I freely admit I have a great love affair with the mighty constellation Orion the Hunter.

Ever since I was a kid, I've been in awe of one of the biggest and brightest constellations in the sky. It is a wonderful treasure chest stuffed with astronomical wonders I'll get to in next week's Starwatch, but this week, I want to share with you at least a little bit about the rich lore of the constellation.

Finding Orion in our Butler evening sky is a cinch. Just look in the southeast sky as soon as it's dark. You can't miss it as it rises on its side. Orion is surrounded by so many other bright stars and constellations it dominates our celestial dome on these winter evenings.

At first glance, at least to me, Orion has always looked much more like a giant hourglass than a hunter.

Ever since I was young, the constellation has reminded me of the "Wizard of Oz." Now, at first, that might seem like a weird cosmic connection, but let me explain. In the movie, Dorothy was locked away in the castle by the Wicked Witch of the West, who told Dorothy she would die as soon as the sand in the giant hourglass ran out.

When the witch flew off and left Dorothy alone to meet her fate, the camera kept zooming in on this giant hourglass with Dorothy crying in the background. Since then, I'm always reminded of that hourglass every time I gaze upon Orion.

Actually, it's not all that hard to see the constellation as a mighty hunter, or at least the frame of a large human being.

The hourglass shape outlines the well-built torso of Orion. Its brightest star, Rigel, marks the hunter's left knee, and Betelgeuse marks the right armpit.

The three bright stars neatly lined up in a perfect row make up the hunter's belt. With even a casual glance, you can see the mighty hunter has one trim waistline. He must really work out and count his calories!

Like most constellations today in the western world, Orion's depiction as a hunter descents from Greek and Roman mythology, but the earliest lore we know about Orion and most of the other significant constellations comes from the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia before 2,000 B.C. Sumerians called the constellation Uruana, which translates to "light of heaven."

They saw it as their great hero, Gilgamesh, who was constantly at battle with what they called the Bull of Heaven. That Bull of Heaven is what we know as the constellation Taurus the Bull, which hovers above and to the right of Orion in our evening southeastern sky.

In other parts of the world throughout the ages, Ancient Egyptians saw Orion as Osiris, their great god of the afterlife who majestically marched across the sky each year reminding everyone below about their final destination. Arab culture saw Orion as "The Central Giant."

The Chinese saw Orion as two constellations; The Emperor on his Throne and the Second Minister of State for Water Works. Good luck if you can figure that one out!

Closer to home, Native American tribes also have their lore when it comes to what we call Orion.

The Tewa tribe, which who now lives in New Mexico, saw it as "The Long Sash," a legendary hero who guided his people though hard times in their lives both individually and collectively, and who eventually led them all to heaven, which is seen in our night sky as the bright Milky Way Band. The Navajo saw Orion as the "First Slim One" who was in charge of the passage of time as well as agriculture.

Early American poets like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Robert Frost included Orion in their works.

Orion also is mentioned in the Bible three times.

In the ninth chapter of Job, both Orion and the constellation Ursa Major, the Big Bear, are mentioned: "He (God) is the maker of the Bear and Orion."

Also in the Book of Job: "Can you loosen Orion's Belt." In the fifth chapter of Amos, both Orion and the bright star cluster the Pleiades are sited: "He who made the Pleiades and Orion."

Getting back to mythology, I think the Greeks and Romans have the best stories because of their soap opera nature. There are many variations even when it comes to these tales because they've been spread and passed down by word of mouth. There's certainly no such thing as the "correct mythology."

My favorite tale is the one about Orion being the mighty hermit hunter who had magical powers. His father was Poseidon, the god of the sea. Because of that, Orion had the power to do things like walk on water, which had to make fishing a lot easier. Orion, though, preferred land hunting and chasing his prey by night since that's when most creatures are prowling about.

As Orion hunted night after night, he was being watched by Artemis, the goddess of the moon, who fell in love with the nocturnal hunter.

As time went on, she started neglecting her job, which was to guide the moon across the sky and instead was hunting, and should we say, frolicking with Orion.

This angered her brother, Apollo, the god of the sun, who then snitched on Artemis to their mutual father Zeus, the king of the gods. Zeus wanted to end this madness immediately, so he ordered a giant scorpion attack and fatally sting Orion when he was sleeping during the day.

The ever-alert Orion woke up, though, as he heard the jumbo scorpion approaching. A battle royal broke out that lasted all day and into the early evening. Orion almost had the scorpion defeated, but at the last second, it managed to get its tail on the mighty hunter's shoulder long enough to sting him, killing Orion instantly.

Later that evening, Artemis discovered her dead boyfriend lying on the ground with the scorpion on steroids crawling away. She dove down from the sky and immediately grabbed the scorpion and flung him into the sky as far as she could.

She then gently cradled the body of Orion and placed him in the sky so high he magically became the constellation we see on our clear winter nights. Artemis not only honored Orion but made it possible for her to see him in the stars as she tended to her moon guiding duties.

Although she didn't realize it, Artemis also created the summer constellation Scorpius the Scorpion when she flung Orion's assailant into the heavens. She flung the scorpion so high in the sky it also magically transformed itself into the bright constellation we see in the summer.

Fortunately, even as a constellation, Orion doesn't have to deal with the scorpion ever again since they're literally at opposite ends of the sky. The two constellations are never seen in the sky at the same time. As soon as Orion rises above the eastern horizon, Scorpius sets in the west and vice versa.

I hope you enjoy this rich constellation as much as I do. Next week, I want to tell you about some of the astronomical treasures that await you and your telescope in my buddy Orion the Hunter.

Mars and Earth are making their closest approach to each other in more than two years this month.Currently, Mars is just more than 64 million miles away and shows up very brightly in the low eastern sky in the evening about 8 p.m. or so. It's the brightest starlike object in that part of the sky and has a distinctive reddish tinge to it. I'll have more on Mars in the coming weeks.<b><i>Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.</i></b>