Mike Lynch

I have an absolute passion for the winter constellations, which are now putting on their wonderful winter show in the southeastern Butler sky. If you've been nice enough to be a longtime reader of my Starwatch column, you know my nickname for these constellations is “Orion and his Gang.”

Even if you're not all that much into stargazing, chances are you know the constellation Orion, the young hermit hunter. It's one of those constellations that resembles what it's supposed to be. The hourglass-bowtie-shaped constellation outlines the torso of the mighty hunter. Its most notable feature are the three bright stars in a row that make up Orion’s belt. The constellation Orion’s brightest star is Rigel, marking the left knee of the hunter. The next brightest star, Betelgeuse, is an Arabic name that roughly translates in English to “armpit of the great one.”

Not far away and straight above Orion in the high southeast sky is that wonderful cluster of stars you can easily see. Say hello to the Pleiades! Most people can easily see about six to seven stars with the naked eye. It kind of looks like a tiny Little Dipper. I know you've seen it before. Astronomically the Pleiades is a cluster of a couple hundred very young stars, all born together gravitationally out of a gigantic cloud of hydrogen. They shine on us at a distance of over 400 light-years away, with just one light-year weighing in at over 6 trillion miles.

There are so many more astronomical details I want to share with you about the Pleiades and Orion. I’ll cover them in the coming weeks, but this week, I want to tell you about two of the great mythological sagas involving the Pleiades. The thing about constellations is that different cultures have different stories about how these characters found their way up into the heavens. What's really intriguing about the Pleiades is that several completely different cultures that are nowhere near each other geographically have the same basic theme. They both involve the Seven Little Sisters running for their lives.

In the Greek mythology version, the Pleiades, or Seven Little Sisters, were seen as the seven lovely young adult daughters of the god Atlas, who was the former king of the Greek gods. Zeus and his posse of younger gods launched a military coup on Atlas and his top brass. After a massive and tumultuous battle, Zeus defeated Atlas' armies and grabbed control of Mount Olympus. The new king of the gods couldn't kill Atlas because he was immortal, but Zeus actually gave him a punishment worse than death. He forced Atlas to take on the weight of the whole world on his shoulders, literally! I’m sure you’ve seen illustrations of that.

Zeus had mercy though, and set Atlas' daughters free to mesh into the new society. They hung together out of love for each other and mutual support in their new situation. They loved to dance together with one of the sisters playing the harp. One sunny day during one of their jam sessions the mighty hermit hunter Orion caught site of them from his hunting perch. He became fiendishly mad with desire and took off after them. Leaving the harp behind, the lovely ladies sprinted away from the insane Orion. They all must have been in really good shape because this chase went on nonstop for nearly seven years. Finally the sisters started running out of gas and prayed to Zeus to rescue them. Zeus took pity on them and magically transformed their bodies into the seven stars as we see today as the Pleiades. Orion was foiled!

Years later when Orion was killed by a giant scorpion, which is a whole other story, Zeus transformed Orion into a giant constellation and placed him up in the night sky to resume his chase of the Seven Sisters. As security for the sisters, Zeus also placed a mighty celestial bull in the heavens between Orion and the ladies. We know that bull as the constellation Taurus the Bull. Taurus has company this winter, the very bright planet Jupiter which is currently the second brightest starlike object in the early evening skies. It’s almost as if Jupiter could grab the bull by the horns!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, in what's now known as the western United States, the Kiowa Native American lore saw the seven stars of the Pleiades as seven young maidens who, one night, mischievously wandered away from their home campsite to dance and frolic under the stars. They drifted farther and farther away from the home base and suddenly found themselves surrounded by grizzly bears. In vain, they ran as fast as they could to get away from the hungry pack. Everyone knows you can't outrun grizzly bears and the maidens knew it too. They desperately prayed to the rock they were standing on to save them from being grizzly food. The rock they were standing on responded and suddenly rose over 5000 feet, leaving the hungry bears on the ground.

Shortly after that, the maidens were transformed into seven closely-knit stars. The vertically expanding rock that saved the maidens is now known as Devil's Tower in Wyoming, and every winter the Pleiades brightly shine above it.

I love these constellation stories as much as I love the science of the night sky!

This coming Saturday night, Feb. 1, make sure you check out the great conjunction between Venus and the new crescent moon. Venus will be perched just to the upper right of the moon, just over two degrees away. It’s a must-see!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is also the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.