Orion the Hunter

Orion: One of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky.  In the northern hemisphere, Orion is a winter constellation. In the southern hemisphere, Orion appears during the summer months.  It also appears inverted and upside-down from there.  Orion's body consists of seven bright stars. The top left (Orion's shoulder) is a red supergiant named Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis).  Betelgeuse is so large, that if it were placed where the sun is, it would engulf Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the asteroid belt, and possibly even Jupiter! Astronomers believe that Betelgeuse will go supernova (explode) in the near future. Astronomically speaking, that could be within a million years.  That will be quite the site!  Moving to Orion's right shoulder, we have the star named Bellatrix (Gamma Orionis). This star is over eight times as large as our sun.  The star that represents Orion's left leg (or foot) is known as Saiph.  Finally, the star for Orion's right leg (foot) is known as Rigel (Beta Orionis).  Rigel is the brightest star in Orion.

Orion's belt is made up of three stars.  The names of these stars, starting from the left are: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka.  These three stars can be used as pointer stars, or guide stars, to guide the observer to the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius.  Simply draw an imaginary line starting at the right and extend the line through Orion to find Sirius.  Sirius is also know as the "dog star" because it lies in the constellation Canis Major (the Greater Dog).  Just below Orion's belt, there lies a fuzzy patch of sky that can be seen from a moderately dark sky site, known as Orion's Nebula (M42).  This nebula is one of the more famous nebulae and one of the first objects photographed by the great Hubble Space Telescope.  The Orion Nebula is a place where stars are born.  When using a low power optical aid, such as binoculars, an observer can see a few of the brighter stars in what is known as the Trapezium.  These stars are relatively young in astronomical terms. The Orion Nebula is over 1,300 light years tall, from our perspective.  A light year is the measure of the distance light travels in a year.   Which is quite a bit considering that light travels 300,000 kilometers per second (about 186,000 miles per second)! That means that one light year is about 6 trillion miles!

I find that looking at objects in the night sky, such as the Orion Nebula and the Trapezium very satisfying and amazing to be able to see something so awesome.  It doesn't look anything like the pictures that you can find in books, magazines, and on the Internet, but is still amazing to look at with my own eyes. Most objects similar to the Orion Nebula appear white to blue grey with an inky black surrounding when viewing them through binoculars or a telescope.

Here is a picture I took from St. George this last weekend of Orion.  See if you can name the stars and find Sirius!

I encourage you to go outside tonight to look at Orion.  It will be found towards the south west.  It is slowly leaving our sky and will no longer be visible to us until winter. When you go out, you may also notice a very bright "star" in the sky almost directly above your head. This is actually the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter.  Don't forget to follow the three stars of Orion's belt to find Sirius!