters (more by Karen Masters)

I had no idea it was an astronomy reference.

Answer 2

“dog days of summer” occur during the hottest and muggiest part of the season.
Dic Definition:
1 : the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere
2 : a period of stagnation or inactivity
where does the expression come from?
In ancient times, when the night sky was unobscured by artificial lights and smog, different groups of peoples in different parts of the world drew images in the sky by “connecting the dots” of stars. The images drawn were dependent upon the culture.

The brightest of the stars in Canis Major (the big dog) is Sirius, which also happens to be the brightest star in the night sky. In fact, it is so bright that the ancient Romans thought that the earth received heat from it.
In the summer, however, Sirius, the “dog star,” rises and sets with the sun. During late July Sirius is in conjunction with the sun, and the ancients believed that its heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after, “dog days” after the dog star.

Answer 3

The ancient Romans noticed that the hottest days of the year, i.e. in late July and early August, coincided with the appearance of Sirius - the Dog Star, in the same part of the sky as the Sun. Sirius is the largest and brightest star in the Canis Major constellation, in fact it is the brightest star in the sky.

The ancients believed that the star contributed to the heat of the day. The adjective Canicular means 'pertaining to Sirius', so Dog-days are also called Canicular days. This is first referred to in English in John de Trevisa's work Bartholomeus De proprietatibus rerum, 1398:

"In the mydle of the monthe Iulius the Canicular dayes begyn."

Answer 4

From what I understand the dog days of summer are in august when it gets to hot even the dogs go crazy. Apparently this either really happened or people thought it would.

Answer 5

The dog days of summer are generally the hottest days of the year. They are so named because it is during this time that Sirius (known as the dog star) appears in the sky.

Answer 6

The dog days are the shorter days at the end of a summer, when it begins to get darker earlier.

Answer 7

Hmm you should google it.

good luck finding what it means