✨ Constellation
Orion
The Hunter, with three bright stars in a row for his belt.
- Name means
- The Hunter
- Best seen
- January evenings
- Where to see it
- Almost everywhere on Earth
- Brightest star
- Rigel
- Stars in the pattern
- 23
Shapes to look for
Orion’s Belt. Three bright stars in a short straight row, one of the easiest shapes to find in the whole sky.
Did you know?
- Its belt of three stars in a row is one of the easiest patterns to find in the whole sky.
- The fuzzy patch in its sword, below the belt, is the Orion Nebula, where new stars are being born.
In this part of the sky
Betelgeuse
A red supergiant in Orion that will one day explode.
Orion Nebula
The closest big star nursery, visible without a telescope.
More NASA photos of OrionStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app
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All of night sky
Ursa Major
The Great Bear, home of the Big Dipper.
Ursa Minor
The Little Bear, with Polaris at the tip of its tail.
Cassiopeia
A bright W of five stars, named after a boastful queen.
Scorpius
The Scorpion, with red Antares at its heart.
Leo
The Lion, whose head is a backwards question mark of stars.
Taurus
The Bull, with red Aldebaran as its glowing eye.