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Orion (abbr. Ori, gen. Orionis)
The Hunter; a spectacular northern constellation, located southeast of Taurus in the equatorial region of the sky. Below Orion's Belt is one of the most famous deep-sky objects, the Orion Nebula. See below for details of the constellation's brightest stars and interesting deep sky objects.
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| Orion. © 2003 Torsten Bronger. Copied here under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License |
| Stars brighter than magnitude 4.0 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Star | Visual mag. |
Abs. mag. |
Spectral type |
Distance (lt-yr) |
R.A. (h m s) | Dec. ( ° ' '' ) |
| Beta (Rigel) | 0.12v | -6.69 | B8Iae | 773 | 05 14 32 | -08 12 06 |
| Alpha (Betelgeuse) | 0.5v | -5.14v | M2Iab | 427 | 05 55 10 | +07 24 26 |
| Gamma (Bellatrix) | 1.64 | -2.73 | B2III | 243 | 05 25 08 | +06 20 59 |
| Epsilon (Alnilam) | 1.69 | -6.39 | B0Iae | 1,340 | 05 36 13 | -01 12 07 |
| Zeta (Alnitak) | 1.74 | -5.26 | O9.5Ibe | 817 | 05 40 46 | -01 56 34 |
| Kappa (Saiph) | 2.07 | -4.66 | B0.5Iav | 721 | 05 47 45 | -09 40 11 |
| Delta (Mintaka) | 2.25 | -4.99 | B0II+O9V | 916 | 05 32 00 | -00 17 57 |
| Iota (Nai'ir al Saif) | 2.75 | -5.30 | O9III | 1,330 | 05 35 26 | -05 54 36 |
| Pi-3 | 3.19 | 3.66 | F6V | 26 | 04 49 50 | +06 57 41 |
| Eta (Algjebbah) | 3.35v | -3.86 | B1V+B2e | 901 | 05 24 29 | -02 23 50 |
| Lambda (Meissa) | 3.39 | -4.16 | O8e+B0.5v | 1,060 | 05 35 08 | +09 56 02 |
| Tau | 3.59 | -2.56 | B5III | 555 | 05 17 36 | -06 50 40 |
| Pi-4 | 3.68 | -4.25 | B2III+B2IV | 1,260 | 04 51 12 | +05 36 18 |
| Pi-5 | 3.71v | -4.37 | B3III+B0V | 1,340 | 04 54 15 | +02 26 26 |
| Sigma | 3.7 | -3.96 | O9.5V | 1,150 | 05 38 45 | -02 36 00 |
| Other objects of interest | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Type of Object | Notes |
| Trapezium | open cluster | Theta-1 Orionis. See separate entry |
| NGC 1981 | open cluster | 10 stars, including the binary Struve 750, with 6th and 8th mag components. Magnitude 4.6; diameter 25'; R.A. 05h 35.2m, Dec. -04° 26' |
| Orion Nebula | emission nebula | M42. See separate entry |
| De Mairan Nebula | emission nebula | M43. Part of the Orion Nebula |
| Horsehead Nebula | dark nebula | B33. See separate entry |
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Image credit: Jerry Lodriguss ©, Catching the Light |
The orange-red supergiant Betelgeuse appears yellow in the upper center of this photo, while Rigel shines blue-white at bottom center. Midway between these two great luminaries of Orion are the three distinctive, bright stars that define Orion's Belt.
Below and to the left of the Belt is a large stellar nursery containing M42, the Orion Nebula, surrounding the center star in Orion's Sword, which is seen overexposed in this image. Just above M42 is the nebulous complex containing the Horsehead Nebula, (B33) and the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024).
The largest emission nebula in the photo is Barnard's Loop, seen as a semicircle around the Orion's Belt and Sword. The next largest nebula is Sh2-264 surrounding Meissa (Lambda Orionis).
M78 (NGC 2068), a small but bright 8 × 7 arc-minute reflection nebula is above the three bright stars of Orion's belt.
A large but extremely faint reflection nebula, the Witch Head Nebula (IC 2118), lies just to the west of Rigel in the constellation Eridanus.
The small bright red emission nebula at the upper left of the photo is the Rosette Nebula, and above it, the faint complex of nebulosity containing the Cone Nebula. Both these objects lie in the neighboring constellation Monoceros.
| Constellations |
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Related categories
• NOTABLE STARS
• NEBULAE AND STAR CLUSTERS
• GALAXIES
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