Dominating the clean, chilly winter nights is Orion, the Hunter. His distinctive hourglass-shape raising his weapon high overhead, in hot pursuit of his quarry Taurus, the Bull.
Three bright stars line up together to form the belt of the hunter. Four other prominent stars enclose his belt to outline his shoulders and legs.
Orion is your guide to all the major stars and constellations of the winter sky. With the exception of the Big Dipper, he's the easiest constellation to identify.
Your guide to the winter sky.
Let Orion be your guide to the stars and constellations of winter.
But, like all constellations, these star patterns only look like this only when viewed from the general vicinity of Earth and our solar system. This is because the stars are not all the same distance from you. As you travel farther and farther into interstellar space, the constellations seem to "warp."
Click here to see some of that constellation as you travel about 100 light-years from Earth. Click here to go back home and watch the familiar patterns of the constellations snap into place.