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Orion



Orion is the most instantly recognisable of all constellations – the figure of a man represented by the stars Rigel and Betelgeuse, both among the top ten brightest stars in the sky.

Straddling the celestial equator, it is visible from almost anywhere on Earth, a prominent feature of the northern winter sky and of the southern summer sky. In total, Orion is home to 10% of the seventy brightest stars, despite covering only 1.4% of the sky.

At a distance of around 250 pc (800 lightyears), these stars are not unusually close to the Earth. However, they are very large, luminous stars that shine brightly even from a long distance. Many of these stars were born in the area around the Orion nebula (M42), the most massive star-forming region in the Sun’s vicinity. M42 is one of the most brilliant of all deep sky objects, visible to the unaided eye as a smudge below Orion’s belt.

In addition to the bright nebulosity of the star forming region itself, this area of the sky is also home to numerous bright open clusters.

Unsurprisingly for such a bright grouping of stars, Orion is among the most ancient constellations. The Sumerians associated it with the hero Gilgamesh, facing a charging bull represented by the neighboring constellation Taurus. Surprisingly, however, the Greeks did not associate Orion with any of their better known heros, but rather with a lesser known son of the sea god Poseidon.

The legend of Orion in the Greek Mythology goes by the following story. With his great skill as a hunter, Orion provided meat each day for the gods’ meals. One day, Artemis (Diana), the moon goddess and goddess of the hunt, asked if she could accompany Orion on his daily hunt. He readily agreed. The next day as they were hunting in the woods, they saw a deer. Orion carefully fitted an arrow to his bow and shot. So sure was his shot that the deer died instantly, which pleased Artemis greatly. At dinner that evening, Artemis told everyone, even Zeus, of Orion’s great ability with the bow. All of the praise extremely pleased Orion, who vowed to impress Artemis even more the next day. Arising at dawn, Orion proceeded again to the forest where he shot every animal he found. He then made a large pile of these animals near the door to Artemis’ house. Then, knocking on her door, he asked her to come outside and see the great surprise he had for her. Upon seeing the great pile of dead animals, Artemis was horrified! For you see, Artemis was also the protector of animals and punished those who killed more than they could eat. In her anger, she stomped her foot on the ground and out of the dust came a great scorpion which stung Orion on the heel causing him to die in great pain. But in honor of his great service to the gods, Zeus placed his constellation in the sky.

Rather than associating him with Taurus, the Greeks associated him with the two hunting dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor, said to be in pursuit of the hare Lepus at Orion’s feet.

Orion has been recognized and observed ever since prehistory. The earliest known depiction linked to the constellation of Orion is a prehistoric (Aurignacian) mammoth ivory carving found in a cave in the Ach valley in West Germany in 1979. Archaeologists estimate that it is 32,000 to 38,000 years old.

In ancient Egypt, the stars of Orion were regarded as a god, called Sah. Because Orion rises before Sirius, the star whose heliacal rising was the basis for the Solar Egyptian calendar, Sah was closely linked with Sopdet, the goddess who personified Sirius. The god Sopdu is said to be the son of Sah and Sopdet. Sah is syncretized with Osiris, while Sopdet is syncretized with Osiris’ mythological wife, Isis. In the Pyramid Texts, from the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, Sah is one of many gods whose form the dead pharaoh is said to take in the afterlife

The Armenians identified their legendary patriarch and founder Hayk with Orion. Hayk is also the name of the Orion constellation in the Armenian translation of the Bible.

In India, Nataraja ‘the cosmic dancer’ (an avatar of Shiva) is seen in the constellation.

The Rig Veda refers to the Orion Constellation as Mriga (The Deer).[16] It is said that two bright stars in the front and two bright stars in the rear are The hunting dogs, the one comparatively less bright star in the middle and ahead of two front dogs is The hunter and three aligned bright stars are in the middle of all four hunting dogs is The Deer (The Mriga) and three little aligned but less brighter stars is The Baby Deer.

In the current Indian astronomy system, Orion is called ಮಹಾವ್ಯಾಧ (Maha Vyadha).

Orion being one of the most recognizable constellation has made its way into History and Fiction alike. Several fictional works also have included Orion in their content.

Orion contains:

View Orion in 3D


Source: Wikipedia, in-the-sky.org
Image Courtesy: Sky&Telescope & IAU, Illustration Images linked from Urania's Mirror on Wikmedia Commons by Sidney Hall

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