# Jesus Constellation **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2000, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642 "2000-10-20T08:03:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2000, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/1 "2000-10-20T08:03:40Z")
I recall, a few years ago, that the Hubble had “photographed Christ” or something zany like that–a cluster of stars that supposedly looked like Him. Anybody know where I could find this photgraph on the net? Sir ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2000, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/2 "2000-10-20T08:48:27Z")
Probably what you’re thinking of is the Orion nebula ([see picture](http://spiritnetwork.com/orion/fullmosaic.html)), in which you are supposed to see Jesus, Mary, Joseph, God, and a kitchen sink or two. It looks suspiciously like a dirty window pane to me. I can see something that looks like a human body (just one). It doesn’t look like any particular person to me, but it’s supposed to be Mary ([see detail](http://spiritnetwork.com/orion/mary.jpg)). If you squint just right and rap yourself sharply on the side of your head, it looks a little like a woman suckling a baby hippopotamus. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2000, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/3 "2000-10-20T14:17:27Z")
Another “God” photograph is the “Hand of God” that has made it onto several posters and can be found on this site: [Hand of God](http://www.angelfire.com/ar/rhop/doesgodexist.html) (It is not the fastest loading site I’ve encountered.) ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2000, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/4 "2000-10-20T16:52:17Z")
Thanks to Photoshop, the Weekly World News now photographs Satan all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2000, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/5 "2000-10-20T16:58:46Z")
Satan apparently isn’t impressed with my linking skills. [http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/archive/stories/1650.html](http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/archive/stories/1650.html) [http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/archive/stories/1928.html](http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/archive/stories/1928.html) Satan’s photograph was also briefly visible here, but it has since been replaced with a cryptic message: [http://amihotornot.com/r/?id=325&key=JVVSL](http://amihotornot.com/r/?id=325&key=JVVSL) ---
**Author:** ![Myndephuquer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@Myndephuquer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myndephuquer)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2000, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/6 "2000-10-20T17:06:51Z")
Sofa King, that doesn’t look like Satan – the dude in the picture has _short_ hair! (I guess it could be a shot that Drain Bead took right after he woke up, and he had his hair in a ponytail…) ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2000, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/7 "2000-10-20T17:33:08Z")
He’s not wearing a denim jacket, either. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2000, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/8 "2000-10-20T21:50:00Z")
Yikes! The [“Hand of God”](http://www.angelfire.com/ar/rhop/doesgodexist.html) looks more like the Hideous Deformed Claw of God to me… ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/9 "2000-10-21T05:01:48Z")
Thanks bibliophage, et al. Actually it looks to me like “Mary” is rubbing her eye, perhaps staying up all night with the Lord who had croup (or however its spelled). Sir ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/10 "2000-10-21T05:08:01Z")
It looks like a lot of dust and hot plasma to me. Everything else is just an artifact of hardwired pattern-matching pathways in our brains. Of course, it could have been airbrushed in. Consider the sources, people. Consider the sources. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/11 "2000-10-21T08:21:11Z")
The Orion one looks like a jumping bison to me, and _everyone_ knows that that second one is a picture of Alf! What’s even better, is if you look at the Eagle Nebula with a little less magnification, it looks exactly like a dancing girl. I’ll see if I can dig up a picture on the web. ---
**Author:** ![Stupendous\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Stupendous\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stupendous_man)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/12 "2000-10-21T14:28:14Z")
It’s called Pareidolia. It is a type of illusion or misperception, whereby a vague or obscure stimulus is perceived as being something clear and distinct. People have the ability to recognize faces and images, and that is what causes us to use our imaginations to “see” things that aren’t really there, such as the “face” in the moon, or more extremely, the Face in the rock formation on Mars. Seeing the image of Jesus or Mary in everyday things is likely one of the more common types of Pareidolia in the western world. See this link for an example of just how bizarre people can really be concerning “Jesus” sightings: [http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/electronic-publications/stay-free/5/jesus.htm](http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/electronic-publications/stay-free/5/jesus.htm) Stupendous Man! ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-constellation/37642/13 "2000-10-26T08:04:59Z")
Thanks to all who responded. Sir