Starship 101

Orion the Hunter is a familiar winter friend.  When I lived in South America for two years, this was the one constellation I could see that I recognized from the northern hemisphere.

Orion has two very famous stars, Betelgeuse (right shoulder) a giant red star and Rigel (left knee) a huge blue-white star.  The lesser known Bellatrix (left shoulder) is a name made famous thanks to the Harry Potter books.  The Orion Nebula can be found in the middle of Orion’s sword.

According to mythology, Orion was a giant hunter who challenged the gods by claiming to be able to kill every wild beast in the world.  They sent a giant scorpion that killed him.  After his death, the gods raised both of them to the heavens as constellations.