Most constellations have only one bright star, but the majestic constellation Orion the Hunter can boast of two: Rigel and Betelgeuse. Even in the glare of the evening moon, you can’t miss these two brilliant beauties if you look eastward around 8 to 9 p.m. Rigel and Betelgeuse reside on opposite sides of Orion’s Belt – three medium-bright stars in a short, straight row.
Photo of the constellation Orion by jpstanley
Rigel depicts Orion’s left foot. A blue-white supergiant and one of the most luminous stars known, it is nearly 800 light-years away. If it were as close as Sirius, the brightest star visible to the eye (and only about 8.6 light-years away), Rigel would shine much more brilliantly than Venus, our sky’s brightest planet.
Betelgeuse – the other bright star in Orion – is the Hunter’s right shoulder. A red supergiant, Betelgeuse is no slouch of a star either. In fact, if Betelgeuse replaced the sun in our solar system, its outer layers would extend past Earth and Mars and to nearly the orbit of Jupiter.
Image credit: jpstanley
Betelgeuse will explode someday
On a moonless night, or after the moon goes down late tonight, you might want to look at the magnificent Orion Nebula, or M42, the fuzzy patch in Orion’s Sword. Although the moon will light up the evening sky for most of the first half of December 2011, look for Orion’s two brilliant stars, Betelgeuse and Rigel, to have the firepower to withstand the onslaught of the waxing moon.
you misspelled the rightmost star in orion’s belt. it’s mintaka, not minaka.
love your site, but could you add a full-sky view every day?
Hi, David. I am not in charge of that, but I will pass your suggestion on.
How can I find out whats happening in my part of Scotland, please?
Norma, what we talk about on Earth Sky is pretty well equally observable most anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere (and often the Southern). So in general you should be able to see things talked about here, at the same general local times. When we say, “Look to the East at mid-evening,” that’s pretty much the same for Scotland as anywhere else. Most writers for EarthSky are in the US, but we try to write about things that people around the world can see. If you need something more local, I suggest you check with your nearest planetarium or observatory. There are several planetariums in Scotland, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee. They may also have their own websites with a schedule.
Every night for over a month now, I can walk out into the street, look east, and there would be a bright star shining, it moves sort of towards the southwest as it gets later. In the south southwest is another bright object which appears to be about the same size but I know that is not possible. I really enjoy watching the night sky but have not been able to identify any constellation other than the big dipper and the seven sisters, or the little dipper. I don’t know my precise location, I don’t have gps but that is okay, I know where I am.
Great article! Correct me if I am wrong please, but that picture shows WAY MORE stars than a human would see naked eye. I estimate the limiting magnitude in that picture to be way above 8… I am curious as to why I never see the limiting magnitude mentioned in telescopic-like pictures such as this one. Another strange thing though is that Barnard’s Loop is hardly showing in the pic, and Lambda Orionis Nebula doesn’t show at all, whereas in other pictures showing less stars than this one I have seen them appear brilliantly in bright red, in fact even outshining the whole Orion constellation itself!
I have a question: Are any of those two huge red nebulae visible to the human naked eye? If so, what minimum limiting magnitude is necessary to see them? I already know I can’t see any of them even with my binoculars, in my poor city sky where the very best LM overhead is 4.5, with binoculars it would be 5.5 tops. Thanks for any input!
OTOH Today at about 4 am my sky was very poor, 4 LM overhead, yet while I was watching Jupiter set, I saw a HUGE AND SCARY fireball pass by, going northeast, I mean it even scared the bejesus out of me, it wasn’t a pleasant sight! I mean the diameter of that thing was like that of the Sun or the full Moon as we view them from Earth and it looked like a big flame —very vivid orange, more yellowish when it was vanishing– I assume one of these has to be at a very low altitude to be seen soooo big and scary in such a terribly bad sky such as mine! I wonder what is like the lowest altitude ever for a fireball and its size in diameter?
Looking straight up from Orion’s right shoulder, there is a “cluster of stars” which almost fades if I look directly at it. Does it have a name? Yours is a wonderful website! Thanks!
