STAR GAZER
THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION
 |
 |
 |
Horkheimer: Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers. Every two or three years I like to tell you about three of my favorite stars because they are so easy to find in winter's skies. And because once you learn their names i think you'll love to say them just as much as I do. In fact they are almost cosmic music to my ears. Let me show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for all this month of February in early evening and if you face south you'll be able to find these three without any difficulty. Simply look for three stars which appear to be equally spaced and lined up in a row. Super easy to find because they are the only three such equally spaced stars in a row visible to the naked eye. Now for thousands of years in many cultures these three stars have been seen either as the waist or belt of a great sky giant, usually male but sometimes, female. Two bright stars above these three mark the giant's shoulders and the two bright stars below mark the giant's knees. And although this cosmic giant has been called many names throughout history, the name we use today is "Orion" who was a giant warrior hunter in ancient Greek and Roman mythology.
Orion's three belt stars have fascinated me since I was a young man for two reasons: one, because they are the only equally spaced stars in a row you can see with the naked eye and two, for some reason I just love the sound of their names, Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. Now according to some sources Alnilam comes from the Arabic which means "a string of pearls" which also refers to all three stars. Alnitak means "girdle" and Mintaka means "belt". But no matter what they mean I just love to pronounce their names because they sound so poetic, don't you think? In fact, the 19th century poet Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote "Those three stars of the airy giant's zone that glitter burnished by the frosty dark." but in addition to their poetic beauty their science is equally wonderful and compared to our Sun they'll take your breath away.
You see while our Sun is about a million miles in diameter, Mintaka is 20 times our Sun's diameter and Alnitak is even larger, 25 times as wide as our Sun. But Alnilam, sandwiched between them, blows them both away at a whopping 30 times the width of our own Sun. Wow! And if that's not enough to impress you then think about how far away these three are.
Now we measure distance to stars in terms of the speed of light because they are so far away the term miles is almost useless. Light travels 186,000 miles per second. So we say that our Sun is 8 1/3 light minutes away because it takes 8 1/3 minutes for light to reach is from our Sun. So we actually see our Sun as it existed 8 1/3 minutes ago. The belt stars of Orion however are much farther away, about 1000 light years from Earth, which means that it takes about 1000 years for their light to reach us. So when we look at Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka we are seeing them not as they exist now but as they existed 1000 years ago around the year 1000 a.d. wow! Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka, once you've found them you'll never forget them. Three good reasons to keep looking up!
How did you like this episode?
Please give us your comments. (Click
Here)
Version|
|
|
|
|
Horkheimer: Every winter I like to show you how to find my three favorite stars because once you learn their names I think you'll love the sound of them just as much as I do. Every February in early evening face south and you'll see three equally spaced stars in a row. They mark the belt of Orion. And I just love the sound of their names; Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka. All three make our Sun look puny by comparison. Even the smallest, Mintaka is 20 times the diameter of our own million mile wide Sun; Alnitak is 25 times as wide and Alnilam 30 times as wide. And at a distance of 1000 light years away we see them not as they exist now but as they existed 1000 years ago. Wow! Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka! Isn't it fun to say their names? Keep looking up!
How did you like this episode?
Please give us your comments. (Click
Here)
* This week's Sky At A Glance and
Planet Roundup from Sky & Telescope.
This week's Sky At A Glance displays current week only.
Starry Night Deluxe was used to produce this episode
of Star Gazer
![[SmilinJack]](jack1sm.jpg)
Return to the [STAR
GAZER Main Page]