A pair of 10×50 binoculars will enhance the nebula, while a small telescope will bring out dark and light patches. Orion’s Belt forms part of a larger open cluster known as Collinder 70. Orion is a great target for beginners due to the wealth of astronomical objects that lie within its boundary. The stars in Orion’s Belt are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. Orion rises in the east and sets in the west, starting at mid-evening (midway between sundown and midnight). It rises four minutes earlier each day, or two hours earlier each month, according to EarthSky.
But there’s nothing new about it, stars explode all the time. Some astrophysicists, however, only consider Mintaka to be constituted by the two major stars we just talked about; a class 9.5 giant star and B main-sequence star. In either case, the complete system that we observe as Mintaka is about 1200 light-years away from us, and has been the guiding compass for ancient travelers for centuries. As apparent from the image attached, Mintaka is the top-most or the Western star of Orion’s belt. It’s not really a star but rather a system of multiple stars that are so close together that it appears as one singular entity. Another easy method to locate this constellation is to look for the armpit and the knee.

Trapezium Cluster

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, “The Princess” describes Orion’s Belt as “those three stars of the airy Giant’s zone.” The Māori people of New Zealand call Orion’s Belt Tautoru, meaning “a string of three.” The asterism represents the stern in the constellation known as Te Waka o Rangi (the canoe of Rangi). Matariki is known as the Māori New Year, which is marked by the rising of the Pleiades between late May and early July.

  • We can still see some parts of it, including the three stars forming its belt.
  • The explosion will be visible from Earth in the night sky.
  • Chances are excellent that if you can’t yet picture what Orion looks like, you’ll have an “aha!” moment once you lay eyes on either a star chart or the real thing.
  • Antares, the brightest star in Scorpius, never rises until Orion’s Belt has set.
  • Mintaka is a multiple star system at around 1.200 light-years away from Earth.

The Three Kings

The three wise men continued on their journey and followed the rising star. When it had stopped, they were joyful because they had found the baby and his mother Mary. Gaspar, the  King of Sheba, gave the present of Frankincense. Balthazar, the King of Tarse and Egypt, presented myrrh to baby Jesus. This way, you will not be mistaken and will identify all the stars correctly. We’ll explain how to find the constellation using the Star Walk 2 and Sky Tonight apps.

What’s Up: September 2025 Skywatching Tips from NASA

Orion’s belt forms the center of the constellation, bisecting it into upper and lower halves. It even has a “sword” hanging from it, and the stars it includes also serve as a guide to important nearby celestial objects. Coincidentally, the portion of the sky occupied by Orion is home to a variety of interesting non-star objects, too. Rigel is the most prominent star in the constellation Orion.

Where is the Orion constellation in the sky?

  • The Thornborough Henges, an ancient monument complex in North Yorkshire, England, features a similar alignment.
  • To people living in the United States and at similar latitudes worldwide – such as central Europe and much of mainland China – the best time to view Orion is at about 9 p.m.
  • Alnitak is the second closest star to us from Orion’s belt at a distance of 1.260 light-years.
  • Delta Orionis is an interesting multiple star system because it has three components but contains at least six stars in total.
  • It is easy to find Orion’s Belt in the night sky in the fall and winter months from the northern hemisphere.
  • Since these stars orbit each other, there will be times when one passes in front of the other and covers it from our line of sight here on Earth.

The stars were seen as a metaphor for two people who could never unite. Antares, the brightest star in Scorpius, never rises until Orion’s Belt has set. The Aymara people of the Andean highlands in Bolivia, Chile and Peru see the Belt of Orion as a celestial bridge connecting the northern and southern celestial hemispheres. Orion’s Belt is one of the asterisms that can be used to Orion’s Bet find the declination 0° (the equator), along with the Head of Cetus, the Head of Hydra, the Water Jar of Aquarius, and the Y of Virgo. Mintaka, the westernmost star of Orion’s Belt, appears only a quarter of a degree south of the equator and is the nearest bright star to it. Alnilam has between 40 and 44 times the mass of the Sun and a radius of 32.4 solar radii.

Facts About The Eight Planets

However, the theory is not widely accepted, and researchers disagree on how the stars would have appeared at the time. Finding constellations in the night sky isn’t always easy, but even beginners’ eyes are drawn to the bold trio of stars that form the belt of Orion. It is easy to find Orion’s Belt in the night sky in the fall and winter months from the northern hemisphere.

The stars were collectively known by different names in different cultures. The names include the Weighing Beam in Chinese and Al Nijād (the Belt), Al Nasak (the Line), Al Alkāt (the Golden Grains/Nuts) and Al Mīzān al Ḥaqq (the Accurate Scale Beam) in Arabic. The emission and reflection nebula NGC 2023 appears between the Horsehead and Flame Nebulae. The smaller reflection nebulae IC 431 and IC 435 also appear near Alnitak. The star’s spectrum also varies, possibly because of the dramatic mass loss that it is experiencing. Alnilam is losing mass about 20 million times more rapidly than the Sun.