In the spirit of trying to better cultivate a sense of awe, I’d like to share one of my favorite stories about the stars. Use this as a reference on a clear winter* night to find the family and immerse yourself in this ancient heritage that is your birthright.
*The visible stars change with the seasons, so in the US, to see the whole family in this story you’ll need to be stargazing in the middle of winter, like Dec – Feb. For something similar that you can do now and almost anytime of the year, I recommend learning to use the Big Dipper to find the North Star (Polaris), Arcturus — which I made a Facebook post about four years ago, and Cassiopeia.
Meet the family
Orion – face South, look up, and find three bright stars in a line. This is Orion’s belt. Dangling like a sword from this belt is a line of
very faint stars. The middle one is actually a 2 million year old (very young) nebula containing about a thousand stars that are over a thousand light years away, but to your eyes it just looks like a single fuzzy star. The bright star marking his left shoulder is Betelgeuse (Beetlejuice). The hunter faces right with his weapon raised.
Canis Major – follow the line of Orion’s belt to the left, towards a very bright blue star. That bright star is Sirius, the brightest in the night sky (though some planets do get brighter). This is the dog’s throat, and he faces Orion.
Lepus – directly below and just between Orion’s feet is a faint rectangle/oval of stars. Some of the stars on the head and ears are really faint, so you probably won’t see the whole shape unless it’s super dark and clear.
The Myth
The reason I like these three objects in particular is that they fit together and are related in this really cool way. Orion was a boastful hunter, and claimed he could kill any animal. This angered the gods and they sent him on the hunt you see in the sky today.
Canis Major is the archetypal hunter’s companion. As a godlike mythical creature, he always catches his prey. His position in the sky, facing the same direction as Orion and following his raised arm, is like a portrait that says “get him!”
Lepus is supremely quick and clever. The perfect dog has finally met his match. The perfect prey is eternally just out of reach; that which always gets what it wants pursuing that which can never be caught. Orion stands by poised to strike any moment, but never does.
Each night, all three rise in the eastern night sky, moving and facing right, chasing each other around and around, for eternity.
One final thought: You tend get out what you put in to this stuff. It’s just a cute story, but if you actually go outside and learn to find these for yourself, and then remember to share this with someone younger on your next camping trip, it can be one of the best pathways back to genuine firsthand awe that I’ve found. Shout-out to the book Turn Left at Orion for teaching me the star-hopping technique: find a constellation that you know (like the Big Dipper) and then use that as an anchor and pointer to other objects in the night sky, and then sort of get to know certain specific stars like this, which completely changed the stargazing experience for me.