Orion the Hunter, a quintessential winter constellation, travels the sky all night as autumn turns toward winter. Recognized as the essence of a human figure reclining on the east-southeast horizon at nightfall, he appears a titan asleep. His shoulder is marked by a red giant star, Betelgeuse, 0.4 magnitude. Three stars standing vertically on the skyline represent Orion’s belt. To the right of the belt, a brighter blue giant star, Rigel, 0.2m, indicates the Hunter’s right knee. In hilly locations, see Orion rise close to 8 p.m. tonight, November 25, and an hour earlier by December.
On November 25 and 26, in the sky above Orion, a waxing gibbous moon appears with Evening Star Jupiter to its right. On November 27, the Full Frost or Snow Moon rises in the east-northeast at 4:22 p.m., opposite sunset at 4:24 p.m. in the southwest.
The image at the top of this page shows Orion standing upright to the horizon as he appears hours after rising and when setting at dawn in the west-southwest.
Betelgeuse, Alpha Orionis, is one of the largest diameter stars known: 667 times larger than our Sun, according to StarryNight7. Described another way, Betelgeuse is bigger than the radius of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. The seventh brightest star in northern skies and one of the furthest stars visible with the naked eye, Betelgeuse meets our eyes inspiring wonder—and motivation—of gigantic proportions in the months ahead.
Our star, the Sun, revealed its own “Epic Filament Eruption” in an image captured by NASA. Learn about it and view a film here.
The Sun continues to drift south, rising at its furthest southeast location on the horizon and setting southwest, tracing its smallest arc above the horizon as we approach winter solstice, December 21. Now, all the more, to be contemplated, mused about, and appreciated as the center of our world.
