Summer’s mighty hunter
Thou Hunter, who dost climb at eve
The vault of Ether blue,
Whose starry dagger nightly gleams
My casement-lattice through
—Anonymous, Babylon, 1837
The glory of Orion, the Hunter, holds sway over summer nights with its unequalled brilliance. Our centrefold’s all-sky chart depicts its attention-grabbing belt stars in a straight line straddling the celestial equator. Gleaming below his belt, Orion’s starry dagger bears his foremost treasure, the Orion Nebula, an extensive tangle of nebulosity with a heart of sparkling gems.
The (M42 and M43) is enchanting through any telescope, and the view through a large scope can never be forgotten. Amateur David Riddle made the stunning sketch of M42 (next page) with his 45-cm reflector at 450x. It took