Dee, it is the Pleiades (PLEE-uh-dees) or Seven Sisters in Taurus.
Why are we seeing only the bottom half of the moon? We are in the Dominican Republic.
Dick, I am not there so I don’t know what you are seeing. It is at First Quarter, which means that roughly ony one half of the normally visible surface will be illuminated. If that is not the answer, there may be an unseen cloud blocking your view, but in any event, I assure you that the Moon is just fine.
Mj, assuming you are talking about early in the evening, Venus is very bright in the Southwest (but only for a short time after dark) and Jupiter is bright to the East or Southeast.
Bibi, it depends on your location, the conditions of the sky, whether you have a lot of light around and so on. Actually, the EarthSky charts typically show far fewer than the total number of stars visible to the human eye under ideal conditions, but then again, most of us rarely if ever experience perfect conditions.
As for your second question, I would say that if you can actually see things at magnitude 4.5, you are doing very well from the city.. You have to keep in mind that magnitudes are usually stated for point sources, and the magnitudes for nebulae as listed are integrated magnitudes for a distended object.The bottom line is that the magnitudes of nebulae are spread out over a large area, and the magnitude listed is what it would be if it were a point source. The Orion nebula is bright enough to be seen even from moderately bright city lights, especially in binoculars, or again it is a relative thing. What might be visible from Denver where I live or Austin where EarthSky is located, may not be visible from New York or Los Angeles. And regarding your meteor observation this morning, what you saw obviously was incredible, but bright meteors (bolides or fireballs) can sometimes be seen through light clouds!
Well Larry, thanks 4 your input, BTW the Orion picture I’m referring to is the one titled “Photo of the constellation Orion by jpstanley” which by the huge number of stars surrounding the Orion belt, and how huge its main stars look in comparison, I assume it is WAY OVER magnitude 8.
And yes, even in the worst ever sky in my city I can always see the Orion Nebula without binos, even when my LM is only like 3 or something. That’s why I find it simply unbelievable that the nebula is supposed to be 4 mag. I mean I can always see it naked eye but I’VE NEVER EVER been able to see either M31 or M44 with my naked eyes even at those very rare nights when I’ve been able to see stars as “dim” as 4.9 mag –like one spring night when I could see Corona Borealis quite easily overhead and at the same time most of Corona Australis to the south, and then I saw the latter quite clearly with my binos–!
I mean using my binos I can very hardly see M31 and M44 on a very clear night –LM 4.5 to 4.9 overhead, the best ever in my city– and the Orion Nebula looks super-clear and big with binoculars, even a bit scary because it glows very weird, and it appears and disappears from view! In fact many months ago on the clearest night ever I could barely see 6 of the 7 main Little Dipper stars and then the 7th using my binos, looking north where there’s lots of light pollution, but still couldn’t see any trace of M44 with my naked eyes… sadly though this year my city sky seems to have gotten worse, I just started stargazing a year ago in Autumn, and there were days where the sky looked almost black, but this year all autumn I’ve only seen skies with that ugly gray shade caused by light pollution and even overhead it doesn’t get much better!
And that meteor, my God I don’t wish seeing something like that to anyone, really! A regular meteor is beautiful to see, a bit startling though I know, but that thing looked horrendous, so scary I even jumped and almost started to run for cover lol!
Sorry, I thought you were referring to our finder chart. And yes, the magnitudes listed for nebulas can be a bit misleading since they are integrated magnitudes. It’s like a small cloud that is very distinct when it is small and concentrated, but it dissipates as it gets larger. I am in Denver and I agree that the light pollution has gotten worse over the years, possibly also worsened by “urban island” effect on the weather.
But as for the meteor, there’s no reason for any fear. True, they can be quite spectacular and startling, and make your heart pound a little harder, but the chances of being hit or sustaining any damage are almost non-existant. I’d call them cheap (and safe) thrills!
I woke up a little before 4 am 12/2/2011 in Ohio and saw what looked like a planet due west. What planet was it?
Jupiter! For more on the planets in December 2011, see http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury