Abbreviation: Â Ori
English Name: Â The Hunter
Genitive:Â Betelgeuse
Hemisphere:  Northern and Southern Hemisphere. (Underlined means the more area in square feet in Southern Hemisphere.)
Location:Â Between the constellations of Monoceros and Eridanus.
Visible between latitudes: Â +90 and -40 degrees
Best season: Winter
Seen in three seasons:Â Autumn, Winter and Spring.
Best seen in:Â During the middle of January.
Seen between:Â November and early March.
Right Ascension (RA):Â Â 05 hour
Declination (DEC):Â +05 degrees
Area (square degrees): Â 594Â (26th)
Orion (The Hunter)
- Orion, perhaps the most magnificent of all the constellations.
- It’s located on the celestial equator, and visible throughout the world – most recognisable constellations in the night sky.
- 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.
- 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.
Messier Objects
- M42 Â – Â Diffuse Nebula; visible to the naked-eye, and hazy spot in binoculars and small telescopes. Â The glowing hydrogen gas has a highly classified pinkish colour that is evident in the photographs, even those taken with few seconds exposed.
- M43 Â – small patch of nebulosity just north of the main body of M42 and visible under good conditions in binoculars. Â In fact it’s nothing more part of the whole Orion Nebula complex.
- M78 Â – Reflection Nebula; around magnitude: +8.0, lighted by two hot stars, all visible with 3-inch telescopes.
Features of Interest
- NGC 1981 Â – Â Open Cluster; detectable with the naked-eye, but so few stars that it does not bear much magnificaton; better with low powers, or binoculars.
- 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.
- NGC 2169 Â – Â Open Cluster; small consisting of around 30 stars.
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)
Others
- Photo of the constellation; Orion, as it appears to the naked eye. (Lines have been added for clarity.)
- Sky Chart  –  Orion
- List of stars in Orion.
Back to The 88 Constellations Lists page.