Orion the Hunter: ghost of the summer dawn
3 comments Print Me Email to FriendTonight is Wednesday, Jul 30 2008
If you’re up early, and have an unobstructed view to the east, be sure to look eastward in the hour before dawn.
If you do, you’ll find a familiar figure, which is always in this part of the sky on late summer mornings. It’s the beautiful constellation Orion the Hunter – recently behind the sun as seen from our earthly vantage point – now ascending once more in the east before dawn.
The Hunter appears each winter as a mighty constellation arcing across the south during the evening hours.
But, before dawn in late summer, you can spot Orion in the east. Thus Orion has been called the ghost of the shimmering summer dawn. The Hunter rises on his side, with his three Belt stars – Mintaka, Alnitak and Alnilam – pointing straight up.
Also, notice the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus the Bull. Aldebaran is the brightest star in Taurus the Bull. It’s said to be the Bull’s fiery red eye. See the V-shaped pattern of stars around Aldebaran? This pattern represents the Bull’s face. In skylore, Orion is said to be holding up a great shield . . . fending off the charging Bull. Can you imagine this by looking at our chart? It’s easy to imagine when you look at the real sky on a late summer morning.
welll in my class in savannah we have to do a thing about earth and i was looking what about it?
Awake, For Morning in the bowl of night
Has flung the stone, that puts the stars to flight,
And lo, the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan’s Turret in a noose of light.
Beautiful!