The dog days of summer ain’t what they used to be. How and when they changed...

Right about now, in late July, the Dog Star Sirius is in conjunction with the sun for most of us in the northern hemisphere...

That means we’re smack in the middle of the dog days of summer. In ancient times, those who watched the Dog Star rise and set with the sun believed it was responsible for the added heat of mid-summer.

Originally, the dog days were counted from 20 days before the Sirius-Sun conjunction to 20 days after. But due to the precession of the equinoxes, a gradual drifting of the constellations over time, the dog days have shifted a bit and we have settled on July 3rd to August 11th.