Week of February 12-18, 2023

This week we observe Valentine's Day, a time for celebrating the universal emotion of love. And few places can we find love more prominently represented than in the starry heavens.

Ask any stargazer about this and most will point you toward Venus, now sparkling in the southwestern sky during dusk. After all, she is named for the ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty, while the ancient Greeks knew her as Aphrodite and the Babylonians as Ishtar. But I'll bet few modern sky watchers would even think to associate romance with the burly celestial hunter Orion, and yet he's the "star" of our story today.

Stargazers from the Earth's Northern Hemisphere can easily find the outline of his body midway up in the southern sky after dark, while those south of the equator can see him standing upside-down in the north.

Of the several mythological stories we know about Orion, one thing is consistent: he was a real dog. No one enjoyed chasing the ladies more, and he relentlessly pursued the seven sisters of the Pleiades, as well as those of the Hyades — none of whom wanted anything to do with him.

When Orion eventually won the love of Artemis (goddess of the hunt and the moon), her overly protective twin brother Apollo sent a scorpion to sting and kill Orion, but the plan failed. So, Apollo instead tricked Artemis into fatally shooting Orion with an arrow.

In honor of Orion's great hunting skills, Artemis' father Zeus (Jupiter in Roman mythology) placed him prominently in the heavens, along with his two hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor. And in a cruel act of celestial taunting, he placed the sisters of the Pleiades and Hyades in front of Orion, but forever beyond his reach. And to protect the hunter for all time, Zeus placed the scorpion (Scorpius) on the opposite side of the sky so that the two could never interact again.

This week, stargazers can find some of these characters in the evening sky. Orion is outlined by its familiar hourglass shape: its two northernmost stars mark his shoulders while those on the southern end mark his knees. In the middle appears a line of three equally bright stars forming his belt from which hangs his sword... or so they tell us.

By following his three belt stars westward, you will soon encounter the bright star Aldebaran and the V-shaped Hyades. Continue past this star grouping and you'll find the delicate shimmering cluster known as the Seven Sisters, aka the Pleiades.

Follow Orion's belt stars in the opposite direction and you'll find Sirius, the brightest star in all the heavens, and a diamond in the collar of Canis Major, Orion's great hunting dog. Canis Minor appears as a tiny star grouping to its northeast, marked by its only bright star Procyon.

And the scorpion? Well, you won't find him anywhere. This constellation rises as Orion sets, and sets as Orion rises, just as Zeus had arranged.

This week, if the sky is clear where you live, bundle up and take your sweetie out for a stroll among the stars... what could possibly be more romantic?

Orion is outlined by its familiar hourglass shape: its two northernmost stars mark his shoulders while those on the southern end mark his knees.

Visit Dennis Mammana at dennismammana.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Orion is outlined by its familiar hourglass shape: its two northernmost stars mark his shoulders while those on the southern end mark his knees.