# How do you find Orion?

> How do you find Orion? Look for three bright stars in a row: Orion's Belt. When Orion is up, where to look, and what Betelgeuse and Rigel are.

HTML: https://www.theuniversecounts.com/stars/the-stars-you-can-see/orion

Numbers as of 2026-11-04 15:12 UTC. Live ones keep changing on the HTML page.

To find Orion, look for three bright stars close together in a short, straight row. That is Orion's Belt, and it is one of the easiest patterns in the whole sky. Above it shines red Betelgeuse, below it blue-white Rigel. Orion is an evening sight from about December to March: in the south of the sky from the Northern Hemisphere, in the north and upside down from the Southern. Hanging from the Belt is a fuzzy patch, the Orion Nebula, where new stars are being born. Its light left it between 1,230 and 1,370 years ago.

- The Moon's distance from Earth right now: 382,287 km
- The Sun's distance from Earth: 148,368,009 km
- Jupiter's distance from Earth: 814,467,269 km

## Start with the Belt

Where is Orion in the sky?

Orion's Belt is three fairly bright stars, evenly spaced in a line. From west to east they are Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak. The row is short: three fingers held at arm's length will cover it.

Around the Belt, four bright stars make a tall box, like the outline of an hourglass: Betelgeuse and Bellatrix at the shoulders, Rigel and Saiph at the knees. Below the Belt hangs a shorter line of fainter stars, the Sword.

The Belt lies almost exactly on the celestial equator, the line in the sky above Earth's equator. That means Orion can be seen from almost everywhere on Earth. It also means the Belt rises due east and sets due west, wherever you are.

Orion is a good test of how dark your sky is. From a city centre you may see little more than the Belt and the brightest stars around it. Under a dark sky the whole figure fills in with fainter stars.

## When can you see Orion?

Orion's season

Orion is not up in the evening all year. As Earth travels around the Sun, the Sun passes in front of different stars, and the night side of Earth faces a slowly changing sky.

In the north, Orion appears in the east in the late evening during November. By midwinter it is up for most of the night, including early in the new year, when Earth makes its closest pass of the Sun, in 59d 11h 20m 24s. January to March are the best months for an evening look, with Orion due south in mid-evening during February. By April it sinks into the west after sunset, and from about mid-May to July it is lost in the Sun's glare. It returns before dawn in late summer.

The Southern Hemisphere shares the same calendar but turns Orion upside down. On a summer evening in Sydney or Cape Town, Orion stands high in the north on his head, with Rigel above Betelgeuse. Many Australians know the Belt and Sword as the Saucepan.

Earth carries you round the Sun at 29.78 kilometres per second. Since you opened this page, it has carried you [counts up live on the page] kilometres closer to the next evening with Orion in it.

## Betelgeuse and Rigel

Which are Orion's brightest stars?

Look closely and you can see that Orion's two brightest stars are different colours. Betelgeuse, at the top left as seen from the north, glows orange-red. Rigel, at the bottom right, is blue-white.

Both are supergiants, stars far larger and more powerful than the Sun. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant, so swollen that if it took the Sun's place it would reach beyond the orbit of Jupiter. Rigel is a blue supergiant and usually the brighter of the two, at magnitude 0.13. On the magnitude scale, which runs backwards, smaller numbers mean brighter stars. Betelgeuse changes: over the years it has ranged between 0 and 2, so it sometimes outshines Rigel.

The two stars look side by side, but they are not neighbours. Betelgeuse lies between 440 and 880 light-years away; astronomers still disagree on the exact figure. Rigel is between 790 and 1,030 light-years away. A constellation is a pattern seen from one place, Earth, not a group of stars that belong together.

## Is Betelgeuse about to explode?

Betelgeuse and the Great Dimming

Late in 2019, Betelgeuse began to fade. By February 2020 it had lost more than half its light, a change anyone could see by eye. Some people wondered whether it was about to explode. The real cause was closer to home: the star had thrown off a huge piece of its surface, which cooled into a cloud of dust and blocked some of its light. By 2023 it was back, and brighter than usual.

Betelgeuse will explode one day as a supernova. By the standards of a star's life, that is soon. By ours, it may not be. The usual estimate is that it is not likely for about another hundred thousand years. A few studies suggest it could be much sooner, within centuries. Put together, the time left is between 300 and 100,000 years, and experts disagree on where in that range the truth lies.

When it does happen, we will know. For about three months a point of light about as bright as a quarter Moon will shine where Betelgeuse was. It will then fade, but stay visible to the eye for years. Orion will have lost a shoulder.

