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The Easiest Winter Constellation to See

Jan 20, 2012; 5:07 AM ET

First of all, this blog and the sky map below are courtesy of a favorite astronomy site of mine, EarthSky.org. This site is downright terrific and was the inspiration for this blog, and has graciously allowed me to use many skymaps in previous blogs as well as this one. This site is an absolutely fantastic source for all sorts of information about the field of science in general. I suggest and plead for you to browse the site.

Orion is easily picked out by Orion's Belt, three medium-bright stars in a short, straight row at the mid-section of the constellation. The two brightest stars in Orion are Betelgeuse and Rigel. Betelgeuse is estimated to be located 522 light-years away, while Rigel's distance is 773 light-years.

The three stars in Orion's belt are all giant stars in a nearby spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy. These stars' names are Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak.

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About This Blog

Mark Paquette
The AccuWeather.com astronomy blog, by Mark Paquette, discusses stargazing and astronomy issues and how the weather will interact with current astronomy events.