Now rising in the east, easily seen now around midnight, and being seen earlier and earlier in the night as we go on from autumn into winter, is the constellation of stars known to the ancient Greeks as Orion the Hunter.

According to Greco-Roman mythology, Orion was a mighty and boastful hunter, claiming he was so good that no animal could kill him. This angered the goddess Hera, and she sent a tiny scorpion to sting Orion and kill him (but not before the hunter managed to in turn smash the scorpion). Orion and the scorpion were then placed in the Heavens together, but at opposite ends of the sky. Thus when Orion is rising in the east, Scorpio is setting in the west. The two will never be seen in the sky together!

The shape of a man is easily imagined in the group of stars making up the constellation of Orion: it consists primarily of a large rectangle of four stars, with a slightly slanted line of three smaller stars forming the belt of the hunter, and from which in turn "hang" three tinier stars yet that form his sword. The middle "star" in the sword is no star, but actually a molecular cloud in which new stars are being created. This celestial object is called the Great Orion Nebula, can be discerned faintly by the naked eye on a dark night as being a tiny fuzzy blob, and is wonderfully seen through an ordinary pair of field binoculars.

Orion is a useful celestial pointer to other stars in the nearby heavens: from him, using pointer stars, one may "navigate" to the constellations of Gemini, Taurus, Canis Major and Canis Minor (the Big Dog and the Little Dog respectively, Orion's two hunting dogs).

This is one of my personal favorites as far as constellations go, although I hate to see it rising in the east. I know when I see it, that winter is just around the corner!

1. This first one is a wide angle photo of the constellation Orion. The orangey-red star about upper middle is the red giant Betelgeuse; this is a star that is a good candidate for going supernovae. It fluctuates in brightness over a period of I believe 18 months or so.

The bright blue star lower right is Rigel, a young, hot blue-white giant. In the middle, and laying horizontal in this picture, are the three stars making up Orion's belt. Hanging from the belt is his sword; you can clearly see the nebulosity in the 2nd "star" of his belt. This is the great Orion Nebula, M42.

2. This is an astrophoto of the beautiful Great Nebula in Orion, otherwise rather mundanely known as M42. It is a region which is a star nursery, where new stars are being made. It is about 1500 light years away from us. (That means anything travelling at the speed of light ~186,000 miles every second~ would take 1500 years to get to us. Multiply 186,000 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 x 1500 and that's how many miles away from us this is!) The gases here are primarily hydrogen.

Below M42 is a blue splotch, NGC 1975. This is an area of dust clouds and gas lanes. The blue is produced by reflected starlight upon the dust which is there. The faint red is actual light being emitted by stars hidden within.

Of all the celestial objects in the heavens, this is one of my absolute favorites. And I want to remind you again, it is clearly seen with ordinary field binoculars (the color is not as vivid, however; you need sensitive film to catch that.)

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Anakin
[monger=ff0000,ffffff]Holonet Jedi Master[/monger]
Forum Administrator

Anyway, I posted both pics: one to show the actual Orion Nebula, and the other one to show the constellation it is in, so you can find it yourself with binoculars.