## The Orion Nebula, a star nursery

What is the fuzzy star in Orion's Sword?

Look at the middle star of Orion's Sword. Even with the eye alone, under a moderately dark sky, it looks slightly fuzzy. Binoculars show why: it is not a star but a glowing cloud of gas and dust, the Orion Nebula.

The nebula is a nursery. Hundreds of new stars are forming inside it, and at its heart four young, hot stars, the Trapezium, light up the gas around them. A small telescope shows them as a tight little group.

The Orion Nebula is one of the nearest places where stars are being born, which makes it a natural laboratory for astronomers. The light reaching you tonight left the nebula about 1,300 years ago.

Our own Sun was probably born in a cloud like this, 4.6 billion years ago. When you look at the Orion Nebula, you are looking at something like our own beginnings.

## FAQ

### Where is Orion in the sky right now?

That depends on the month and the hour. In November it rises in the east in the late evening. Each night it rises a little earlier, and by February it is high in the south as soon as the sky gets dark, or high in the north from the Southern Hemisphere.

### What direction do I look to see Orion?

From the Northern Hemisphere, look east when it is rising, south when it is at its highest, and west as it sets. From the Southern Hemisphere, look north when it is at its highest. The Belt always rises due east and sets due west.

### What are the names of the three stars in Orion's Belt?

Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. Alnilam, in the middle, is the brightest of the three.

### Can I see Orion tonight?

On most nights from about November to April, yes, if the sky is clear, though in November you will need to stay up late. From May to July it is too close to the Sun to see in the evening.

### Is Orion visible from the Southern Hemisphere?

Yes. It is a summer constellation there, high in the north on summer evenings, but it appears upside down, with the Belt and Sword forming the shape many people call the Saucepan.

## Related

- [Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/stars/the-stars-you-can-see/sirius.md)
- [The age of starlight](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/stars/the-stars-you-can-see/old-starlight.md)
- [Polaris, the North Star](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/stars/the-stars-you-can-see/polaris.md)
- [The night sky tonight](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/you/your-sky/star-map.md)

The light of Orion's stars and its nebula set out at different times, yet it arrives together as one figure. What will you see in it next time it rises?

