We know that the shorter days of autumn and winter are here when in the darker evenings over the south east horizon come creeping up a set of four bright stars in a rectangle with a tight line of three stars in the middle. This is the constellation of Orion named after “Orion the Hunter” of Greek mythology. Imagine the top two stars are the Hunter’s shoulders with the bottom ones his knees. The Belt of Orion—made-up of the three bright stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka—is probably the most recognised shape in the night sky between October and March.

I am writing this while visiting the group of three great pyramids outside Cairo in Egypt. Amazingly, the layout of these ancient giant structures mirror the three belt stars in Orion. Three pyramids in Mexico also do the same. In the UK the huge Thornborough Henges in Yorkshire and even the three stone circles of the Hurlers on Bodmin Moor follow the plan of these three stars. Who knows why?

Using binoculars or a small telescope look below his belt at the “sword” hanging down and you’ll see a fuzzy patch called the Orion Nebula, where stars are being born right now from the cloud of hydrogen gas.

Using the belt stars as a pointer follow their line left towards the east and it seems to roughly point to the bright star Sirius, the brightest in the sky. The light we see left it 8.6 years ago i.e. it is 8.6 light years away and one of the closest stars to us. Ancient Greeks called it the “Dog Star”as it is in the nearby constellation of Canis Major or “Big Dog”, one of Orion’s hunting dogs.

Looking at the top left star making left shoulder of Orion, you may see it glowing with an orange tinge. At a distance of 634 light years this is the ginormously massive star Betelgeuse which is called a “Red Super-Giant” with a diameter some 750 times wider than our Sun and emits 100,000 times more light. It is a youngster at only about 10 million years old but it is living fast and will die young probably within the next 100,000 years in a huge supernova explosion. This won’t be able to harm anyone on Earth, but it would be visible, even during the daytime, shining as bright as a half-full moon for roughly a year.

In winter, Orion the Hunter is hangs high in the southern night sky. On a clear, crisp cold evening, why not go out and hunt for The Hunter with his magical copied belt and enjoy this gorgeous sight.

Glynn Bennallick