After the Sun and the Moon, the brightest celestial body is the beautiful Cholpon, whom the Kyrgyz worshipped, loved, and sang about in songs. The mother of a deceased son or the widow of a husband mourned like this:
My beloved!
I can compare you to a stallion,
One that stands out from the race,
With a golden eagle over the mountain.
With Venus, coming from behind the mountains, from behind the clouds.
Cholpon star (sometimes also called Sary jildyz) is believed by the Kyrgyz to be the protector of rams, and in mythology, she is given the name Cholpon-Ata — the elder protector. Cholpon is visible either before sunrise (when the rams were driven to pasture) or after sunset (when they were brought back). It is probably for this reason that she was also called Koychunun jildyz — the Shepherd's star. The timing of each migration to and from the summer pastures was aligned with the rising of Cholpon. Before sleeping, the nomads agreed to settle (load) with the rising of Cholpon. Thus, the caravan managed to arrive at a new place before the Sun warmed up, in the coolness.
As is known, Cholpon is not a star but the planet Venus, which, like Earth, orbits the Sun and has much in common with our Earth. Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth, and when it passes between Earth and the Sun or on the other side of the Sun, it cannot be observed, as it is too close to the Sun and "fades" in its rays. Usually, it can be seen either in the evening or in the morning, shortly before sunrise. That is why Venus is often called the morning star. Venus is indeed one of the most beautiful celestial bodies.
The Milky Way, according to the poetic legend of the Kyrgyz, is the path of a peasant (samanchynyn yolu), carrying straw and laying his way with chaff.
If one observes a section of the Milky Way through a telescope, it can be seen that this whitish band in the sky, resembling a light cloud, is a cluster of millions of stars. With the naked eye, these stars cannot be distinguished separately; they merge into a solid band.
The Milky Way stretches across the sky from southwest to northeast, dividing the sky into two halves. It changes its direction (position), turning from left to right. When leaving home for a long journey, people often oriented themselves by the Milky Way.
Aristotle wrote that once people considered stars to be "heavenly animals"; indeed, most constellations bear the names of animals: Capricorn, Bear, Lion, etc. Kyrgyz hunters also grouped bright stars into constellations, giving them names of animals and people. For example, in the constellation Orion, they saw scenes of hunting for argali. The three identical stars in the constellation Orion, resembling the yoke of a balance scale, were called Taraza jildyz — the stars of Libra; among the people, these stars are better known by the name Uch arkar — Three argali. Less frequently, these stars were called Chider jildyz — Stars that cling to each other.
The constellation Jetigen (literally Seven Ore Places) served as a good guide during travels and campaigns in unfamiliar places.
It should be noted that currently, stars do not shine as brightly and strongly as they did before. Observing the Milky Way even on a cloudless dark night has become practically impossible. This is not due to poor human vision but rather a phenomenon that astronomers and physicists have named "light pollution."
People believed that the constellation Ursa Major is the Zheg and karakchy — Seven robbers who once kidnapped the daughter of Urkor named Ulpuldak suluu, for which Urker — the Pleiades still chase the robbers all night on the northern side of the sky. And now these Zheti karakchy sneak up to Ursa Minor — Kichi Jetigen, which has two good horses: Ak sary at — the White stallion (whitish in color) and Kök sary at — the Gray stallion (bluish in color). These horses graze in the meadow, tangled in a rope, the end of which is tied to Kut jildyz — the North Star. The robbers want to steal the horses and watch them all night, but morning comes, and they leave empty-handed. This repeats and will continue to repeat forever. In this legend, people reflected their elemental guesses about the infinity of time and space in the starry sky. This legend is a reflection of the earthly life of the Kyrgyz.
In his time, Paul Lafargue noted that the sky of the ancients reflects earthly events, just as the Moon reflects light from the Sun; in the sky, man again plays out the dramas and comedies of the Earth.
The ancient Kyrgyz attributed human qualities to nature; they saw in it actions similar to human ones, which hindered them from understanding nature as it truly is.
The brightest star of the constellation Auriga-Capella was named Sumbulé by the ancient Kyrgyz, and they believed that it gives birth to a small star of lesser brightness once every few years, and that thanks to Sumbulé, there are so many stars in the sky. Perhaps this explanation is related to the fact that ancient people observed the appearance of new stars in the sky. According to other beliefs of the ancients, stars are mountains of precious stones located at such a great distance from us that they appear as small dots.
In its annual movement around the Sun, Earth is in different positions relative to the constellations at different times of the year, and these positions repeat every year.
Just as the Kyrgyz determined the time of day by the position of Ursa Major, they determined the time of year by the position of the constellations. In the southern territory, where the ancient Kyrgyz lived and where agriculture was more developed than in other places, they explained the cooling of water in autumn by the birth of Sumbulé: If Orion rises — the dawn is cold; If Sumbulé is born — the water begins to cool. With the appearance of the constellation Orion on the horizon, the end of hot summer approaches, mornings become cooler, and with the appearance of Sumbulé, the water cools significantly at night. Sumbulé rises, the horse fattens — in this saying, the Kyrgyz meant that by the end of summer, horseflies and other insects that torment horses disappear, and the days become cooler.
The constellation Auriga becomes visible in our region in the northeast during the second decade of August. In autumn, it is at the zenith, and until mid-winter, it is on the western side of the sky.
