Orion

Orion is the great hunter and one of the most recognizeable constellations. In the late Summer he rises late in the night, and his rising in the evening after sunset is a sure sign of Fall and the coming of Winter. His belt runs parallel to the Celestial Equator, and therefore perpendicular to the horizon. The Orion region of the sky contains a large molecular cloud complex, and therefore some of the most famous nebulae are visible within the constellation, such as M42 (the Orion Nebula, visible to the naked eye as the middle sword star, a star-forming region) and M## (the Horsehead Nebula, a molecular cloud core).

In Greek mythology Orion was a hunter. His figure in the sky is often depicted has having a short sword hanging from a belt, a bow in his left (correct) hand, and brandishing a club over his head. Orion's bow is aimed West towards Taurus, the bull, and he is followed in the East by Canis Major and Canis Minor, his large and small hunting dogs. One myth tells that he was killed by a scorpion, and another that he also hunted the scorpion, either story resulting in Scorpio being located on the opposite side of the sky so that the two are never above the horizon together.

0: Introduction

Welcome to my new blog, "Star Stories." I discovered today that November is National Novel Writing Month, where "novel" is definied as a fictional piece of 50,000 words or more. Unfortunately, I haven't had any fiction ideas in a while, but I've been wanting to write a book about multi-cultural constellation myths, and I have now created this blog to make me do it.

I will be periodically posting information that I learn--starting with things like the names of the 88 constellations currently recognized by the present day Western World and codified by the International Astronomical Union. The "final" work will eventually cover all the Greco-Roman myths and as many non-Western myths I can find, organized by present day constellation name. I may include astronomical information about objects in each constellation as well, but it is not a priority at this time.

While I am in this early stage of production, I highly encourage reader feedback through the "comment" function at the bottom of each post. Please keep your criticisms constructive, and I suggest that for every "suggestion for improvement" you give just as much praise for things that you do like, so that I am not discouraged and instead gain momentum from your feedback.

Since the modern scientific community is based upon Western European tradition, that will be used as the basis throughout this writing. The overall ogranization will be to first introduce the concept of a constellation, starting with modern day definition and then historical--while this will be mainly a historical and cultural work, it is important to recognize the present-day knowledge of the science of the field of astronomy. Following said definition section, the 88 present-day constellations are organized into five groups as they are located in the sky from the latitudes of Western Europe and the Medditeranian: zodiac, circumpolar, other northern, visible southern, and south circumpolar (not visible).

Other information I would like to include (maybe in the chapters, or perhaps in appendices) are diagram of the brightest stars, drawing for the various myths, wide-field photo of the constellation, approximate RA/Dec borders, names and RA/Dec of brightest stars, Messier objects, season for viewing, and an explanation of the RA/Dec system.


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