Mar 02 2009

The Constellation of Orion

(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

StarDate: -314155.78

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain…

Roy Batty.
Blade Runner, 1982
Orion Nebula: The Hubble View
Orion Nebula: The Hubble View
NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (STScI/ESA) et al.

The nebula in Orion's Sword.

Orion, The Hunter, is a famous, easily recognizeable constellation located along the celestial equator which is visible from both the northern and southern hemispheres. In the northern hemisphere it is a winter constellation, visible in the night sky from November through February. The constellation contains 6 of the top 100 brightest stars in the sky.

An Ankle, a Knee, a Shoulder, and an Armpit

A print of the copperplate engraving for Johann Bayer‘s Uranometria showing the constellation Orion. This image
is courtesy of the United States Naval Observatory Library, who gives explicit permission to use it so long as the attribution is attached.

Betelgeuse, (? Ori; ? Orionis; Alpha Orionis [#11 AM: 0.2 to 1.5 var]): Betelgeuse is the red supergiant star at the upper-left in the picture. It has a mass of about 20 solar masses and a diameter perhaps 1000 times that of the Sun\u2014it
would reach out to beyond the orbit of Mars. It is estimated to be 640 light years away and about 8.5 million years old. Betelgeuse is a likely candidate for a Supernova event given its large mass and it is expected that that will happen soon, within a
millenia, if it hasn’t happened already.

Rigel (? Ori; ? Orionis; Beta Orionis [#7 Apparent
Magnitude: 0.12]): Rigel is the blue-white star at the lower right of the picture on the right. It is a blue supergiant seventeen times the mass of the sun. Rigel
is the brightest (~40,000 times the luminosity of the sun) star in our local region of the Milky Way at approximately 770 light years distance.

Bellatrix (? Ori; ? Orionis; gamma Orionis [#26 AM: 1.64]): Bellatrix comes from the Latin for ‘female warior’. The bright blue-white star at the upper right is Bellatrix.

  Orion
The major stars of Orion.

Bellatrix is approaching the end of its current phase and is expected to become an orange/red giant. It already has a shell of gaseous material which may indicate that the end is nigh.

Saiph(? Ori; ? Orioinis; Kappa Orionis [#52 AM: 2.05]). Saiph
is approximately 720 light years from Earth and masses in at 15-20 solar masses. It is as far from the Sun as Rigel and about the same size, but it burns much hotter and most of the light it emits is in the ultraviolet so it doesn’t appear
as bright as Rigel.

Orion

The Orion Constellation

Tune in, same time, same channel for the next amazing episode! Orion’s Belt, M42, and other exciting characters.

I went out and took a look tonight around about 7pm. Nearly directly overhead, astounding!

 

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  1. Thanks in advance for reading and your perspicacious comments and ‘observations’  ðŸ™‚  

  2. I face North and keep the watch

    Watch

    Cassiopeia circling the pole

    In this shrill December

    Watch

    Demarcations, a change of shades

        a morning sky

        on which is blazed

        (gleaming and glowing)

        black silhouette of crow

        on lavender

    and wonder

        startled into hues of pink

        the first unsettling in the leaves

        is heard

        (ghostly between worlds)

        there is a struggle

        to align

        body with body

        flesh with heart

    and walk

        another day

        invisible

        in this round

        of seed and twig

        turning indifferent

        as a star

    Orion climbs the Southern sky

    Sword deep in new life

        it is the quiet hour

        the hour when

        coyotes descend

        the edge of town

        (their lands eaten)

        quick for food

    A lone owl calls his distant mate

    Raccoon scuttles cross the trellis

    Of my neighbor’s house

        staggered into waking air

        i preen a feather here and there

        watch the steel blue crimson sea

        dress

        and make myself presentable

        worthy

        of the light of day

        and hide the ghosts that howl inside

        (it is unsafe to let our pets out now)

    I watch for signals, signs in clouds

    But there are only sounds

    Great, hungry, ravaged sounds

    The owl

    Startled by the jet eclipsing of his gentle call

    Flies across the shadow of the moon

    To reach his mate

    As engines mount the murderous sky

    I live beneath the approach pattern

    To El Toro

    United States Marine Corps Air Station

    Southern California, 1982

        on foggy nights

        when those divinities

        the stars

        hide from human eyes

        the sky is filled with games of war

        as if they planned manouvers

        only under cover from civilian eyes

        and who

        you wonder

        would even notice

        in the forgetfulness of birds

    Out of the blindness of paranoia

    My ears have learned to see

    The shapes of unseen sounds

    F-111s, Phantom jets

    And during what they called the hostage crisis

    Hercules Helicopters, mutant pterodactyls

    Whirling ironical beyond the fog

        alone

        i have the time

        to watch the stars

        hear owl, raccoon

        and know these things

        unnoticed by my neighbors

        who watch their televisions

        eat in well-lit rooms

        never knowing

        something is about to happen

        until after

    Paranoia makes the watch

    More difficult of late

    Neighbors to the South

    Installed nineteen outdoor lights

    Which blaze incessant

    An effort of protection

    Against the petty thief

    They always fear

    Will come to steal their personal possessions

        at night

        coyotes

        descend the hills

        (their lands eaten)

        brazen for food

        as my pain screams

    I wonder how long before they reach the heart.

        by Sydney Vilen, 1982

    Your diary reminded me this poem which I wrote 27 years ago in Laguna Beach.  I had an incredible view and a telescope I could take out on my balcony,  Orion was one of my favorites.  Thanks for the memories and the beautiful photos.  

  3. and I can’t fix it.

    So much for promoting this.

  4. still see with my bad eyes.

    It was one of my first constellations that I recognized as a kid…when I got my first star book….way back in the 50s! When I subbed for an Astronomy class some years ago, I wowed the students by naming all their constellations on their flashcards! That was in the 70s….

    Now, with all these floaters in my eyes after cataract surgery,I’m lucky if I can see them, if I glance, I can make them out, but some nights, I just can’t see them at all…but I do have the memories…of my Dad worrying that the neighbors would think I was a “peeping Tom”!

    Age catches up with us all….and so does heredity.

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