Hey, diddle, diddle,

The cat and the fiddle,

The cow jumped over the moon.

The little dog laughed

To see such sport,

And the dish ran away with the spoon.

History:

1. Classified as a nonsense rhyme, these verses were put together purely to rhyme with each other.

2. In astonomy all (nearly all) the characters in the rhyme are visible in the night sky in the month of April (planting season). This was a rhyme to remind early Europeans (primarily those in England) it was time to plant the crops.

CAT - Leo

FIDDLE - Lyra

COW - Taurus

MOON - literally the MOON

LITTLE DOG - Canis Minor

THE DISH - Constellation Crater

THE SPOON - The Big Dipper (Ursa Major)







Click for larger view

Here is the sky map calculated for London, UK on April 4 at 10:00 PM.

Note:

THE CAT (LEO) in the upper center, THE FIDDLE (LYRA) near the edge at about 5 O'Clock

THE COW ( TAURUS) at about 8 O'Clock on the edge

LITTLE DOG (CANIS MINOR )at about 10 O'Clock

THE DISH (CRATER) near the edge near 12 O'Clock

THE SPOON / (THE BIG DIPPER [URSA MAJOR] ) just below and to the right of dead center.

* Information supplied by Tom Caulley