Orion

It’s still winter in central Virginia, just as it’s winter everywhere else north of the equator. You wouldn’t know it, though. It was 80° today. And for the next 10 days, the forecast is for highs in the 70s. I can hardly wait for spring and the warm weather it will bring (sarcasm). I do, however, dread the coming of summer, because if winter is 80°, how hot will this summer be?

It’s 9 PM and still comfortable as I lug a bag of kitchen garbage to the wheelie bin behind the garage. This bag weighs at least fifty pounds; what the heck did I put into it that is so heavy? Walking back to the house, I look up and notice the constellation Orion, The Hunter. The city’s light-polluted night sky makes it difficult to see constellations. When summer heat and humidity arrive, it will be even more difficult to see them.

But tonight, I stop and gaze at the sky. Orion’s Belt is the first thing I notice: the three stars Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. Then the corner stars: supergiant Betelgeuse, noticeably reddish; giant Meissa, actually a double star; bright Rigel, a triple or quadruple system; and massive Saiph, only 6.2 million years old and destined to explode as a supernova.

South of Orion’s Belt is a faint streak called Orion’s sword. Through a telescope, one would see stars and nebulae, including M42, the Orion Nebula, and M43, a part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. When I was a kid, I was fascinated with the starry sky and bought astronomy books to learn about it. My life might have taken a different path – into astronomy instead of engineering. But that decision was made long ago, and now astronomy is only an interest rather than a vocation.

I brought my eyes down to the back door and stepped back into the house. I closed the door behind me and sat down at the computer. I decided to write a blog post. After a moment’s thought, I typed the title. Orion.