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Home , Orion (mythology), Orion Nebula, Star lore

Whether you have or not, step outside this (October) to see a special treat.

While you might be able to see a meteor any time this month, your best bet will be the moonless hours just before dawn around October 21st. Just look toward the Great Hunter and marvel at all this amazing has to offer.

Meteors are chunks of space debris passing through ’s atmosphere, creating a streak of light. Meteor showers are events involving numbers of meteors that seem to originate from a single point in the sky. Cyclical showers are usually named by the constellation they appear to be originating from – in this case, our hunter, . Meteor showers are caused by the Earth’s path crossing the path of debris from a , which is a chunk of rock and ice circling the , just as Earth does. The Orion meteor shower is associated with one of the most famous in history: Halley’s – famous because it is presumably the only comet visible to the and was last seen in 1986!

When I was an undergrad majoring in Astronomy and Physics, I was lucky enough to be able to walk to our tiny observatory which housed a 30-inch - one of the largest in the Southeast for many years until the one down the road outsized it by six inches.

Both of these are in the metro-Atlanta area, which meant that viewing was limited to only the brightest objects in the sky. Since there were no summer courses at my college, my viewing was additionally limited to and objects associated with the winter months. Fortunately, the fabulous constellation Orion features prominently in North America from late fall to early spring and has a lot to offer.

In , Orion is a hunter that placed in the night sky to honor his heroic deeds. Many of the characters traipsing across the night sky figure in Greek mythology and legends because Greek astronomer cataloged them in the 2nd century A.D. Using known stories and legends to describe the night sky was a useful way to mark the passing of the year and the changing of the seasons – particularly helpful for cycles related to food production and harvesting.

One of the best things about the constellation Orion is that it is very easy to spot from most of North America all winter even under poor conditions like urban glow and haze. Three prominent make up Orion's belt and once those are located, figuring out the rest of the constellation is simple: Imagining the beltline these three stars make, look for four more bright stars where the shoulders and knees of the hunter would be. The composing the knee on the right is exceptionally bright! It is , which is considered to be the seventh brightest star in the sky! The only slightly less-bright star making up the hunter’s left shoulder is , a name made famous by the 1988 Tim Burton movie Beetlejuice (don't say it three times!)

Both of these bright stars are considered supergiants. Categorization of stars and other objects in the sky has been attempted many times and in many different ways. I could get real geeky about the Hertzsprung- Russell diagram, spectral class, luminosity, and , but suffice it to say, it means they are big, bright stars! Rigel is a blue supergiant and Betelgeuse is red, which means that the surface of Rigel is hotter than Betelgeuse (Oops. That's the third time I wrote the name. I hope you aren't reading out loud!) A good observer may be able to detect the slightly different colors of these two stars even with the naked eye.

Underneath Orion's belt lies another line of three bright stars running approximately perpendicular to the belt. These are thought of as the hunter's sword or club. The three belt stars, three club stars, and the pairs of knee and shoulder stars make up arguably the most easily recognizable constellation in the night sky. Since it is located on the celestial equator it is conspicuously visible from most of the world, also making it a superb navigational aid.

But wait! There's more! Aside from all the stars filling the night sky, there are millions of deep-sky objects and the best ones are cataloged as Messier objects. Messier was a French astronomer who recognized the importance of listing and categorizing things in the sky that weren't exactly stars. Messier's catalog began with 45 objects, 17 of which he had discovered himself, and was published in 1774. Objects are given the designation M, followed by a number, for example, M1 is the remnant of a familiarly known as the Crab . As of today, there are 110 Messier objects, the last of which was designated in 1966. Funny story: Messier was interested in cataloging comets, but was frustrated by all the other objects that he kept finding. It seems somewhat ironic that Messier's biggest contribution to astronomy is his list of , star clusters, and nebulae that got in the way of his real passion.

But let's get back to Orion. Within the constellation of Orion lie three Messier objects, M42, M43 and M78, all . M42, the , is my favorite night sky object and likely to be familiar to most folks, even if they don't know what it is. It is so bright that it can even be seen with the naked eye in less-than-ideal conditions and is one of the most studied and photographed objects in the night sky. I'll keep it brief by saying there is a lot going on in that nebula, but the attraction for me is how accessible it is and simply how beautiful. A good set of binoculars or a spotting scope are enough to the reveal the cloud of

stardust even in the city.

Want to learn more what you can see in the night sky with binoculars? Check out this list!

Related Articles Related Books Related Websites The Orionid Meteor Shower The Observing Guide to the Why the Night Sky Changes with Observed Over 70 Years Messier Marathon : A Handbook Seasons and Atlas Asiatic Parallels in North Observing and Cataloguing Orion Constellation: Facts About American : , Nebulae and Star clusters: From the Hunter , Orion Herschel to Dreyer's Messier's Miss Discovery of Stargazing for Dummies Ask an Astronomer Pallas in April 1779 A MUSE Map of Central Orion Nebula (M 42)