Celestial bodies and literature have a relationship that extends beyond the simple “star light, star bright, I wish I may, I wish I might…” rhyme. Over the years, man has found a muse in the heavens and has used this inspiration to create to works that speak to generations of people.
The Orion constellation is located on the celestial equator, and is one of the most well-known and identifiable constellations in the sky and can be seen throughout the world. Orion’s popularity has lead to its inclusion
“Down fell the red skin of the lion
Into the river at his feet.
His mighty club no longer beat
The forehead of the bull; but he
Reeled as of yore beside the sea,
When blinded by Oenopion
He sought the blacksmith at his forge,
And climbing up the narrow gorge,
Fixed his blank eyes upon the sun.”
-The “Occultation of Orion” By Mr. Longfellow
This poem was written to summarize the great story of Orion. The story goes that Orion was a gifted giant who had the ability to wade through the seas, a gift from his father Poseidon. He served King Oinopion of Khios as a huntsman for a while, but after raping the king’s daughter Merope, he was blinded and banished from the island. The blinded Orion followed the sound of a Cyclops’ hammer until Orion reached Lemnos, and came to the forge of Vulcan for help in recovering his eyesight. Taking pity upon Orion, Vulcan lent him his assistant Kedalion. The god directed the giant to travel to the rising sun, a place where the sun-god would restore his sight. Once his vision was repaired, he sought out Oinopion, but the king hid himself in an underground bronze chamber to avoid retribution.
After failing to find his foe, he joined the followers of Artemis. It was said that Orion wa...
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...ve different colors, colors tell about a star’s temperature, composition, age, size, and distance. Red stars are usually older; coolers stars have used up much of their hydrogen fuel. Blue stars are much younger and hotter. Most of Orion’s stars are blue except for the very red star, Betelgeuse. Orion is most easily seen from the months of November through February. The latitudes at which Orion can be best seen are 85 and -75 degrees. Its right ascension is 5 hours, and its declination is 5 degrees.
Through mankind’s fascination with outer space’s unknown, we now have come to know that we can use the constellations to not only transfix generations of people but also to use the constellations to scientists’ benefit. Throughout the centuries, we have taken our imagination of the unknown into another perspective and now understand more than just what is out there.
"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.
This essay is anchored on the goal of looking closer and scrutinizing the said poem. It is divided into subheadings for the discussion of the analysis of each of the poem’s stanzas.
If there is one great constellation, it is the constellation of Gemini. As a Zodiac Constellation, it is only visible during parts of the year. It's two brightest stars, Castor and Pollux, give it the name of the Twins. Anyone born in the end of May until late June is said to have two faces: one of Pollux's and one of Castor's.
I was born with an inherent fascination for all things celestial. Ever since I was young, I have been staring at the night sky trying to find constellations, or using my juvenile imagination to create my own. My efforts to find, view, and mentally catalogue everything the heavenly bodies have to offer has led me to employ some over-the-top measures, but the most extreme of them all might be the night I stayed awake through the wee hours of the morning to catch a glimpse of a meteor shower. Over the course of an entire year, the memory of this stupefying event is still as lucent and vivid as it was that very night so long ago.
Boyle, Kay. "Astronomer's Wife." Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Fourth Edition. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 619-623.
There are two meteor showers associated with Perseus—the Perseids and the September Perseids. The Perseid meteor shower is the most impressive one. It is visible in August, and the Perseus constellation is its radiant point. (Perseus Champion, Perseus Constellation, Perseus He-ro)
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).
The constellation that I chose is the Orion's Belt. I have chosen this constellation because of its orientation in the night sky. The myth behind the constellation is also intriguing to me. The Greek creation myth is one of my personal favorite. Orion's Belt is a group of three stars either vertically or horizontally aligned with each other. It usually disappears from the night sky when the Scorpion constellation appears.
In the second stanza, the speaker visualizes images within the starry night and a muddy shoreline that symbolize individuals experiencing death-defying events. In line 8, the speaker states “Names printed on the ceiling of the night.” He is referring to the pattern of stars that draw great figures of Greek Gods, like Mars who is related to strength, energ...
The Orion Nebula is an emission nebula because of the O-type and B-type stars contained within it. These high-temperature stars emit ultraviolet (UV) light that ionizes the surrounding hydrogen atoms into protons (H+) and electrons (e-). When the protons and electrons recombine, the electrons enter a higher energy level (n=3). Then, when the electron drops from the n=3 level to the n=2 level, an Hphoton is emitted. 2 This photon has a wavelength of 6563 Å, and therefore corresponds to the red portion of the visible spectrum. It is these H photons which give the nebula the distinctive red color which we see.
However, after all this time of trying to bring their loved one from the dream world to that of the living, the speaker wakes up and begins to move towards a different stage of the grief process. This waking up is also an allusion to the Greek Titan, Asteria, who was goddess of the nocturnal oracles and shooting stars. By using it to represent a star, this asterisk also symbolizes the time between sleeping and waking. At the unconscious level, the speakers longing for their beloved manifests in their dreams further reflecting the palindrome archetype throughout the poem as the two sides of "Myth" symbolize the readers dream-state and
As the ancient Mariner described his adventures at sea to the Wedding-Guest, the Guest became saddened because he identified his own selfish ways with those of the Mariner. The mariner told the Guest that he and his ship-mates were lucky because at the beginning of their voyage they had good weather. The mariner only saw what was on the surface -- he did not see the good weather as evidence that Someone was guiding them. Also, when he shot the Albatross, the Mariner did not have any reason for doing so. The Albatross did nothing wrong, yet the Mariner thought nothing of it and without thinking of the significance of the act, he killed the bird. At this, the Guest was reminded of how self-absorbed he, too, was, and the sinful nature of man. At the beginning of the poem he was very much intent on arriving at the wedding on time. He did not care at all about what it was that the Mariner had to tell him; he did not want to be detained even if the Mariner was in trouble. Instead, he spoke rudely to the mariner, calling him a "gray-beard loon", and tried to go on his own way.
Outer space has always intrigued the human mind. Ever since humans inhabited the Earth, they have always looked to the heavens. Ptolemy, who lived over two thousand years ago, dreamed of being with the stars. He said, “I know that I am mortal by nature, and ephemeral; but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies I no longer touch the earth with my feet: I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia” (Tyson). At that time, reaching the “final frontier” was not even remotely possible.
“Sheltered as we are by Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field, which deflect lethal radiation from space, we are like coddled children who have never ventured into a tough neighborhood” (Folger 2). Humans have been fascinated with space since the beginning of our time. Just like children and rough neighborhoods, we have tackled obstacle over obstacle to make it home again. In the end, we have a better knowledge and strength than before. The future of space exploration can assist us in answering the everlasting question of how the universe came to be. The more we explore the infinite galaxies, the more we can scientifically discover and create new technologies as science advances. As we continue to discover, we can create new fields and occupations for aspiring young students like myself.