Today (Sunday) marks the end of the Puaka Matariki Festival. In southern New Zealand, Matariki is relatively low in the sky and can be hard to see. This is why the sighting of the star Puaka (Rigel in the constellation Orion), which is much higher in the southern sky, was used locally to serve a similar purpose. In the spirit of the season, let’s celebrate the end of Puaka/Matariki by getting up early tomorrow to take a Maori-themed tour of the pre-dawn sky. If the sky is clear, you should easily spot Matariki, off to the left of Venus.

Source: Otago Daily Times July 19, 2020 06:56 UTC