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Real Newbie Needs Help With Some Star Names

wiggly critter

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wiggly critter

wiggly critter

Posted
Posted

Hi Guys - firstly I am going to apologise in advance for lack of knowledge.

I have been married for 30 years and my wife and I look up at the stars and she always points out her "horse" which she first identified as a child.

We have always just known it as her "horse", but I now want to get a jeweller to make a necklace to replicate her horses image and so I started googling images of constellations etc and I now think I know which stars they are and I have attached two images of them to show you what I am talking about.

I would like to know the names for each of the stars and think the three in a row are Orions Belt??

Any help or info greatly appreciated.  Sorry about the poor horse outline but hopefully you will see what we see!!

Thanks

post-48007-0-12395900-1447796086_thumb.j

post-48007-0-56004700-1447796097_thumb.j

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michael8554

michael8554

Posted
Posted

I see it too, not a bad fit.

But "Dobbin's Hoof" doesn't have quite the ring of "Orion's Sword"

The Belt stars left to right are:

Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka

Dobbin's bum hind-quarter is Rigel

His rear hoof is Saiph

I don't think the other stars and nebulae have names, only numbers

Michael

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Floater

Floater

Posted
Posted

Your 'horse' is (part of) the constellation Orion.

Your horse's head is made up of, from the left, Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. The 'leg' is Orion's 'sword', with the only named star that I know of being Nair al Saif (at the bottom). The others are given only Greek letters, apart from the famous nebula, M42, which might look like a fuzzy star! The 'back foot' of your horse is Rigel. Any others, again, have only Greek letters. The constellation contains other stars, notably Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, but they do not form part of your good lady's horse.

Sorry if that's not romantic enough but the idea is great. It's hers. She'll be happy - and happiness is priceless.

Have fun.

EDIT: shoulda known I'd be beaten on this one!

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Charic

Charic

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.......I think your image of the horse is in fact called the  ' wiggly critter '

It fits quite well, and quite amusing  :grin:

As mentioned above, its really  the Constellation of Orion.

There are  many examples of jewellery on the internet, some of Pegasus, the Horse, and some of Orion - The hunter  ( the Stars depicted inside your horse ) . I'm sure an engraver could modify the image, unless you spoil the memory and tell her the difference?

Some of my family visited  this Year, and we went out to look at the Stars, and to be honest, its like they have never seen Stars before, well not as bright as they are from my darker skies, 5 mins away,  with  Ursa Major/The Plough,  now referred too as the "Shopping Trolley"  so if you wish to rename your own Stars, so be it! Just don't be wasting any money on buying one?

Finally, if you both like looking at the Stars, some fairly cheap binoculars will allow you both to see thousands more than your eys alone can see, including satellites, and other strange phenomena's.

Welcome to the SGL.

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Knighty2112

Knighty2112

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Orion, with its belt and the M42 nebula (it's sword) were the first thing (apart from the moon of course) to get me hooked on to astronomy as a 12 year old kid back in the last century (Wow! Does that make me feel old! Hehe!) I used to view the stars in Orion's belt and the sword from his belt (M42) as a reversed question mark, which always got me thinking deeply about space, the universe, the planets etc which led me to pester my parents for a telescope for the very next Christmas. And the rest is history as they say!

Good luck with the jewellery! I take it this is all hush, hush! So no one breath a word to the wife OK! ;)

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Floater

Floater

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Sheesh! Sorry, wiggly, these conflicting answers are not going to help you.

Google 'Orion' and you'll find plenty of images to make up your own mind about the stars that make up your 'horse'. Alternatively, download Stellarium or Sky Safari (both available free) and have a look at Orion.

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Jimtom

Jimtom

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Yes, sorry for the flippant remarks, I'm wind crazy.

Can't recommend Stellarium high enough. It does everything and it's free. Great for learning the night sky and lots more. It runs on my [very] old XP laptop and runs the GoTo on my mount. And it's free.:-)

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

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Ive never seen a horse in Orion's belt and sword before (i dont mean the HH nebula), but looking at the line drawing above, i can see how some people can see a horse (more of a donkey in my mind).

The only actual constellation i know of which has any reference to a horse is Pegasus.

Orion's belt:

Left to right you have...........Alnitak,Alnilam and Mintaka.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Orion_IAU.svg

For a piece of jewelry, most of the stones/stars would have to be diamonds (white). For the middle stone in the sword (Orion nebula), it would have to be pink coloured:

http://www.bernardine.com/gemstones/pink.htm

Lovely romantic idea. If you can sit down with a designer all the better. I bet it will cost a pretty penny though. 

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wiggly critter

wiggly critter

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Wowww - Guys I have just logged on to see if anybody bothered to reply and was amazed at the level of response...this is what great forums are about...and do you know what was nicest of all - not one condescending comment about my lack of knowledge.

Thank you all for the replies I now have my work cut out to find someone who could make this for me.

If I am successful I will post an image of the necklace

thanks again

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Astro Imp

Astro Imp

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Posted

Wowww - Guys I have just logged on to see if anybody bothered to reply and was amazed at the level of response...this is what great forums are about...and do you know what was nicest of all - not one condescending comment about my lack of knowledge.

Thank you all for the replies I now have my work cut out to find someone who could make this for me.

If I am successful I will post an image of the necklace

thanks again

This forum is well known for this attitude and is probably the friendliest place in cyberspace.

Pleased to hear you have found the answers you want and thanks for taking the trouble to let us all know.

Good luck with the jewellery.

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