Orion

This is a sky shot of the Orion constillation:

Info on Orion:

Name: Orion
Translation: Orion the Hunter
Abbreviation: Ori
Genitive: Orionis
Size: 26
Regions: Equatorial
Located Between: Taurus, Sirius
RA: 6 hours
Decl: +5 degrees
Season: Winter
Midnight Culmination: December 13
Special Stars: Betelgeuse (Orion's right shoulder), a red giant that is one of the largest of the stars in the sky. If Betelgeuse were our Sun, its surface would reach beyond the orbit of Mars.
Special Stars: Bluish Rigel (Orion's left foot) is the 7th brightest star in the sky.

The constellation known as Orion has been recognised as a distinct group of stars for thousands of years. The Chaldeans called it Tammuz, for the Syrians it was Al Jabbar, the giant, the Egyptians named it Sahu (the soul of Osiris). It finally became known as Orion by the Greeks. Here is a representation of the Eqyptian constellation of Sahu:

There has been many different myths conserning Orion, two of them are these: He was the son of Hyrieus of Hyria, in Boeotia, a handsome giant and hunter. He was the lover of Artemis (some stories say he is Merope's lover). He was a great hunter and proclaimed to the gods that he could kill any animal alive. Upon hearing this Artemis' brother, Apollo, became jealous and challenged him to kill a great scorpion that lived on an island. Orion accepted the challenge and went to kill the scorpion. The scorpion however proved to be too much for Orion and he dove into the ocean to swim back to shore. Apollo, angry that Orion escaped death, went to his sister Artemis and and told her that he didn't think that she could hit a distant object in the ocean. She fired and her arrow was right on the mark. As the object floated to shore Artemis discovered that she had killed her lover Orion. The other story states that the Gods became angry at Orion's boasts that he could hunt and kill any animal in the world, so the Gods caused the earth to give birth to a scorpion which stung and killed him. All stories seem to end the same way with Orion being placed in the sky beside his two hunting dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor and surrounded by animals to hunt including Taurus the bull and Lepus the rabbit. Orion still hunts the scorpion today, in the skys, however Orion will never be able to kill scorpion as it is never in the sky at the same time as Orion. Here is one representation of Orion as viewed by the Greeks:

The Orion Nebula (M42, Diffuse nebula, magnitude=4.0)is located in the "sword" region of Orion. Through the Hubble space telescope the Great Orion Nebula becomes a colorful and awsome spectacle, over 20,000 times larger than our solar system!

Click here to view a full image of the Orion Nebula.

Email: orion01@rocketmail.com