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| Abbreviation: Ori |
| English Name: The Hunter |
| Genitive: Betelgeuse |
| Hemisphere: Northern and Southern Hemisphere. (Bold means the more area in square feet in Southern Hemisphere.) |
| Location: Between the constellations of Monoceros and Eridanus. |
| Visible between latitudes: +90 and -40 degrees |
| Best season: Winter |
| Seen in three seasons: Autumn, Winter and Spring |
| Best seen in: January (map) and February (map) |
| Seen between: November and early March |
| Right Ascension (RA): 05 hour |
| Declination (DEC): +05 degrees |
| Area (square degrees): 594 (26th) |
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Orion (The Hunter)
- Orion, perhaps the most magnificent of all the constellations.
o - It’s located on the celestial equator, and visible throughout the world – most recognisable constellations in the night sky.
o - Its brightest stars are Beta (Rigel); a blue-white, and Alpha (Betelgeuse); a red supergiant respectively. Many of the other brightest stars in the constellation are hot blue supergiant stars.
o - The Orion Nebula, also known as Messier 42 (M42), is located south of Orion’s belt, in its lying Theta, a multiple star known as the Trapezium.
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Messier Objects in Orion
| M42 – Diffuse Nebula; visible to the naked-eye, and hazy spot in binoculars and small telescopes. The glowing hydrogen gas has a highly classified pinkish colour that is evident in the photographs, even those taken with few seconds exposed. (photo) |
| M43 – small patch of nebulosity just north of the main body of M42 and visible under good conditions in binoculars. In fact it’s nothing more part of the whole Orion Nebula complex. (photo) |
| M78 – Reflection Nebula; around magnitude: +8.0, lighted by two hot stars, all visible with 3-inch telescopes. (photo) |
| . |
More objects in Orion
| Select Catalog | No of Objects |
| Barnard (B) | 11x objects |
| Caldwell (C) | 0x object |
| Collinder (Cr) | 13x objects |
| New General Catalogue (NGC) | 65x objects |
| Index Catalogue (IC) | 30x objects |
| Sharpless (Sh2) | 26x objects |
Features of Interest
- NGC 1981 – Open Cluster; detectable with the naked-eye, but so few stars that it does not bear much magnification; better with low powers, or binoculars.
o - NGC 2024 – Gaseous Emission Nebula with dark dust lanes; very close to very bright star – Alnitak in Orion’s Belt, which should be kept outside the field of view. This emission is hard detectable with binoculars, and the dark lanes with 5-inch telescopes.
o - NGC 2169 – Open Cluster; small consisting of around 30 stars.
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Named Stars
- Betelgeuse (Alpha Ori)
- Rigel (Beta Ori)
- Bellatrix (Gamma Ori)
- Mintaka (Delta Ori)
- Alinilam (Epsilon Ori)
- Alnitak (Zeta Ori)
- Nair al Saif (Iota Ori)
- Saiph (Kappa Ori)
- Meissa (Lambda Ori)
- Tabit (Pi 3 Ori)
- Tabit (Pi 2 Ori)
- Tabit (Pi 4 Ori)
- Tabit (Pi 1 Ori)
- Thabit (Upsilon Ori)
- more list of stars in Orion
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Planetarium / Constellation Map
| Live constellation visible from the UK :- Planetarium (Orion) | Best Seen in: January (map) and February (map) | Seen between: November and early March |
IAU Sky Chart: Orion
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Constellations – Visible from the UK
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Parts visible from the UK
| Antlia | Columba | Eridanus | Fornax | Microscopium | ||
| Piscis Austrinus | Puppis | Pyxis | Sagittarius | Scorpius | ||
| Sculptor |
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Constellations: Southern Celestial Hemisphere
…..– never seen from the UK
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Back to …Constellation Names
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