Orion

Today is “Space Day.” It’s also “Tuba Day” but since my Human Sidekick refused to pay for tuba lessons for me, something about sparing her ear drums, I decided to focus on “Space Day” in my latest blog post. Also, I recently got this cool telescope so I want to learn more about the constellations.

Despite her reluctance to help me learn how to play a tuba, I decided I would focus on my Human Sidekick’s favorite constellation for this first blog about the skies. She likes the constellation “Orion” mainly because it’s the one she can always recognize with the three stars that make up the belt.  I found out their names are Alnitak, Alnilam and Minitak. Who came up with those names? Wouldn’t it make it a lot easier to remember if we called them Al, Annie and Minnie?

I looked up Orion in a book we have on astronomy and it just looked like a bunch of stars to me, so I decided to trace the stars to make a drawing that looked like a hunter, which is what it’s supposed to represent, although I can't figure out where his head is supposed to be!

In researching the history of Orion, I found some cool stories from long ago. Those ancient folks had great imaginations. Here’s my favorite story: The Egyptians called this constellation “Unas” after their Pharaoh from the Fifth Dynasty. They claim he killed some of their gods and ate them! This supposedly transferred the gods’ powers to him, so he became immortal and journeys through the sky now.

But then along came those Greeks, the ones who made up all the crazy stories about flower names that I talk about in my Tuesday posts. They thought the constellation resembled a gigantic hunter but of course they couldn’t be content with that. So they made up a tale about how he angered this other god named Gaia by bragging that he was going to kill every animal on earth. (Just try to get me, Bud!) Anyway, Gaia tried to kill Orion with a scorpion but another god named Ophiuchus revived him with an antidote.  And that’s supposedly the reason the constellations of Orion and the Scorpion are never in the sky at the same time and the constellation Ophiuchus  is midway between Orion and the Scorpion.

These are great tales but the only name I’m going to remember from this constellation is the star “Betelgeuse” because he was such a great character in that movie.

One more fact for patriotic Americans:  The image of Orion’s belt and sword formed the shoulder insignia of the 27^th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army during both World Wars, a tribute to the division’s first commander Major General John F. O’Ryan.