I get a good laugh every time I see a science fiction movie in which
space travelers are heading to a constellation, or they describe
themselves as being in a particular constellation. The reality is that
there are vast distances between the stars, and from the vantage point
of Earth, a constellation is simply a collection of brighter stars that
lie in the same general direction. Think of holding a marble close to
you, and positioning it until it is in the same general direction of a
basketball twenty feet away. They may look the same size, but you know
that one is much closer, and smaller, than the other.
This reality, however, does not negate the shear beauty of the
constellations. If you look at the face of a child who has been shown a
few constellations, and is able to identify them in the night sky, you
have a feel for the intensity with which the constellations were viewed
in ancient times, and the wonder and awe bestowed upon them.
Of all the constellations, my personal favorite from childhood on has
been the hunter, Orion. In the sky, the hunter Orion is holding a club,
ready to attack the Bull Taurus, which is another fine constellation.
With belt, sword, and shield, Orion is a magnificent pattern of stars,
which also happens to have some of the great treasures of the celestial
heavens.
Chief among those treasures is the Great Orion Nebula, M42 and M43. It
is a diffuse nebula, visible to the naked eye in the sword of Orion. I
will let a passage from my night sky journal give a feel for its
magnificence:
February 5, 2005:
“The best word to describe my observation of M42 and M43 is -
Breathtaking! There was positively a three dimensional aspect as I
observed the Great Orion Nebula with a narrowband LPR filter.
Increasing the magnification made the nebula appear purplish. The dark
areas of the nebula were quite pronounced, and the effect was truly
mysterious. The contrast of the brilliant nebula with the dark void was
spectacular. It seemed as if cumulonimbus clouds were building to
release a thunderstorm.”
In addition to several other nebulae, Orion also contains a plethora of
excellent double stars as well as some fine open clusters. The stars of
Orion include Betelgeuse which, like many stars, gets its name from
Arabic. It is a red supergiant around five hundred times large than our
Sun! The star Rigel is a blue-white supergiant and is the larger star
of a double system. The color contrast between the intensely white
Rigel and the red Betelgeuse is another great feature of Orion.
One of the great challenges Orion presents to the amateur astronomer is
the viewing of the Horsehead Nebula. I spent many nights under
favorable conditions not being able to see it, until finally, on
December 14 of 2006:
“The great achievement of the early morning was being able to
observe the notoriously difficult Horsehead Nebula just below the star
Alnitak in the belt of Orion. It appeared as a break in the nebula IC
434. The dark nebula of the horse head is actually notated as B-33.
What I saw, after much patience and careful observation, was a
seemingly metallic nebula glowing out of the bright star Alnitak in a
triangular shape. It appeared to become more solid as it entered an
asterism of stars with two close stars on the top and two wider stars
on the bottom, looking something like a pan. As the nebula outlined the
bottom of the two wider stars (the bottom of the pan), I could
occasionally get a glimpse of a dark space breaking the line - the
Horsehead Nebula.”
Little did I know, when as a child I was shown the stars of the
constellation Orion, that I would someday spend untold hours with the
hunter in the sky, or how rich the rewards therein!
©
Article &
image Dr. Robert Agnew 2008/2009
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