Constellations · Constellation · Orionis · Ori
Constellation
Orion
The hunter — recognised as a person by cultures on every continent, and a nursery where stars are being born tonight.
- Genitive
- Orionis
- Area
- 594 square degrees · 26th of 88
- Brightest star
- Rigel · magnitude 0.18
- Naked-eye stars
- 204 brighter than magnitude 6.5
- Highest at midnight
- mid December
Myth
Orion boasted he could kill every animal on Earth, and Gaia sent a scorpion to sting him. They were put on opposite sides of the sky: Orion sets as Scorpius rises.
Look for
Below the Belt hangs the Sword; its middle “star” is the Orion Nebula, a cloud of glowing gas you can see with the naked eye.
Look for
Compare the colours: Betelgeuse at the shoulder is orange-red and cool, Rigel at the knee is blue-white and fierce.
Other skies
To the Lakota the Belt is the spine of a bison; in Egypt the figure was Osiris; in much of Aboriginal Australia the Belt and Sword form a canoe, “Djulpan”.