Awesome Orion

December and January usher in the most brilliant constellation in the heavens: Orion the Great Hunter, AKA the Celestial Warrior. It is also low in the southeastern sky, so every person on Earth—northern or southern hemisphere—is able to gaze upon this most sparkling and recognizable constellation. Some people might argue that the Big Dipper is the most conspicuous constellation. Maybe so, but the Dipper doesn’t stop me in my tracks quite like Orion does when I step outside on a cold, clear winter's night and become dazzled every time I see it.

Most of the celestial constellations bring to mind quite different images in different cultures and different eras, but Orion has consistently been interpreted as a warrior boldly flashing his shield, if not some other similar mythical heroic figure. There is no constellation that has brighter stars than Orion. It contains two of the seven most luminous stars in the sky, and the heaven’s brightest star of all—Sirius—lies close by.

Orion was prominent in the minds of the ancients. The Egyptians considered it to be the incarnation of their great god of the afterworld, Osiris. In the Bible’s Book of Job, when God berates Job for his lack of humility, he says, “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose Orion’s belt?” (The Pleiades is another spectacular winter sight right next to Orion: an open cluster of young stars that is also known as the Seven Sisters.)

When observing Orion with the naked eye, one notes some 15-20 stars that outline the Great Hunter’s form. A detailed examination with a good backyard telescope will reveal over 200 stars—most of which are double and multiple suns. (Most stars we can see are not single bodies like our sun, but are double systems, and even multiple stars.)

The two brightest stars in Orion are Betelgeuse (BET-el-jews) and Rigel (RYE-jel). Betelgeuse is the largest star we can see with the naked eye. It’s a red giant and is one of the few stars one can look at and tell that it’s not really white, but an orangish-red. It is more than 600 times the size of our sun and some 10,000 times brighter. It could go supernova at any moment. When it does (keep an eye out!), it will be as bright as the full moon and even visible in the daytime. But it might also might not happen for another 1,000 years. Nearby Rigel is no dim bulb—being 50 times the size of our sun. Betelgeuse can be found in Orion’s shoulder and Rigel (meaning “foot of Orion”) at one of his feet.

Orion’s belt is the real eye catcher for me. It is made up of three identical brilliant blue stars, perfectly aligned and equally spaced. Some 1500 years ago the Arabs were the world’s premier astronomers and many of the heaven’s most notable stars carry Arab names. Orion’s belt Arabic names are Mintaka (“the belt”), Alnilam (“the belt of pearls”), and Alnitak (“the girdle”).

The most special sight of all in the Orion constellation is the “fuzzy star” in the middle of the sword that hangs from his belt. It’s not a star at all, but a gorgeous nebula; AKA the Great Nebula in Orion. It’s a massive cloud of gas and dust that is 20 times the size of our solar system. Denser portions of the cloud are in the process of collapsing and forming new stars—some just babies, a mere few million years old!

To the naked eye under a dark sky, the Orion nebula can be seen not as a point of light (like all stars), but a wee bit of a blurry blob. With a pair of binoculars the nebula appears as a tiny white cloud, but in time exposures from large telescopes, it shows its real colors: a swirl of red, blue, and violet.

I find it fascinating to come to know some of the specifics details and origins of Orion the Great Hunter and his star-birthing nebulous sword, but it’s not at all requisite to be cognizant of these facts, in order to gaze upon this constellation on a winter’s night and become captivated by its beauty. One needn’t know anything about Orion to be thrilled by this stellar sight.