Stars - The Orion

Star People
Back in school, the first time my class was told we could write an essay on anthing we wanted to, I remember writing on stars - how they were were born, supernovas.....I was fascinated by stars even then. There is something about the night sky, it humbles you. The brilliance of the stars in the sky-dome fills you with wonder.

Astronomers have divided the sky into 88 constellations and I recently learned waht I thought were constellations are asterisms ! smaller apparent star patterns within a constellation, like the Big Dipper (in Ursa Major), the Little Dipper (in Ursa Minor), Keystone (in Hercules), and the Pleiades (in Taurus). There is always so much to learn! (^_^)

The native Americans talk about Star People in their culture, fascinating, as if we are meant to communicate with the stars (^_^)

Orion in Colaba
Sometimes I like to stop by at Searchword, a bookstore on Colaba Causeway, (near Cafe Mondegar). While browsing, I found a charming illustrated pocket-book on stars. I have presented here the picture of Orion. Why Orion? It is easy to see in the sky and I simply enjoy spotting it ^_^
According to the book, The Orion is,
A magnificent constellation of the equatorial region of the sky, representing a hunter or warrior with his shield and club raised against the snorting charge of neighbouring Taurus the Bull.

In Bombay's night sky where stars are barely visible, Orion is seen clearly and with the help of the book for the first time I could see the hunter's arm raised and his belt. To me it felt like a major discovery! This made me refer to another book, for children (^o^) A Skyfull of Stories by Shobha Viswanath. Shobha has written that the Orion was perceived by the Greeks as a great hunter, by the Japanese as the long sleeve of a komono, in ancient India, it was known as Mriga, the stag, to the Egyptians, he was Osiris, God of light, .......phew! It is amazing how different cultures see so many different things in the same constellation !

From astronomy's point of view, two of Orion's stars , Betelgeuse- a red supergiant and Rigel are among the ten brightest stars in the sky! enough mystery and star-power to dwell on!

Star - light- connecting with ancient powers.
I think we need a little bit of star gazing every evening even if it is a few constellations up there, to help us rekindle a harmonious feeling of one-ness with the universe. Or we could go into the country-side even if it is once or twice a year and later connect with those times spent making a wish on a shooting star. (^_^)

Love & light.