Constellation Orion

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Orion (constellation)

Abbreviation: Ori
Genitive: Orionis
Symbolism: Orion
Right ascension: 5 h
Declination: +5°
Area: 594 sq. deg. (26th)
Main stars: 7
Bayer/Flamsteed
stars: 81
Stars with
known planets: 2
Bright stars: 8
Nearby stars: 2
Brightest star: Rigel (β Orionis) (0.12m)
Nearest star: π3 Ori (26.3 ly)
Messier objects: 3
Meteor showers: Orionids
Chi Orionids
Bordering
constellations: Gemini
Taurus
Eridanus
Lepus
Monoceros
Visible at latitudes between +85° and −75°
Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of January

Credit: Mouser Williams

Orion (pronounced /ɒˈraɪən/), a constellation often referred to as The Hunter, is a prominent constellation, one of the largest and perhaps the best-known and most conspicuous in the sky[1]. Its brilliant stars are found on the celestial equator and are visible throughout the world. Its three prominent "belt" stars - three stars of medium brightness in the mid-section of this constellation - make this constellation easy to spot and globally recognized. From mid-northern latitudes, Orion is visible in the evening from October to early January and in the morning from late July to November.[2][3]

According to the most common contemporary imagery: Orion is standing next to the river Eridanus with his two hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor, fighting Taurus the bull. Other prey of his, such as Lepus the hare, can be found nearby.

There are other contemporary names for Orion. In Australia, the belt and sword of Orion are sometimes called the Saucepan, or Pot, because the stars of Orion's belt and sword resemble this kitchen utensil as seen from the Southern Hemisphere. Orion's Belt is called Drie Konings (Three Kings) by Afrikaans speakers in South Africa [4], and French les Trois Rois (the Three Kings) in Daudet's Lettres de Mon Moulin (1866). The appellation Driekoningen (the Three Kings) is also often found in 17th- and 18th-century Dutch star charts and seaman's guides.

Historically it has had other names, perhaps the earliest known is the Babylonian "Shepherd of Anu", corresponding to an apparent representation of the constellation Auriga or an element of it, as a shepherd's crook. In India, it is known as Kālpurush (the Destroyer).

History

Star formation in the constellation Orion as photographed in infrared by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.The configurations of the constellation Orion roughly formed about 1.5 million years ago, because of relative slow movements of stars within the constellation from earth's perspective (especially the belt of Orion). Orion will remain visible in the night sky for the next 1 to 2 million years, making it one of the longest observable constellations, parallel to the rise of human civilization.

Being so bright and distinctive, the pattern of stars that forms Orion was recognized as a coherent constellation by many ancient civilizations, though with different representations and mythologies.

The ancient Sumerians saw this star pattern as forming part of an image of a shepherd (sometimes in a chariot) with his sheep and in some versions a shepherd's crook, while in China, Orion was one of the 28 lunar mansions Sieu (Xiu) （宿）. Known as Shen （參）, literally meaning "three", it is believed to be named so for the three stars located in Orion's belt. (See Chinese constellations)

The stars were associated with Osiris, the god of death and underworld, by the ancient Egyptians. The Giza pyramid complex, which consists of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre and the Pyramid of Menkaure, is said to be a sky-map of the Belt of Orion, that is, of Osiris. In archeoastronomy, Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval describe this arrangement as central to the Orion Correlation Theory or OCT.

References in ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean literature to the "belt and sword" imagery of Orion are those most often echoed in modern western literature and for this reason this imagery has found its way into popular western culture, for example in the form of the shoulder insignia of the 27th Infantry Division of the United States Army during both World Wars, probably owing to a pun on the name of the division's first commander, Major General John F. O'Ryan.


Around October 21 each year the famous Orionid meteor shower reaches its peak. Coming from the border to the constellation Gemini as much as 20 meteors per hour can be seen.


[edit] Mythology

An engraving of Orion from Johann Bayer's Uranometria, courtesy of the US Naval Observatory LibraryMain article: Orion (mythology)
Greek mythology has several versions of the history of Orion, the gigantic hunter of primordial times[7]. These end in different versions of his death: He challenged the gods, by claiming that he could kill every wild animal on Earth. Some versions then say Artemis shot him with her arrows; but others say that Artemis or Earth produced a great Scorpion whom he could not defeat and which killed him. The gods raised him and the Scorpion to the skies, as Scorpio/Scorpius. Yet other stories say Orion was chasing the Pleiades.[8]

The nearby constellations of Canis Major and Canis Minor are visualized in some myths as Orion's hunting dogs.

It may be that the naming of the constellation precedes the mythology in this case. It has been suggested that Orion is named from the Akkadian Uru-anna, the light of heaven, the name then passing into Greek mythology. As such, the myth surrounding Orion may derive simply from the relative positions of the constellations around it in the sky. In some depictions, Orion appears to be composed of three bodies, having three arms [1], two divergent legs, and a small central one, as well as the three bodies being bound at the waist. As such, together with other features of the area in the Zodiac sign of Gemini (i.e. the Milky Way, the deserted area now considered as the constellations Camelopardalis and Lynx, and the constellations Gemini, Auriga, and Canis Major), this may be the origin of the myth of the cattle of Geryon, which forms one of The Twelve Labours of Heracles.

In pre-Christian Scandinavia, the "Orion's belt" portion of the constellation was known as Frigg's Distaff (Friggerock) or Freyja's distaff[9].

In Finnish mythology the constellation of Orion is called the scythe of Väinämöinen. The term most likely comes from the fact it can be seen in the sky in early autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, the time of harvesting crops.

In ancient Aram, the constellation was known as Nephila, Orion's descendants were known as Nephilim[10].

The constellation is mentioned in Horace's Odes, Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, and Virgil's Aeneid.


[edit] In other cultures
The Bible mentions Orion three times: Job 9:9 ("He is the maker of the Bear and Orion"), Job 38:31 ("Can you loosen Orion`s belt?"), and Amos 5:8. ("He who made the Pleiades and Orion")

The Chinese character 參 (pinyin shēn) originally meant the constellation Orion (Chinese: 參宿; pinyin: shēnxiù); its Shang dynasty version, over three millennia old, contains at the top a representation of the three stars of Orion's belt atop a man's head (the bottom portion representing the sound of the word was added later)[11].

The Seri people of northwestern Mexico call the three stars in the belt of this constellation Hapj (a name denoting a hunter) which consists of three stars: Hap (mule deer), Haamoja (pronghorn), and Mojet (bighorn sheep). Hap is in the middle and has been shot by the hunter; its blood has dripped onto Tiburón Island.[12]

Orion is also important in Australian Aboriginal Astronomy. For example, the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land say that the constellation of Orion, which they call Julpan, is a canoe. They tell the story of two brothers who went fishing, and caught and ate a fish that was forbidden under their law. Seeing this, the Sun sent a waterspout that carried the two brothers and their canoe up into the sky where they became the Orion constellation.

In Indian Mythology, the constellation is known as 'Vyadh', which also means "The Hunter".

The Yokut Native American tribe of the California Central Valley saw the three bright stars as the foot prints of the god of the flea people. According to legend, when his five wives became itchy and ran away, three times the god of the flea people jumped into the sky to look for them. When his footprints cannot be seen (stars drop below the horizon winter months) the flea people grow afraid and go(dormant)into hiding. This helped explain to the tribal people why they couldn't count on those stars for guides in winter months, and why there were no fleas about.

source: wikipedia