Hochhalter: The skies may seem settled, but there is the wonder of Orion

Astronomically speaking, we’re in a dead zone. Not much going on in the night sky. No comets. No lunar or solar eclipses. No spectacular meteor showers.

Sure, we had a full moon Jan. 10, and a new moon, which is always the best time of the month for sky watching, on Jan. 24. Other than that, ho-hum.

But wait: This is the time of year when the constellation Orion the Hunter appears in the east after sunset and spends the night slowly moving westward to set before dawn. When I do shows at The Planetarium at this time of year, I get giddy talking about Orion. Orion is like an old friend, a really good old friend.

For one thing, even a casual observer can find Orion: Just look for three bright, evenly spaced, in-line stars, and you’ve got Orion’s Belt. From there, with the help of a sky chart, you can easily pick out the rest of the constellation.

For another thing, whether you’re a naked-eye, binocular, or telescope observer or even an astrophotographer, Orion offers a wealth of fascinating targets.

The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, for example, is a beautiful sight because, well, it’s red; shining at a magnitude of +0.45, it’s the second brightest star in Orion, after Rigel (magnitude +.13 — remember, the lower the magnitude, the brighter the star), and 11th brightest star in the sky.

But Betelgeuse, whose name comes from an Arabic word meaning “armpit of the great one,” is getting a lot of buzz these days for something it might do sometime soon: The star has been steadily dimming, and, while that could be the result of strange stellar physics, it could also be a sign that it’s about to go supernova. That means the star, which is 700 times larger than our sun, will collapse on itself, then explode to become as bright in our night sky as the moon and possibly visible during the day. Whenever the Betelgeuse supernova happens, the light show could last for weeks or months, or even years.

The supernova designated SN1054 was first observed on July 4, 1054, and remained visible for two years. Today, the remnants of SN1054 can be seen as the Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus.

It would be very exciting to see the end of Betelgeuse in our lifetime; I wouldn’t want to miss that!

One of the most amazing places in the sky is the Orion Nebula. Look just below Orion’s Belt, and you’ll see a curved group of stars, which represent Orion’s Sword, and about halfway down the sword, you’ll see a smudge, which is the nebula, a massive cloud of interstellar gas and dust.

The Orion Nebula is about 1,700 light years from Earth and 30 to 40 light years in diameter. It’s also a stellar nursery, a place where stars are born. This is one of the few nebulae that can be seen with the naked eye, and with binoculars and telescopes, it’s a true deep-sky wonder.

Like many constellations, Orion has a mythological backstory: For the Greeks, Orion was a mighty hunter, and, while on a hunt with Artemis, goddess of hunting and wild animals, and her mother Leto, he boasted that he could kill all the animals on Earth. This angered Gaea, goddess of the Earth, so she sent a giant scorpion to kill Orion, which it did. Then Artemis and Leto asked Zeus to place Orion in the sky as a constellation; Zeus acquiesced, but he also placed the scorpion in the opposite side of the sky, so that the constellation Scorpius rises as Orion sets, and the scorpion eternally chases the hunter through the heavens.

Orion is visible in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, and cultures on both sides of the equator have different stories or terminology about the popular constellation:

•In South Africa, the three stars in Orion’s Belt are called Drie Konigs (Three Kings) or Drie Susters (Three Sisters).

•In Spain and Latin America, they’re called Las Tres Marias (The Three Marias).

•For ancient Babylonians, Orion was the Heavenly Shepherd, a more benign image than the mighty hunter of the Greeks.

•Ancient Egyptians associated the constellation with Osiris, god of the underworld, fertility and rebirth.

•Because Orion is upside-down in the Southern Hemisphere, Australians see the constellation’s belt as the bottom of a saucepan and the sword as its handle.

•Aboriginal Australians saw Orion as a canoe, and the three stars in the Belt are three brothers, who were carried into the sky by a great waterspout after one brother ate a forbidden sawfish.

•In Scandinavian lore, Orion’s Belt is called Friggerock, or the distaff of Freya, Norse goddess of love.

•Hungarian tradition kept the idea that the stars making up Orion represent a hunter, but the Hungarians named their constellation after the biblical Nimrod, great-grandson of Noah and a “mighty hunter before the Lord” (Genesis 10:9).

Since the 16th century, the word Nimrod has been used in English as a synonym for hunter, and modern dictionaries still define Nimrod as “a hunter.” In modern American English, however, the meaning of nimrod (usually written with lower case “n”) has changed dramatically.

It all goes back to the highly literate writers of Looney Tunes cartoons: During a 1947 animated short called “What Makes Daffy Duck,” the inept hunter Elmer Fudd tries and fails to capture the titular bird numerous times and finally asks, “How am I ever gonna catch that scwewy duck,” to which Daffy replies ironically: “Precisely what I was wondering, my little nimrod.” From that single off-hand remark, the word nimrod lost its romantic and manly meaning and took on the connotation of “an inept person” or, more slangily, “a doofus.”

But whether you call Orion’s belt Friggerock, Tres Marias or Drie Konigs, whether or not Betelgeuse goes supernova in our lifetime, and whether you call the constellation itself Orion, the Heavenly Shepherd or Nimrod, that dazzling collection of stars in the winter sky is the main event now, and it has something for everyone, as any nimrod can clearly see.

Want to learn more about our skies? Then don’t miss these upcoming events:

•Join us at The Bishop in The Planetarium for Stelliferous at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22. We talk about where our stars, planets and constellations are headed in our night skies, as well as current events in the world of astronomy. We also open the floor for an always-fun question and answer session. Admission is $5 for members of the Discovery Society members and $8 for all others.

•The Local Group of Deep Sky Observers host their monthly sidewalk astronomy event beginning at sunset Feb. 1 at Riverview High School, 1 Ram Way, Sarasota. For more information, visit www.lgdso.com.

Howard Hochhalter is manager of The Planetarium at The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature. On the fourth Wednesday of each month, he hosts “Stelliferous,” an evening program open to the public where he shares the excitement of the latest news from the world of astronomy and the wonder of our night skies. The Bishop also offers “KidSpace,” geared for grades 1-5, which takes place at 10:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month and is included in the price of admission. Send your astronomy questions to Astronomer@BishopScience.org.