Orion's Belt - constellation and legend

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

Stars have long attracted humanity, attracted to them with their beauty, mystery and mystery. In the religions of different peoples, they were given special importance, believing that their location could influence the fate of a person, the heroes of myths and legends also found refuge in the starry sky. One of the most famous constellations in the night sky is Orion - the most beautiful constellation, which is located south of the equator, in the southern part of the sky. The ancient Egyptians gave it a name - "the king of the stars", and considered the constellation the home of the god Osiris. It is easy to recognize by its asterism. Orion's belt is three bright stars, which, as if being on the same straight line, adorn the clothes of a giant hunter.

The legend reflected in the night sky is contradictory. According to one version, a brave hunter, the son of Poseidon, Orion pursued the Pleiades sisters. To stop him, the goddess Artemis sent a Scorpion, who inflicted a fatal bite on the hunter. After his death, Orion was placed in heaven by his father Poseidon. According to another version, Orion is chasing the Hare with his hunting Big Dog, and this episode is captured in the drawing of stars. This is the legend describing the belt of Orion, the confirmation of which can be seen in the outlines of the constellation.

It is one of the mostnoticeable in the night sky, due to the fact that it combines many bright stars. Five of them belong to the stars of the second magnitude, four - to the third magnitude and two - to the first (these are blue-white Rigel and red Betelgeuse). Both Rigel and Betelgeuse are supergiants. Rigel is 33 times larger than our sun. It is more than five hundred light-years away from us, and the light of the star that we see now was emitted by it even at the time when Columbus discovered America.

Another bright star that is part of Orion's belt is Betelgeuse, whose name is translated from ancient Arabic as "the giant's shoulder". This star is four hundred times larger than the sun in diameter. Near Rigel there is a star that seems cloudy and blurry. Around it you can see a foggy spot in a telescope. This is the Orion Nebula, which is a cloud of luminous gas. It could have made ten thousand stars like our sun. The nebula is located at a distance of one thousand three hundred light years. There is another nebula in the constellation of Orion. It is called "Horse Head" because the gas and dust cloud looks like a stallion's head.

No wonder the constellation Orion's belt is considered the most beautiful in the starry sky. When Orion rises above the horizon, seven bright stars can be observed that form a hexagon. These are Pollux, Capella, Sirius, Procyon, Aldebaran and Rigel. In the middle of the constellation, bright Betelgeuse stands out. Ancient people saw in the outlines of the starsclub-wielding hunter Orion. The three bright stars in Orion's belt have Arabic names. These are Alnilam - "pearl belt", Mintaka - "belt" and Alnitak - "sash". The constellation of Orion is also remarkable in that from below and to the right there is an area in which there are no bright stars, and it is the opposite of the bright belt of Orion. Here are the constellations whose names are associated with water: Whale, Pisces, the Eridanus River and Aquarius.

The best time when Orion's belt is especially clearly visible in the sky is the winter months - December and January. You can watch the constellation throughout Russia.