Orion - Part 1 - The Hunter in the Sky
Seeing as last night was the peak of the Orionid Meteor Shower, I thought now would be a good time to finally write about my favorite constellation, Orion.
I've wanted to write this article for a while, because when my son Vincent was just weeks from due, @cryptomomma decided his first middle name should be Orion, and I was more than excited. He and his brother are my shining stars.
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The stars of Orion
With 7 main stars, and 81 stars in total, Orion is one of the most recognizable constellations in the sky, and is visible worldwide. The brightest of these stars is Rigel, a blue-white supergiant around 100 times larger than our sun, though that's nothing compared to Orion's largest star, Betelgeuse.
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant of massive proportions. For reference, if Betelgeuse sat in the center of our solar system, it would engulf the orbit of Jupiter!
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The 7 main stars of Orion are some of the furthest stars from us that we are easily able to see with the naked eye.
The "belt" of Orion consists of three star systems, Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka.
Alnitak is the closest of the three, being only about 800 light years away. Alnilam, despite being the furthest away (about 1300 light years), is the brightest, shining some 375,000 times more luminous than our sun! Mintaka is actually a double star, the two stars dancing around each other once every five and a half earth days or so.
The constellation of Orion sits on the [celestial equator ](https://www.britannica.com/science/celestial-equator], and covers an amazing 594 sq. degrees of the night sky. It is bordered by Gemini, Taurus, Eridanus, Lepus, and Monoceros. Because of its distance from earth, we'll be able to see it well into the future, when other constellations that are much closer will have changed due to their stars' locations in space.
The next part of this post will be about the history and myths surrounding Orion. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed reading about all the stars that make up the Great Hunter in the Sky!
What a cool middle name!
Orion has long been one my favorite
constellations and the Pleiades,
Rigel & Merope. Amazing the macro/micro.
I've seen ancient comparisons of Orion's
configuration across the world that looks
like people have loved him for a long
time. Thank you for this post :-)
Pleiades is my favorite "star" 😃
Fun fact: Do you know the car company Subaru? Subaru is actually what the Japanese call Pleiades. If you look at the logo close enough, you'll even see that it's just 7 stars!
Made me think of Taurus, Saturn
and Mercury cars, can't think of any
others right now :-)
I have heard it said about their logos stars
being the Pleiades - seven sisters, I didn't
know Subaru was the Japanese name for
them, that is really cool to learn!
Love this @thatsweeneyguy. Orion is easily my favorite spot in the sky too. So much going on with it. When I was a kid I was amazed by Betelguese. How could a star be so big? Then came Mu Cephei and VY Canis Majoris!
Looking forward to the next Orion post. Full upvote & resteem.
Space is ridiculous! There's so much.... space...
Cool stuff. Besides the Big Dipper, Orion is easiest for me to spot.