Hop along with Lepus the Rabbit!
About once a month I like to dedicate this column to a particular constellation. Most of the time, I stick with major constellations like Orion, Gemini or the Big Bear, but this month I want to do a bit of deep-tracking on a much lesser-known star pattern.
All winter long, we dedicated stargazers willing to bundle up have been rewarded by the bright stars and constellations.
There’s a particular collection over Butler that has several nicknames, like the winter hexagon, winter circle, winter oval and more. I like to call it “Orion’s gang,” because the bright constellations that surround the great hunter.
There’s Gemini the Twins, Auriga the Chariot Driver, Taurus the Bull, and Canis Major and Minor. Orion’s calling card is his belt, made up of three bright stars in a nearly perfect row. This time of year, Orion’s gang holds court over a wide area of the early evening southwestern sky.
One member of Orion’s gang that lacks celestial luster is just under the foot of the Hunter, the constellation Lepus the Rabbit. As you can see in the diagram, you would be hard-pressed to see how this little disjointed collection of faint stars makes up a heavenly hare.
If you’re ever out stargazing with me and you can honestly tell me you see a bunny below Orion’s feet in the southwestern sky, I want whatever you’re drinking!
The truth of the matter is that to see even half of the faint stars of Lepus, you have to be out in the countryside, and even then it’s stretching your eyesight and, even more, your imagination to see it as a rabbit. One thing is for sure though, whoever came up with the name Lepus (pronounced “Lee-pus”) for the celestial rabbit had a sense of humor.
In Greek mythology, Lepus the Rabbit is a fun little tale. It reminds me of the old Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd cartoons.
Orion could hunt down any beast on his island, no matter how large or ferocious they were. But, just like Elmer Fudd, there was one beast that constantly eluded the mighty hermit hunter and actually took great pleasure in harassing him. It’s Orion’s version of Bugs Bunny, Lepus the Rabbit.
Not only was Lepus a normal pesky rabbit that ate everything out of Orion’s garden, he would constantly taunt and tease Orion during his hunting adventures, jumping on his head or biting the mighty hunter’s butt just as he was about to launch a spear at a wild boar. Lepus also made a point of, should we say, soiling Orion’s sleeping bag. Orion wanted desperately to exterminate this nasty little hare, but just like Bugs Bunny, Lepus was just too clever and fast.
Orion never got to realize his dream of eliminating Lepus because Orion himself was done in by Zeus, the king of the gods of Mount Olympus. Zeus found out that Orion was fooling around with his daughter Artemis, the goddess of the moon.
Actually it was Artemis who pursued Orion as she deserted her task of guiding the moon across the night sky. It was her duty to guide a team of flying horses that towed a giant flatbed chariot with the moon strapped onto it. She kept seeing this nocturnal hunk of hunter pursuing his prey night after night and had to meet him. So on a nightly basis she woahed the horses in midflight so she could have her clandestine meeting with Orion. Artemis enjoyed her nightly hunting adventures and let’s just say that they were having quite a time!
Zeus did not approve of his daughter fooling around with this mortal roughneck hunter and put out a hit on Orion. He sent a giant scorpion who attacked Orion during his daytime slumber. There was a tumultuous battle between the combatants, but, alas, the giant scorpion fatally bit Artemis’ boyfriend.
When Artemis discovered her dead boyfriend, she lifted his body into the heavens and magically transfigured it into the constellation we see in the winter heavens. She wanted to be able to see him every night as she guided the moon across the sky.
She also placed his hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor up there with him, along with, yes, that pesky rabbit Lepus. So as Bugs Bunny might say….”That’s what’s up in the sky, Doc!”
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is also the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.
