Lore of the Constellations: Orion

With every myth there’s a degree of variation in how the stories are told.  With Orion the Hunter, there is no exception. 

Lore of the Constellations: Scorpius the Scorpion

So far we’ve explored a nice array of constellations that can be found in your Summer night sky.   In the last video, we took a look at Sagittarius and how the centaur was set to aid Orion in case he was attacked by Scorpius the Scorpion.  After all, the arrow in Sagittarius is aimed right at the star Antares, also known as “the heart of the scorpion.”  So, that’s what we’re going to look at today, Scorpius the Scorpion.

The Astronomical World of Harry Potter: Part 2 – Sirius and Bellatrix

In the previous blog posting we discussed how many of the characters in the Harry Potter series have connections to ancient mythology and how these myths worked their way into the books’ story-lines. Numerous characters in the series also share their names with moons, asteroids, and stars.  For this entry let’s look into two characters and the two stars they are named after:  Sirius and Bellatrix.

Celebrate NASA’s Orion Launch

NASA’s newest spacecraft, Orion, will be launching into space for the first time this Thursday, December 4th, on a flight that will take it further than any spacecraft built to carry humans has gone in more than 40 years and through temperatures twice as hot as molten lava to put its critical systems to the test.