But most conspicious were two planets, which I later ascertained were Jupiter and Venus. Sun had gone down in the west not long ago and I could imagine the ecliptic path along which Jupiter, Venus, and also Sun of course, were moving. It was easy to 'see' the ecliptic, which from my latitude is not a straight line but a convex path.

These observations made me reflect. Sirius was to the left of Orion, just as it normally is represented on the star charts. The revolving sky (although it is Earth which moves) makes Orion rise before Sirius. The right number for the ascension of Sirius is higher than that for Orion. Sirius is rising later in the hours of the day.

My observations were made from the inside of the sky roof. If I had been on the outside Sirius would have been to the right of Orion, but this perspective is seldom used in the maps. The inside view has higher right ascension numbers to the left, the outside view has them to the right. In both cases to the east.

The people and creatures in the zodiacs have their faces normally looking towards lower right ascension numbers:

Thus looking at the stars in a given night most of the zodiacal figures will look towards the horizon in the west, where Sun has gone down.

I have earlier been puzzled why the zodiacal figures normally have their backs towards the coming months of the year, but I now realize that this is only a consequence of their daily course from east to west. In the cycle of the year Sun moves among the zodiacal signs in the opposite direction from that of his basic cycle which is the day.

I know from past experience that I will be able to see Orion in the winter months. Seeing Orion and Sirius yesterday confirmed it was winter. All was in order.

Furthermore, if I had been more experienced I could easily have deduced more precisely where in the calendar I was. I would not need any full moon, because I knew the approximate time when Sun had gone down and I could see in which direction Orion was.