Nimród, the biggest hunter, father of the twins Hunor and Magor, has always been a prominent figure in my life.

i remember my father pointing up at the sky one night and searching for the distinct constellation of ζ Ori (Alnitak), ε Ori (Alnilam), and δ Ori (Mintaka), which form the belt of the hunter, and not being able to find it as it's not appearing in the northern summer sky, he went home with me and took out the big star foliant that was resting heavily on our living room' s bookshelf to give me my first lessons about astronomy.

it became the constellation i knew by heart; for all the alien names it provides my fantasy with; betelgeuze and rigel and bellatrix and saiph, which not only sounded odd and promising in the all-too german mouth of my youth, but also made me more knowledgeable about greek mythology than my own christian background while i was a teenager.

i always liked to imagine the hunter fighting with a lion, as he is often depicted. i made up stories of doom and glory around his epic fight with the beast, which only later i understood was the beast inside myself, a fight carried out hundreds of light years away from me because it was, in fact, too near to my heart.

so i stopped the car and got out for a long exposure shot just at the entrance of death valley. and gazing over the dark void that was the land and the sky, i never felt as lonely and simultaneously happy as i did there; with orion on top of my head.

Amazing! pandka · 2012-06-07: 04:50

Thanks for this fascinating insight. Greek mythology also prompted me to learn to read (very late), not helped by the fact that I have astigmatism, myopia, dyslexia and chronic laziness, which also prevented me from fixing Orion's Belt in the night sky with any certainty. It seemed to me that the sky was full of three stars in a line. I still look for the Pleiades first and work my way down. In years to come, someone will write (if they still write then): "I remember the first time my grandfather launched the Stellarium app..." SM2012 · 2012-06-07: 05:30

nice work!! TEOMONTANA · 2012-06-07: 07:56

Brilliant! Congrats on such a great capture. And thanks for the lesson! Lsample · 2012-06-07: 08:00

THAT is a great story... and the stars would be another reason to get out to the desert... good shot! DancingDolphin · 2012-06-07: 09:44

What an interesting tale, well told and good capture with the shot. pcmcgarry · 2012-06-07: 09:47

Wow...that is truly 'far out' my friend. ,,,,,even made me clean the monitor so that I could see the stars better. maharba · 2012-06-07: 14:51

here is another proof that the father's memory makes the writer - a good one :/) lyency · 2012-06-07: 16:41

This is a gorgeous shot. You are a very complex and intriguing individual. liveandletlive · 2012-06-07: 21:42

beautiful, all of this. i love reading about the birth of your fascination with astronomy & what all else is out there. this also allows for more understanding of what draws you to the desert. gorgeous. rmjannette · 2012-06-08: 11:23

i can stand at the center of your photograph and feel the vastness in the desert scape and the sky overhead. isn't it something how the desert skies can start to feel like a ceiling you can almost touch once the stars and planets start showing themselves? wonderful. rmjannette · 2012-06-08: 11:25

a great moment beautifully captured and shared... that's what I love about photograpy Nychthemeron · 2012-06-08: 12:24

Wonderful writing and image too. Makes me wish I was there. So much light pollution here it's a rare treat to see the stars properly. James always looks for Orion's belt when we see stars. I've forgotten why now. He's been doing it so long. I'll ask him tonight. caroleagle · 2012-06-08: 12:44

I like this very much :-) ????? · 2012-06-21: 16:02

Tagged: 參 orion nimród astronomy childhood memories deathvalley lonelyandhappy subtext