2.4: Orion and the Southern Celestial Hemisphere

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Orion

Perhaps Orion is the most-identified group of stars, culturally speaking. The Chinese called the star pattern Shen, a supreme warrior, in India Skanda, a celestial general riding a peacock, Egyptians Osiris, and the North American Lakota Tribe the Hand or arm of a Lakota Chief. ⁽¹⁾

A star map showing the constellation Orion the Hunter. Star maps, or star atlases, also include constellation boundaries and objects found within the constellations. [ “Orion constelation PP3 map PL” by Blueshade is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 ]

Osiris, the god of the dead in ancient Egyptian religion is shown as a drawing.

The Egyptians saw the stars which form the constellation Orion as Osiris, the god of the dead in ancient Egyptian religion [ “Standing Osiris edit1” by Jeff Dahl is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 ]

Skanda, a celestial general deity riding a peacock is shown in this illustration.

Another shape visualized for today’s Orion was Skanda, a celestial general deity riding a peacock, as depicted by Hindus. Skanda was also an important deity in Buddhism. [ “Murugan by Raja Ravi Varma” by Ravi Varma Press,Karla Lonavla is in the Public Domain ]

Orion the Hunter, as depicted in Urania’s Mirror is shown as holding a lion’s head over a map of stars.

Orion the Hunter, as depicted in Urania’s Mirror, a constellation card set published in London, ca. 1825. [“Urania’s Mirror – Orion” by Sidney Hall is in the Public Domain ]

Southern Celestial Hemisphere

Even though the northern celestial hemisphere and some into the southern celestial hemisphere had been well-charted, albeit with a variety of constellations by different cultures, not as much had been done with the southern celestial hemisphere. Southern hemisphere explorers charted many of these constellations, and a number of them have survived to today. These include a toucan, peacock, triangle, and three constellations that make up parts of a ship. There are many wonderful constellation stories that are unknown to many. In what is New Zealand today, the ancient Maori Tribe noted a constellation they named Maui’s hook — what is today’s Scorpius. ⁽¹⁾

Scorpius, shows the shape of a fish hook, is shown.

Scorpius, as the Maori Tribe called Maui’s hook, shows the shape of a fish hook that was made famous in the recent Disney cartoon, Moana. [ “ScorpiusCC” by Till Credner is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 ]

Authored by: Florida State College at Jacksonville. License: CC BY: Attribution