Constellations · 1 of 5

Orion: The Hunter

Where does Orion’s Belt point, in both directions?

Seven bright stars, one straight line, and two of the sky's great landmarks at either end of it.

You’ll be able to find Orion by its Belt, and follow the Belt to Sirius and Aldebaran.

8 steps · about 6 min

Where and which night

Working out when this is best placed from where you are…

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Kept for this guide only, until you change it here — your map settings, and every other guide, stay as they are.

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Sources

HYG stellar database v4.2 — positions, magnitudes and every separation quoted here
SIMBAD (CDS Strasbourg) — spectral types and effective temperatures
Harper et al., AJ 154, 11 (2017) — radio and Hipparcos distance to Betelgeuse, 222 ± 48 pc
Montargès et al., Nature 594, 365 (2021) — the dust cloud behind the Great Dimming of 2019–20
Joyce et al., ApJ 902, 63 (2020) — Betelgeuse is burning helium in its core, some 100,000 years from exploding
Gaia DR3 (ESA, 2022) — parallaxes for Rigel and Sirius

← GUIDES

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Two shoulders, Betelgeuse and Bellatrix; two feet, Rigel and Saiph; three stars in a row across the middle: the Belt. Hanging from it, the Sword: the Saucepan's handle, to anyone south of the equator. Learn it and you can find a quarter of the winter sky — and everyone on Earth sees it.

The Belt is 2.7° long — two fingers — and lies along the , the line drawn here. Mintaka sits 0.3° from it, half a Moon's width: closer than any other star this bright. That makes the Belt a tool: a ruler, a pointer, and a compass.

Follow the Belt south-east, down and to the left, out of Alnitak: about 20° on, two fists, the line runs just past Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Not an extraordinary star — about 25 Suns' worth of light. It is simply close.

Now reverse it, out of Mintaka and north-west, up and to the right. About as far again, the line runs just below Aldebaran, the orange eye of Taurus. One line, two directions, two of the brightest stars of winter.

Opposite corners, opposite colours: colour is a thermometer. In 2019–20 Betelgeuse faded to a third of its light — a dust cloud it had shed, not the end. It will explode one day, but likely not for 100,000 years.

↺ Colour against true brightness, from The Winter Hexagon

The compass. The Belt sits on the equator, and it rises and sets at the same bearings from anywhere on Earth: watch the as it clears the horizon.

In the myth, a scorpion killed the hunter, and the two were set on opposite sides of the sky. Antares, its heart, is 152° from Betelgeuse: the arc dives into the ground. Orion hunts the winter; the Scorpion has the summer.

Tonight: find the Belt. Then: the Orion Nebula, the Winter Hexagon, the Sisters and the Hunter.

South-east along the Belt to Sirius
North-west along it to Aldebaran
Rises due east, sets due west