One of the signs of the end of summer is the appearance of Orion in the early morning sky. I noticed it this morning, taking the dog out to do his business.
My dad, a career sailor, was a navigator, who taught me the constellations when I was just a child. By high school we had built me a telescope (6" f12.5, not a toy) and my energy as an amateur astronomer had become obsessive. I was one of the few teenagers in the country accepted into membership in Harvard Observatory's AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers), and I took keeping watch of the three stars assigned to me very seriously indeed, even when observations meant getting up at 3 a.m. on a school day.
Orion may be the first constellation everyone learns, easy to pick out because of the three linear stars in its belt. It's also of early interest to those with telescopes because of a bright nebula (you can pick it out with the naked eye if you're in the desert) in the sword area. It becomes an old friend, as does the Pleiades, the "great triangle", Scorpio, Castor and Pollux in Gemini, and other landmarks in the skies.
I ended up giving my telescope to the University of Oregon for student use when I was a grad student. I've done very little star-gazing since. It's not a hobby I brought into adulthood, which I sometimes regret.
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