Let’s Start With Orion

The greatest winter constellation of Orion the Hunter is high in the south at 8 p.m. now. The objects we will examine are bright enough to see even with the nearby waxing Moon.

Let us turn our attention to Orion. The easiest way for beginning astronomers to find Orion is to look for the three bright stars that form

Orion’s belt. These stars form a diagonal line slanting up and to the right this time of year.

Mintaka is the uppermost star in the belt. Alnilam is in the middle and Alnitak is the bottom star. These stars are much hotter and larger than the Sun and light takes from 1200 to 2000 years to reach us. Alnitak is the brightest and hottest of the “O” class stars in our sky.

The three belt stars appear blue-white. They are supergiant stars and will use up their hydrogen fuel in maybe 100 million years. That is a short time for a star to live.

Now let us find a fuzzy spot known as M-78. This object is a reflection nebula and the light we see is bright starlight reflecting on nearby gas and dust. To find M-78, start at Alnitak, sweep up and slightly left with binoculars.

The most famous nebula in the night sky is the Great Orion Nebula or the M-42 & 43 complex. From Alnitak sweep down and right with binoculars. M-42 is bright enough to see with your naked eye.

Unlike M-78, M-42 is an emission nebula. The light you see is glowing hydrogen gas that emits red light. A tight cluster of very hot young stars called the Trapezium produces the energy to make the gas glow. You will only see white when you look at M-42. Color is visible only in photos. New stars and planets form here.

This region contains dark areas. The dark areas are not places where there are no stars. Rather they are dust clouds that block starlight and glowing gas. The James Webb Telescope can see into the dust clouds.

Explore all around Orion whenever possible.

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