For most people, Orion’s belt refers to the area of the night sky where you can find three bright stars in a row, including Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka (from left to right). Known as the three kings or three queens, depending on your culture, these stars make up one of the most famous constellations in the sky — they’re bright enough to be seen even from the middle of a city at night and are easy to spot once you know what you’re looking for.
Finding Orion’s Belt in the Daytime
One way to find Orion’s belt is by looking for the three bright stars that make up this constellation. These stars are called Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. The easiest way to find these stars is by looking at Orion’s head. Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka can be found on a line that points to his nose. Another way is by locating Betelgeuse which is located on Orion’s shoulder. Once you have identified Betelgeuse, follow an imaginary line from it towards the horizon where you should see three stars lined up in a row. If you look closely, you will notice that one of them appears brighter than the other two. That is because this star is actually not part of the constellation but just happens to be near it. It is easy to confuse this star with Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius can also be found following a line away from Orion’s head towards the horizon. There are many ways to identify Orion’s belt and Sirius so don’t give up if you don’t find it your first time!
Finding Orion’s Belt at Night
The easiest way to find Orion’s belt is by using Orion’s three stars. These stars are Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, and Saiph. By drawing an imaginary line from the leftmost star (Betelgeuse) through the middle star (Bellatrix), you will find Saiph on the right side of this line. From Saiph, draw a second imaginary line towards the ground. You can now connect these two lines with a third one to form a rectangle that surrounds the three bright stars of Orion’s Belt. If it is hard to see all three stars at once, use your fingers or thumb as a guide – they should fit within the outline of the rectangle created.
The constellation Orion features prominently in ancient myths from around the world. In some cultures, he was known as a hunter and great warrior; in others he was seen as either a representation of the sun or moon. One legend has it that Orion was originally killed by Apollo for trying to rape Artemis, but Zeus brought him back to life so that he could hunt alongside him. In some stories, Orion hunts other animals but always avoids Taurus because she bore his son Ganymede. In another myth, Hercules went after the giant Cacus, who had stolen cattle belonging to both Hera and Apollon. Hercules shot Cacus with arrows dipped in the blood of other animals and set them on fire so that they burned him alive. But before dying, Cacus ran off into the woods where he would terrorize people forevermore.
Tips and Notes
Once you’ve found Orion, look below and to the left of it. You’ll see three bright stars in a row that form Orion’s belt.
This is one of the most recognizable constellations and can be seen throughout the world. It contains two massive galaxies, the Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy. These galaxies have been colliding for millions of years with each other and are still continuing their journey through space together. There are four stars that make up this constellation. These stars are named Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka and Bellatrix. These names originate from Arabic words meaning the girdle or the belt. The brightest star in the constellation is Rigel which has a magnitude of 0.2. A lower number means the star is brighter and higher means dimmer. Rigel is located at 154 light-years away from Earth and emits about 3,400 times more energy than our sun does.
The second brightest star in this constellation is Betelgeuse (pronounced as beet-ul-juice) which also has a magnitude of 0.2 but appears red because of its size when compared to our sun. It is 690 light-years away from Earth and only 1/20th as large. The third brightest star is Bellatrix which has a magnitude of 1.6 and is located 77 light-years away from Earth. And finally, Alnitak which is located 70 million light-years away from us and shines even brighter than Rigel!
The constellation Orion is one of the easiest constellations to spot. It is made up of seven bright stars that form a line, and two dimmer stars that make up his belt. The belt itself is located about two-thirds of the way from Aldebaran (the orange star) to Rigel (the blue star).
The three dimmer stars are Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. They are all part of Orion’s belt. To find the belt, first locate the brightest star in Orion’s constellation which is Betelgeuse on its left shoulder, then follow an imaginary line through Betelgeuse to the second brightest star which is Rigel on its right foot. From there trace an imaginary line up through three more stars until you see them pass by Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka before they disappear over the horizon on their left side.
We know that Orion is a great hunter, but how do you find him in the night sky? The constellation is visible throughout most of the year. For example, it will be high during winter and low during summer. Orion can be found by following a straight line from Betelgeuse (Alpha) to Rigel (Beta). You can also locate him if you take a line between Aldebaran (Alpha) and Capella (Beta). Another way is to look for three stars close together in a row. These stars are Mintaka (Delta), Alnitak (Zeta), and Alnilam (Epsilon). All these three stars make up what we call Orion’s belt. In order to identify this constellation, remember that there are four main parts: Orion’s head, chest, left arm and right arm.
