Essay 85: Orion the Hunter
Orion, the Hunter, is perhaps the most widely recognized of all constellations. In Greek mythology, Orion was a mighty hunter who triumphed over the mightiest beasts but fell victim to the bite of a lowly scorpion. To acknowledge this, the gods placed Orion on the opposite side of the sky as the constellation Scorpio so the two would never be visible simultaneously. To the ancient Egyptians, Orion was the god Osiris, while Amazonian Indians saw Orion as a giant river turtle. This article will explore some of the stars and deep sky objects found in this fascinating constellation.
Orion straddles the celestial equator and is visible to sky watchers throughout the world for over six months out of each year.
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In mid-northern latitudes, Orion rises before midnight starting in late October and can be seen until the following April. The constellations bordering Orion include Taurus (the Bull) to the northeast, Gemini (the Twins) to the northwest, Canis Minor and Canis Major (Orion’s Dogs) to the east and southeast, Lepus (the Hare) immediately to the south, and Eridanus (the River) to the southwest. Stars The brightest star in Orion is the blue supergiant Rigel, but for some obscure reason, the red star Betelgeuse was given the alpha designation.
Rigel (which means ‘foot’ in Arabic and Hebrew), is located close to 800 light years away from Earth and marks the Hunter’s left leg. Rigel appears bluish white because its surface temperature is extremely hot – some 11,000 degrees Kelvin compared to 5,800 K for our sun. Rigel is also 17 times more massive than our sun and radiates over 60,000 times as much energy. Blue stars like Rigel have relatively short life spans as stars go – they exhaust their fuel in around 10 million years compared to 10 billion years for yellow stars like our …show more content…
sun. Betelgeuse (Arabic for ‘house of the twins’) is a red supergiant estimated to be 640 light years away.
Betelgeuse marks Orion’s right arm or shoulder. The light output from Betelgeuse varies somewhat unpredictably over the course of several years, although Betelgeuse has always remained a 1st magnitude star. This variability in brightness is common among red giants and supergiants, dying stars which have exhausted most of their core hydrogen and now appear red because their bloated outer layers are cooler than those of blue, white, or yellow stars. If Betelgeuse were located in the same position as our sun, its surface would extend past the orbit of Mars.
The gamma star in Orion is named Bellatrix, a queen of the Amazons in Greek mythology. Bellatrix is a second magnitude star estimated to be 240 light years from Earth. Bisecting the constellation of Orion is the Belt, made up of three second magnitude stars named Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak. These stars are occasionally called the three kings. Mintaka lies almost exactly on the celestial equator. Directly south of Orion’s Belt is a group of three stars referred to as Orion’s Sword, discussed in the next section.
Deep Sky
Objects Orion contains several deep sky objects, the most famous of which are M42 and nearby M43. Together, M42 and M43 comprise the Great Orion Nebula, located approximately 1,400 light years from Earth. To the naked eye, the Orion Nebula appears as a fuzzy star in the middle of Orion’s Sword. A pair of binoculars reveals a blue cloud containing several tiny stars. These stars are sometimes called the Trapezium and are believed to be only a few million years old - extremely young in stellar terms. In a telescope, the Orion Nebula is a truly magnificent site. The other Messier object in Orion is M78, a diffuse reflection nebula located about 1,600 light years away. To the southeast of Orion’s belt is another famous deep sky object known as the Horsehead Nebula (official designation: International Catalog 434). Unlike the bright Orion Nebula, however, the Horsehead Nebula is a dark dust cloud, which causes it to stand out in stark contrast against its brighter surroundings. The stunning images of the Horsehead Nebula are obtained by long exposure photography; a telescopic view of this object appears far less impressive.
"Leda and the Constellation Cygnus." Department of Engineering, University of Michigan. 17 February 1999 http://windows.ivv.nasa.gov/mythology/cygnus.html.
yourself in Northern California. frozen shore of Tule Lake. Now regard what sort of shape. this constellation takes a look. It sits there like a jagged scar.
Good literary text can communicate messages more powerfully than good informative text. 2 different texts, Moon Bear Rescue by Kim Dale, and the brochure Southern Asian Moon Bears, are chosen to represent in the argument between literary and informative. Both books are similarly capable of delivering a message, but which is more powerful? Informative clearly states the facts and provide consecutive information; raises awareness for the objective, i.e. Moon Bears, whereas the literary tends to tell more of a story, perhaps information, adapted to entertain the reader, and sometimes, to educate. Because of this, I feel that the literary is much more capable of providing a powerful message, mostly informative text lacks the friendly and heart-warming story that the literary text provides.
Ptoloemy first charted the constellation during the second century. According to christian mythology, draco the dragon was first known to have tempted Eve at the garden of Eden. The constellation draco the dragon takes an aera of one-thousand eighty three square degrees. Draco the dragon has five known stars that have planets around them. The brightest star in the constellation is Gamma Draconis, or Eitanin. The constellation was also called Tawarent in ancient Egypt. Draco the dragon contains some deep-sky objects. One is the cat's eye Nebula. The
Perseus, the twenty-forth largest constellation, is depicted as a man holding a sword in one hand and the head of Medusa in the other. Ptolemy discovered the constellation during the second century. Measuring 28 degrees in length, it lies in the Northern Hemisphere and can be seen best in December around nine o’clock P.M. It can also be seen in the Southern Hemisphere during the summer from latitudes north of negative thirty-five degrees. (Coder pp. 85 & 87, Fanshawe, Perseus Astronomer, Perseus Champion, Perseus Constellation)
I assert that Armstrong successfully argues that mental states in humans are equivalent to brain states in humans by avoiding the main objections of behaviorism and justifying that all behaviors can be explained through methods of science.
