Last week I did another 3-in-the-morning stint of star-gazing. I was pleased that I got some pictures of Orion. Online I discovered some interesting things about it.
These are the main stars that make up Orion. The two angled stars at the top make up his shoulders with a faint head in between and above. The two bottom angled stars make up his feet. The three sideways, angled stars are his belt, and further below in some of the pictures you can see three stars that make up his sword. Double-click to see better.
Here are the names of some of the stars:
Rigel at the bottom is the brightest star and is the 6th brightest star in the sky. It is the left foot of Orion (think of him as facing you).
Betelguese at the top left is a massive red supergiant star nearing the end of its life. When it explodes it will even be visible during the day. It is the right shoulder of Orion and is the 8th brightest star in the sky.
Bellatrix is the other shoulder and is the 22nd brightest star.
Saiph is Orion's right foot and is a similar size and strength as Rigel but appears much fainter since its light is mostly emitted in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum which the human eye cannot see.
Meissa forms Orion's head.
Looking for Orion's belt is the easiest way to find Orion in the sky. It is most visible in January around 9 p.m. and is not visible in the summer.
Alnitak, the eastern (left) star in the belt is 100,000 time brighter than the sun and is 800 light years away. It is actually a triple star.
Alnilam is the centre star in the belt and is nearly twice as far from the sun as the other two but its luminosity makes it nearly equal in magnitude. It is 1340 light years away and is 375,000 times more luminous than the sun.
Mintaka is the westernmost star in the belt and is a double star; the two orbit each other every 5.73 days. It is 915 light years away and is 90,000 times more luminous than the sun.
The sword of Orion are multiple stars called the Orion Nebula and the Trapezium. Using binoculars you can see its clouds of stars, luminous gas and dust.
This is betelguese, the top left shoulder. (Mal calls it beetle-juice!) If you look closely it does appear more orangeish than the other stars because it is nearing the end of its life. A white or blue star is hotter than an orange or red star which is dying.
We had our last Northwest Mennonite Conference Convention this last weekend. Mal gave our public resignation in his report, effective the end of August. They surprised us by calling us forward for a bit of a Farewell.
As you can see from our expressions, it included some humour. Our Office Administrator and some children did a bit of an African dance for us. Then they had a powerpoint presentation of some of the things Mal does as Conference Minister.
Mal was given some garden art for his retirement garden!
And I was given this beautiful Dining Room sign.
Then they finished it of with some cake.
We girls were all together for Dad's 96th Birthday Celebration.
Irene made Dad's favorite - an awesome roast beef dinner and then birthday cake.
We gave Dad a book of some of the artwork he has done since he turned 80.
He enjoyed looking at it and some of the pictures immediately drew forth a story.
Then he requested that we sing for him, which we did while he took this picture. We sang old gospel favorites for quite awhile. Occasionally he sang along. It was a nice way to end the celebration. He got back to the Manor on time for a turkey dinner! I told him he didn't have to eat it all if he was too full, but he thought he would! Dad always did have a good appetite! :D 
Dad's new home. Hofers and Dakus moved him in about a month ago.
We three girls plus Joe just emptied and cleaned out his condo. Many trips of stuff went down the elevator!
It was quite a job, but so fun to work together as sisters!
In the evenings we sorted out stuff and took trips down Memory Lane. This is Mom's Autograph Book from 1939!
We were up until midnight sorting almost every night. Here we are taking turns choosing Dad's paintings.
Last week I did another 3-in-the-morning stint of star-gazing. I was pleased that I got some pictures of Orion. Online I discovered some interesting things about it.
These are the main stars that make up Orion. The two angled stars at the top make up his shoulders with a faint head in between and above. The two bottom angled stars make up his feet. The three sideways, angled stars are his belt, and further below in some of the pictures you can see three stars that make up his sword. Double-click to see better.
Here are the names of some of the stars:
This is betelguese, the top left shoulder. (Mal calls it beetle-juice!) If you look closely it does appear more orangeish than the other stars because it is nearing the end of its life. A white or blue star is hotter than an orange or red star which is dying.
For several months I've been noticing this extra-bright star in the sky and wondering what it is. After reading an article in our local paper I realized it must be Jupiter, which is visible until March. It is the third brightest object in the night sky, after the moon and Venus. It can be seen in the south, going from east to west, following the same path as the sun takes during the day. It won't come as close to earth again until 2022.
This is Jupiter close up; you can see its bluish tinge. After taking pictures I noticed that they showed different colors of stars and I wondered if that was just the photography, because I couldn't see colors when looking at the stars. 
This picture shows some of the different colors. You may need to double-click on it to see them better.
In this picture I've increased the saturation to see the color better.