## Sources

- Age of the Sun (Measured, with error): [Science: The absolute chronology and thermal processing of solids in the solar protoplanetary disk (Connelly et al. 2012)](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1226919); [NASA Science: Sun: Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/sun/facts/)
- Apparent visual magnitude of Betelgeuse (a variable star) (Measured, with error): [arXiv / Astronomy & Geophysics: Wheeler & Chatzopoulos 2023, Betelgeuse: a Review (Astronomy & Geophysics 64, 3.11; doi:10.1093/astrogeo/atad020)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.09449)
- Apparent visual magnitude of Rigel (Measured, with error): [SIMBAD, CDS Strasbourg (CfA mirror): SIMBAD basic data and V magnitudes for Sirius, Polaris, Betelgeuse, Rigel and other named stars](https://simbad.harvard.edu/simbad/sim-tap/sync?REQUEST=doQuery&LANG=ADQL&FORMAT=tsv&QUERY=SELECT%20i.id%2C%20b.main_id%2C%20b.pmra%2C%20b.pmdec%2C%20b.plx_value%2C%20b.plx_err%2C%20b.plx_bibcode%2C%20b.rvz_radvel%2C%20b.rvz_err%2C%20b.rvz_bibcode%2C%20b.sp_type%2C%20f.flux%2C%20f.flux_err%2C%20f.bibcode%20FROM%20ident%20AS%20i%20JOIN%20basic%20AS%20b%20ON%20b.oid%3Di.oidref%20LEFT%20JOIN%20flux%20AS%20f%20ON%20%28f.oidref%3Di.oidref%20AND%20f.filter%3D%27V%27%29%20WHERE%20i.id%20IN%20%28%27%2A%20alf%20CMa%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20UMi%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20Ori%27%2C%27%2A%20bet%20Ori%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20Dra%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20Lyr%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20Car%27%2C%27%2A%20eps%20Ori%27%2C%27%2A%20sig%20Oct%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20CMa%20B%27%2C%27%2A%20alf%20UMi%20B%27%2C%27M%2042%27%29); [NASA HEASARC: HEASARC TAP query of the BSC5P table: name, ra, dec, vmag for all 9,110 entries](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/xamin/vo/tap/sync?REQUEST=doQuery&LANG=ADQL&MAXREC=20000&QUERY=SELECT%20name%2Cra%2Cdec%2Cvmag%20FROM%20bsc5p); [IAU WGSN: IAU Catalog of Star Names (IAU-CSN), IAU Division C Working Group on Star Names](https://www.pas.rochester.edu/~emamajek/WGSN/IAU-CSN.txt)
- Diameter of a regulation football (size 5) (Measured, with error): [The IFAB: Laws of the Game, Law 2 – The Ball](https://www.theifab.com/laws/latest/the-ball/)
- Distance from the Sun to the Orion Nebula (the Orion Nebula Cluster) (Measured, with error): [The Astrophysical Journal: Kuhn et al. 2019, Kinematics in Young Star Clusters and Associations with Gaia DR2 (ApJ 870, 32; doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaef8c)](https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.02115); [Astronomy & Astrophysics: Menten et al. 2007, The distance to the Orion Nebula (A&A 474, 515; doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20078247)](https://arxiv.org/abs/0709.0485); [The Astrophysical Journal: Kounkel et al. 2017, The Gould's Belt Distances Survey (GOBELINS) II. Distances and structure towards the Orion Molecular Clouds (ApJ 834, 142; doi:10.3847/1538-4357/834/2/142)](https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.04041)
- Distance to Betelgeuse (Debated): [The Astrophysical Journal (arXiv version): Standing on the shoulders of giants: New mass and distance estimates for Betelgeuse through combined evolutionary, asteroseismic, and hydrodynamical simulations with MESA (Joyce et al. 2020, ApJ 902, 63; doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abb8db)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.09837); [The Astronomical Journal (arXiv version): An Updated 2017 Astrometric Solution for Betelgeuse (Harper et al. 2017, AJ 154, 11; doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa6ff9)](https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.06020); [Astronomy & Astrophysics: Validation of the new Hipparcos reduction (van Leeuwen 2007, A&A 474, 653)](https://arxiv.org/abs/0708.1752)
- Distance to Rigel (Estimated): [Astronomy & Astrophysics: Validation of the new Hipparcos reduction (van Leeuwen 2007, A&A 474, 653)](https://arxiv.org/abs/0708.1752)
- Earth's average distance from the Sun in kilometres (Measured): [NASA: Earth: Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/earth/facts/)
- Earth's diameter at the equator (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Earth's speed around the Sun (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Expected time until Betelgeuse explodes as a supernova (Debated): [NASA Science: What is Betelgeuse? Inside the Strange, Volatile Star](https://science.nasa.gov/universe/what-is-betelgeuse-inside-the-strange-volatile-star/); [Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Saio, Nandal, Meynet & Ekström 2023, The evolutionary stage of Betelgeuse inferred from its pulsation periods](https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.00287); [Research Notes of the AAS: Molnár, Joyce & Leung 2023, Comment on the Feasibility of Carbon Burning in Betelgeuse](https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/acdb7a)
- Jupiter's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- The International Space Station's orbital speed (Measured): [NASA: Station Facts](https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-facts-and-figures/)
- The Moon's average distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA: Moon Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/facts/)
- The Moon's distance from Earth right now (Measured): [NASA: Moon Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/facts/)
- The Sun's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Sun Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html)
- Time until Earth's next perihelion (closest to the Sun) (Measured): [NASA JPL: JPL Horizons API, Sun geocentric vectors (geometric), one-minute steps around the first date](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND='10'&OBJ_DATA='NO'&MAKE_EPHEM='YES'&EPHEM_TYPE='VECTORS'&CENTER='500@399'&START_TIME='2027-01-03%2001%3A03'&STOP_TIME='2027-01-03%2004%3A03'&STEP_SIZE='1m'&VEC_TABLE='3'&VEC_CORR='NONE'&OUT_UNITS='KM-S'&TIME_TYPE='UT'&CSV_FORMAT='YES'); [US Naval Observatory: Earth's Seasons and Apsides, 2027 (USNO Astronomical Applications API)](https://aa.usno.navy.mil/api/seasons?year=2027)
- Typical adult walking speed (Estimated): [Physiotherapy (Elsevier): Normal walking speed: a descriptive meta-analysis (Physiotherapy 97(3), 182–189)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physio.2010.12.004)
- Typical cruising speed of a long-haul airliner (Estimated): [EUROCONTROL: Aircraft Performance Database: B789 (Boeing 787-9)](https://contentzone.eurocontrol.int/aircraftperformance/details.aspx?ICAO=B789); [EUROCONTROL: Aircraft Performance Database: A388 (Airbus A380-800)](https://contentzone.eurocontrol.int/aircraftperformance/details.aspx?ICAO=A388)