The constellation Capricorn is located in the Southern Hemisphere. To identify it, look in the sky for an arrowhead-shaped constellation. “To find it look for the summer triangle and make a line from Vega through Altair to the lower southern sky” (Zimmerman 3). It has a latitude of +60,-90. You can normally see it in September around nine o’ clock P.M. Capricorn has approximately 27 stars in its Constellation. The three brightest stars, Alpha2, Deneb Algedi, and Omega, form a triangle in the sky that makes it easier to see Capricorn. The brightest star in Capricorn is Deneb Algedi with a magnitude of 2.85. It’s a white giant and has a temperature of 7700 kelvin. It’s a type A star that is 8.5 times brighter than the sun. It is most likely to be in the last stage of ordinary star-type life. Scientists are saying the sun’s older twin is found in the middle of Capricorn. Studying this star will help them see how the Earth’s sun will develop. Capricorn is well known for its several notable stars and its globular cluster Messier 30 (A Guide to the Night Sky 1, Kaler 1,Kornmessser 3, Zimmermann 1). “Also, there are five meteor showers associated with Capricornus: the Alpha Capricornids, the Chi Capricornids, the Sigma Capricornids, the Tau Capricornids, and the Capricorniden Sagittarids” (A Guide to the Night Sky 1).
Crius: Titan God of Constellations The most well known Greek god would be Zeus (leader of the Olympian gods), but which Greek god would be the least well known? Unbeknownst to many people would be the Greek god Crius. He presides over the management of every single constellation and stars in the universe.
Odysseus is an epic hero because he is like a “superhuman”, he is far superior to a regular man. He is very intelligent, strong, and clever. He is so much like a god that the gods have taken notice of Odysseus. In the epic poem, The Odyssey, all the gods favor Odysseus, but Poseidon. Poseidon dislikes Odysseus because he harmed his son cyclops. During Odysseus’ fight with the cyclops, Athena helped Odysseus by giving him, “The pike of olive, green though it had been reddened, and glowed as if about to catch… So with our brand we bored that great eye socket” (Homer The Odyssey 279-289). Athena’s is the goddess of wisdom, her symbol is an olive branch. Since she is smart, she knew Odysseus would need something to blind the Cyclops, but not kill him, since they needed him to move a big boulder out of the way to escape that only he can move. When Athena places the olive branch near Odysseus, he knew exactly what to do right away because he is very intelligent. He stabs the branch into the cyclops eye, and baits him to move the boulder out of the way. This displays Odysseus’
2, Alter Dinsmore, Cleminshaw H. Clarence, Philips G John. Pictorial Astronomy. United States: Sidney Feinberg, 1963.
I know that astronomy is getting more popular by the day since the comet came and all those people got killed. But that really did not have anything to do with astronomy, so I am not going to get into that. To me astronomy is really cool. If you have a telescope and it is a clear night you can see different constellations such as: Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Hercules, Pegasus, Perseus there are many more that is so cool. But it is even cooler to look up and see them in the sky. To do all of that you first have to be in the correct place. What you can do first is look for the north star, when you find that then you are all set. If you cannot find it just simply face north and look for the brightest star in that direction. If you still cannot find it buy a compass then hopefully you will find it. If you still cannot find it ask somebody, I made no grantee that you would find it these ways. That is really all I know about astronomy, but after this paper I bet you I will know a whole lot more.
The Orion Nebula is one of the closest stellar regions to the Earth. Using parallax measurements, it has been estimated that this nebula is only 1,500 light years away. In addition, the Orion Nebula is a relatively young star cluster, with an approximate age of less than one million years. It has even been speculated that some of the younger stars within the cluster are only 300,000 years old.
Throughout the Odyssey, Odysseus portrays many different heroic traits, such as being a great warrior, and facing supernatural foes and receiving supernatural help. However, Odysseus also displays human characteristics, for instance when he weeps. Although Odysseus shows human qualities, his heroic traits outweigh his human ones.
I have chosen the constellation "Draco" due to its interesting shape and facts. "Draco" which is Latin for "Dragon" is a northern constellation which is circumpolar in the northern hemisphere. It is one of the many 88 constellations along one of the 48 of those which were listed by Ptolemy. Thuban, also known as Alpha Draconis, was the Northern Pole star around 2700 BC, around the times of the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptian Pyramids would be designed to have one side facing north, the entrance passage was designed so that Thuban would be visible every nightfall. Draco has several stars those of which are binary and double. Thuban is a blue-white giant star, it has a magnitude of 3.7 and it is 309 light years from Earth.
Perhaps one of the most interesting features of our fathomless universe are the planets that are classified as gas giants. Huge, turbulent, and distant, the gas giants are some of the most enigmatic features in our Solar System. I have a personal interest to the gas giants and celestial bodies in general. When I was a child, I was fascinated by our Solar System. I read innumerable books about space, and my interests of outer space had been piqued further by other forms of media. Although I held this interest of space, growing up left me with little time to learn about space, and I lost interest for a while. Taking Earth Science in Milpitas High re-invigorated my interests in the celestial bodies. Using this class, I’m now able to focus on learning more about our colossal universe, in particular, the outer planets.