Orion the Hunter

This OER was designed by the OU Academy of the Lynx (oulynx.org) in conjunction with the "Galileo's World" (galileo.ou.edu) exhibition at the University of Oklahoma.

This activity is designed to be completed in 5 minutes by a typical visitor to the exhibition. For adaptations to other age levels and pedagogical settings, visit the "Orion the Hunter Educational Cluster" below.

Introductory Orion the Hunter Activity

Three stars in a row make up Orion’s belt, within a rectangle of four bright stars representing his shoulders and feet.  

Find Orion on a celestial globe and/or a planisphere.  

• Is it easy to see the figure of a man in the star pattern of Orion?

On a celestial globe and/or a planisphere, and on the historical star maps shown in the figure (right), identify the following:

• Orion’s belt.  Do the three stars of Orion’s belt lie near the celestial equator?
• Rigel, the star to the lower right of his belt.  Is Rigel depicted as Orion’s left foot?  
• Betelgeuse, the star to the upper left of his belt.  Is Betelgeuse shown as Orion’s right shoulder?
• Orion’s sword.  Is there any indication of Orion’s nebula?

Location

Orion the hunter appropriately faces the red eye of Taurus the Bull. His two hunting dogs follow behind: The Big Dog or Canis Major, with the bright star Sirius. And the Little Dog, or Canis Minor, with the bright star Procyon.

A sword hanging from Orion’s belt at first sight looks like three stars, but the middle one is ill-defined. With binoculars you can tell that it is not a star, but a cloudy region, called the Great Orion Nebula (M42, mag. 4.0). A powerful telescope reveals the nebula to be a giant cloud of luminous gas, a cosmic nursery where stars are now being born. Through the Hubble space telescope the Great Orion Nebula becomes a colorful and awesome spectacle, over 20,000 times larger than our solar system. For more information visit http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0601a/.

Historical Background for Orion the Hunter

Skylore

In Greek mythology, Orion the Hunter boasted that he would slay all animals on earth. To prevent this, Gaia sent Scorpius to kill him first.  Now they move eternally on opposite sides of the starry sky. 

In Egyptian mythology, Orion was the abode of Osiris, a pharoah-god who was slain by his jackal-headed brother, Set. Osiris conquered death and, once resurrected, came to reside in Orion. Isis dwelt on Sirius.

Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, rises on the eastern horizon just before the Sun once each year. This follows a period of complete invisibility lasting about 70 days (during which time it lies in the daytime sky). Egyptian inscriptions describe the last appearance of Sirius in the night sky as its death; its daytime invisibility as purification in the embalming house of the nether world; and its rising with the Sun as a resurrection. Accordingly they calibrated the process of mummification to this celestial cycle, completing it in exactly 70 days.

The pharoahs, so it was believed, began their journeys in the celestial realms with a visit to Osiris and Isis in the regions of Orion and Sirius. 

Since Orion’s belt of three bright stars lies upon the celestial equator, Orion is visible from every inhabited part of the globe.  Many peoples have located their greatest gods here. Yet consider Solomon, who said when dedicating David's temple: “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens - even the highest heaven - cannot contain you.”

Seasonal marker

For ancient writers, the constellation of Orion marked Mediterranean harvest seasons. Hesiod admonished his nephew farmer to watch for the early summer rising of Orion at sunrise:

“Forget not, when Orion first appears,
To make your servants thresh the sacred ears...”

Late in summer, at the time of the grape harvest, Orion rises at midnight.

At sunset in the autumn, Orion's belt appears to rise straight up on the horizon.  Before going out to see Orion, read The Star-Splitter, by Robert Frost.  Frost described a man outdoors splitting firewood after the first frost of autumn. Frost's poetic tale reminds us that Orion's rising on the eastern horizion at sunset is a marker of autumn. 

Robert Graves writes of Orion in winter (from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/star-talk/)

What do you hunt, Orion,
This starry night?
The Ram, the Bull, and the Lion,
And the Great Bear, says Orion,
With my starry quiver and beautiful belt
I am trying to find a good thick pelt
To warm my shoulders tonight,
To warm my shoulders tonight.

Further OER's on Orion the Hunter

Use the following OER's to further explore the Galileo's World exhibition.

• Galileo's World iPad Exhibit Guide, itunes.apple.com/us/book/galileos-world-exhibit-guide/id1032005948?mt=1.
• Galileo's World iTunes U Course, itunesu.itunes.apple.com/enroll/FDS-EYK-MRL.
• Galileo's World website, galileo.ou.edu.

Orion the Hunter Educational Cluster

We want to create variations on this activity that connect Orion the Hunter to a variety of ages. Use the following chart and hyperlinks to find the one to best fit your group.