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photo shows how Orion appears at early evening at mid-northern latitudes.
• In the lore of the sky, Orion is also connected to the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion, which - at this time of year - can be found rising in the southeast shortly before dawn. Tomorrow morning, on Monday, January 9, look for the waning crescent moon close to Antares, the Scorpion's brightest star. And as darkness ebbs into dawn, look for the blazing planet planet Venus to climb up over the sunrise point on the horizon, below the moon and Antares.
• So Orion is up in the evening now, and Scorpius is up before dawn. Next summer, when Orion is up before dawn, Scorpius will be up in the evening. Orion and Scorpius never appear in the sky at the same time.
• Legend has it that Orion the Hunter was very vain. He boasted that no animal on Earth could kill him. But the Scorpion did sting Orion, and the Hunter died of its poison. Now, according to this ancient myth, the bitter hatred between these two constellations is so great that they can never been seen in the sky simultaneously.
• We today have a different interpretation of the fact that Orion and Scorpion are never in the sky together. Scorpius is located in the direction toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Orion is located in the opposite direction. They're never in the sky at once simply because they're located in opposite directions in space, as seen from Earth.
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