1020: "Orion Nebula"

[jpk]

Secondary joke: "Also on the agenda: What's with his hips?"

Orion Has a Dong is the name of my new band...

[Joepat]

Alt text: "Also on the agenda: What's with his hips?"

I've never noticed the dong thing, but his hips are weird, you've got to admit. Then again, not much we can do about it.

[planet4589]

I didn't see this talk on the program! I would have reigstered otherwise...
Maybe it's not too late to get to Tokyo....
I agree it's time we professionals stopped using the euphemism of "sword", every time
I show someone M42 I can barely say it with a straight face...

Edited out link. No links before 5 posts. -Lanicita

[Halrandir]

Two seconds late in posting my own thread, which I only was compelled to create this one time because holy bejeezus THIS HAS ALWAYS BOTHERED ME AND NO ONE EVER BELIEVED ME. *cry*

[rhomboidal]

I think I've heard a theory that ancient-alien visitors to the Earth originated from around the Dong Star. They're either Greys or Crabs.

[rwald]

Speaking of bothersome, isn't it true that Orion is just a constellation, not a nebula? I remember that part of Men In Black...

[madock345]

That and "where's his head, anyway?"

[Sir_Read-a-Lot]

It couldn't possibly be a sword - Orion was an archer!

[/sarcasm]

On a more serious note, Orion was known for trying to date Artemis, so it's a logical part of the constellation...

[coachb05]

Orion may or may not have a dong, but the fact of the matter is that the thing hanging down is his loincloth, it was a hand-me-down from his brother. As for the head, a friend of mine had something to say about that:

What you guys are missing is Orion doesn't have a head because HE'S A ROBOT!
- Michael Kelso

[Quicksilver]

The only constellation that has ever made sense to me is the Southern Cross.

[glasnt]

Dude, the galaxy is on Orion's Belt. Duh.

Sup, joee?

[alun009]

This would have been funnier if he'd used the word "penis". There's no place for the word "dong" outside of bell-ringing.

[orangustang]

Either way, the Romans called it a gladius.

[karanj]

For reference to the actual stars

Never really noticed that here in Oz, but I guess I'll have to look up tonight.

Also: the dong seems to be... the Nebula? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula) Gives a whole new spin to the birthplace of stars...

[Pfhorrest]

Since when is it a sword? It's his belt. Everybody knows the phrase "Orion's belt". It's not just those three stars across his waist.

Old ring belts tie in the front of the waist with a length hanging down from the tie, like this:

[Monotonius]

You just won xkcd.

[Kit.]

Actually, according to Wikipedia, it's not that big:

[philippos42]

Leaving aside the scale problems, wouldn't it be more worrying if he had a void there? It's Orion the Hunter, not O'Ryan the Eunuch.

[Sb0070]

What's more worrying is that Orion doesn't have a head..

[kurkosdr]

Astronomers don't care about the fictional shapes we drew on the sky by arbitarly joining the stars. They might call that bunch of stars "Orion" out of tradition, but they don't care about the shape and how human it looks. Astrologers (=fraudsters) do, because they want to convince you the stars have mystical powers.

[dtilque]

Never really noticed that here in Oz, but I guess I'll have to look up tonight.

He'll be standing on his head, from Down Underish point of view. Or you could stand on your head and he'll be right side up.

Also: the dong seems to be... the Nebula? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula) Gives a whole new spin to the birthplace of stars...

Yep, although there's a couple other stars making up the sword too.

[Proginoskes]

Geez ... How many threads are you guys going to make for this comic?

[da Doctah]

I think it's a little irresponsible to go mucking about with Orion when they still haven't done anything about the name of the planet Uranus.

[The Moomin]

Looking at Orion's pose, it does look like he should be shouting 'redefine ALL the constellation anatomies'.

[Iranon]

I should hope that Orion has a dong... dolls, figurines etc missing something down there freaked me out since I was a kid.

[ygp]

Wasn't Randall banned from IAU conferences? If it weren't for people agreeing with him, I'd say this was the event that caused it.

[Andromeda321]

Damn. I'm an astro PhD student and had no real reason to go to the IAU conference this year (it's in Beijing), but now really, really want to.

[jozwa]

...they still haven't done anything about the name of the planet Uranus.

Well, it's only the English-speaking world that has a problem with that.

[Schumi]

I was expecting the joke to be that the Orion nebula was re-designated as a dwarf nebula for some trivial reason.

The only constellation that has ever made sense to me is the Southern Cross.

Cygnus doesn't take too much effort to turn into a flying swan. Cross shape: long neck, 2 wings and a short tail.

[Tualha]

Actually, 'tis O Ryan the Scotsman (Irish grandfather), and he has a sporran.

[SolkaTruesilver]

I move the notion that Orion be renamed "The Streaking Quasimodo"

[perry]

Hit random after viewing this and came up with #194 lol.

[Endless_Nameless]

The interesting thing to me is that the Greek constellations are not the only set of drawings in the sky. Some of them can be seen in the ((recommended and free) software Stellarium, where you can choose to see constellation from different cultures.

To me, the most interesting constellation set is from my country former owners (Brazilian natives), where the constellations are like draws from a "connect the dots" book. They are really easy to picture what they are by their drawings. There is even a constellation that cross all the southern sky! They had structures that worked like compass, and apparently knew the difference between the magnetic and real poles.

[javahead]

Wasn't Randall banned from IAU conferences? If it weren't for people agreeing with him, I'd say this was the event that caused it.

Freaky good memory, or search engine skillz?

[tstevens757]

Speaking of bothersome, isn't it true that Orion is just a constellation, not a nebula? I remember that part of Men In Black...

What about Messier 42 (M42)? That's the Orion Nebula and it's situated south of the belt. The white arrow in the comic is pointing to it.

[Socks]

Heh, my first thought was that BHG was banned from IAU for something about a fat joke, but I guess it was Randall.

[dotancohen]

How about the fact that some constellations, such as Cancer and Pisces don't even exist. I have been looking at the stars almost every night for decades and I still don't see anything between the Twins and the Lion.

[servman]

This would have been funnier if he'd used the word "penis". There's no place for the word "dong" outside of bell-ringing.

I have to agree that "Dong" isn't appropriate in this circumstance. Can we agree on "Wang" or "Schlong"?

The 2nd "star" in the sword is M42, the Orion Nebula and it's breathtaking, even through 10 power binos... If I can see it in Toronto, you should be able to see it anywhere.

[Sharon_Gaughan]

For 2012, the IAU Symposium 279 topic is Death of Massive Stars: Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursts. This symposium was postponed until March 12-16, 2012, at the same location (Nikko, Japan). That should give you some extra time if you plan to attend.

[mike65535]

xkcd has always impressed me with its good spelling and grammar.

So, what's with the apostrophe in BRING'S ??