How to find Orion
When to look
December, January, February, March evenings
Face south-east, then south
Three stars in a short straight row (the belt), with a red star above and a blue-white one below. Winter evenings, December to March: south-east, then high in the south. The drawing below is made from the real positions of its 7 stars, as the sky looks when you face it, with bigger dots for brighter stars. No telescope needed.
Orion has three stars in a row in the middle, called the belt. Above it is an orange star. Below it is a blue-white star.
Orion is the easiest winter star pattern. Find the belt first, then the four corners around it: orange Betelgeuse and blue-white Rigel are among the brightest stars in the sky. A fuzzy patch below the belt is a cloud where stars are born.
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant, so big that it would swallow Mars's orbit if it took the Sun's place. Rigel is a blue supergiant. The Orion Nebula, in the sword, is about 1,300 light-years away and visible to bare eyes.
The stars in it
Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka, Saiph, Rigel. The brightest is Rigel.
How to find it
- Go out after dark with a grown-up, and give your eyes ten minutes away from screens.
- Face south-east, then south and look for: three stars in a short straight row (the belt), with a red star above and a blue-white one below.
- Hold up this page's drawing or the printed card and match the shape to the sky. If the sky is clear.
More star patterns
“Star patterns turn through the night, so the shape may be tipped on its side. Turn your head, not the sky.”