Orion
As I look up into the sky at night, there’s one constellation that grabs my attention….Orion. I’ve never cared much for the constellations, especially when they’re associated with horoscopes, but over the past few years, I’ve really developed an interest in science fiction and astronomy.
In 95 I took one of the bigest steps of my life….picked up and moved my entire family out of state to attend college. This was a pretty tough time, and I can remember laying in bed at night, looking out the window at the stars. I would gain a bit of comfort knowing that that Orion looked the same in North Dakota as it did in my home state of Illinois.
Here’s a few interesting facts about the constellation: Orion refers to the name of a hunter in Greek mythology. It’s stars are close to the celestial equator, and therefore visible to most everyone on the planet. There are two notable stars….the first is Betelgeuse a red supergiant is found in the upper left corner. The second is Rigel a blue super giant. Check out the image below.
I hadn’t really thought about it, but some stars are very different. Our sun Sol, located in the upper left of the image is just a tiny dot compared to Betelgeuse and Rigel. If Betelgeuse were at the center of our solar system, its ouside layers would reach between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars would dissappear into the star….wow that’s big.
Rigel is the brightest star in Orion, and the 6th brightest in the night sky. However, Betelgeuse is a semiregular variable star star and can sometimes be brighter than Rigel.
