I took Hobbes outside this morning to do his business (he’s still hobbled up, so we can’t just let him out to do his thing in the backyard, we have to actually leash him up and walk him over to where he can pee), and it was about 6:30am, which this time of year is about an hour before sunrise. I glanced about for cars on the street (there were none), and when I looked up at the southern sky, to the left, my jaw dropped.
Orion the Hunter was there, in all his glory, with Canis Major to his right (or my left, as I was looking at him).
Orion has always been my favorite constellation, for various reasons…the winter stars are always so much shinier, for one thing; for another, Orion isn’t a stretch like some constellations are. Orion really looks like a figure of a man, maybe lifting a sword, hanging in the sky. Orion is big, taking up what seems like a full quarter of the sky as I gaze upon him. Looking at Orion I get a sense of mythology and vastness. And I know that Orion’s form contains even more wonders, like the Orion Nebula which is in his belt…and I know that if you follow the path of that belt to the right of Orion, eventually you run into the Pleiades, which are another of the sky’s great wonders.
Orion’s return to the sky always symbolizes to me the deepening of autumn and the coming of winter, and for me, those things are not unwelcome. Welcome back, Hunter! It’s good to see you.
Camera: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra; processed in Snapseed.
