I thought I knew Orion. Three stars in a row for the Belt, Betelgeuse above, Rigel below: it's one of the constellations I have long been able to identify with the least thought, along with Cassiopeia and the Plough/the Big Dipper.
But one fall evening long ago, when I was learning the night sky, I was looking at three bright stars rising in the east and spent an embarrassingly long time wondering whether they really were Orion's Belt. They were at the wrong angle. The rest of Orion followed them into the sky almost sideways, as though somebody had knocked the Hunter over.
What was happening? Nothing had gone wrong with Orion, of course. The problem was the picture of him in my head. Most constellation diagrams are printed in the orientation that makes them easiest to recognize. The sky makes no such promise. Watch Orion rise this month, and the familiar figure can look decidedly unfamiliar at first. Better still, stay outside long enough, and you can watch his orientation change as he rises on his side and swings into the southern sky upright as the night wears on.
Orion stopped being a picture and became evidence that the sky was doing something I didn't expect to see so easily in such a short time — it was moving, and strangely.
What's happening and when to look
