Hello! My name is Janine and in this
video I'm going to teach you about Orion
the Hunter, a very famous constellation. I'd like to teach you about how you
can find it in the sky, what the bright
stars are, and the deep space objects you
can find within the constellation. Before
we take a look at what a Orion looks like
in the sky, let's examine the legend
behind Orion. It's bright stars have been
identified for thousands of years. It has
been mentioned in Homer's Odyssey texts
and even in the present day, many have
seen this group of stars simply if they
go into the movie theater because this
is a logo of a very famous movie
production company. The ancient Arabs
were said to be the first to recognize
this constellation but the most famous
legends are derived from Greek and Roman
legends. Orion's current name is derived
from Greek mythology in which he was
depicted as a gigantic super naturally
strong hunter of ancient times. Probably
the most famous myth of Orion out there
is about Gaia's rage at Orion. He
threatened to kill every animal on the
planet and she is [the] protector of the Earth.
So she was very angry at Orion and she
released a deadly scorpion upon him.
Orion ended up puncturing his heel and a
scorpion killed him. It is said this
is the reason that the constellation
Scorpius and Orion are never seen at the
sky in the same time. If you take a
look at a star map right here. Here
is Orion in the winter sky [and] this is
where Scorpio is. So you could never see
them in the sky at the same time.
Orion has many myths and legends that
surround it, that go back thousands of
years. There's way too many to
recount in this video, but it's
fascinating that many, many cultures did
see some form of a human in the pattern
of the stars. Now let's take a quick look
at the pattern of Orion. So here is a
picture of Orion.
Hopefully when you look at it you can
notice some patterns, bright stars, or
maybe even some fuzzy objects in the
photograph. If we want to take a look at
the pattern of what Orion looks like-
here is the shape that he traces out in
the sky. Now remember with constellations
- when we are when we're talking
about constellations it's not just all
the bright stars, but rather a huge area
of the sky that is designated as a
constellation. Everything within
these border lines is considered to be
part of the constellation of Orion.
For example this area of the sky would
be part of the constellation of Orion
and this star, and this star, and so on
and so forth. But we can really just
observe the bright stars in the sky.
Here's another picture of Orion.
Hopefully as you look at it a second
time you can still see the pattern of
the belt stars right here. Here's one
of the shoulder stars. Another shoulder
star down here. This would be the legs or
possibly knees of Orion. Here's the
other side, and this famous object right
here is known as Orion's Nebula. We'll
talk about that in a little bit, but this
is supposed to represent his sword. Now
out of all the constellations in the
winter sky Orion is definitely the first
one you want to be able to identify.
That's because if you can find Orion, you
can find every other constellation that
surrounds it within the winter sky. For
example, if you take the belt stars and
follow imaginary line down this
arrow will point you down to Sirius,
which is a brightest star in the night
sky in the constellation called Canis
Major, which is known as the Great Dog.
If you take the belt stars and
follow upwards, it will lead you to
Taurus and point you to the red star
called Aldebaran.
Moving forward, if you use the
shoulder stars moving across Orion, it
will point to Procyon, which is another
bright star in the constellation Canis
Minor. Furthermore if you go from
Rigel to Betelgeuse, this will lead you
up to Gemini, right up in this area. You
can't see all these constellations I'm
just trying to show you where it's
pointing to. Then finally if you do
the other side from the knee up to the
shoulder, it will point to Auriga the
Charioteer. 
Remember that if you can find Orion,
you can find all the other
constellations within the winter sky. As
we take a look at this large scale view
of the sky again, take a look at this and
see if you can find Orion. Now I want
to show you how you use Orion to find
the rest of the constellations in the
sky. So here is Orion. Hopefully you're
seeing the belt stars and this will lead
you down to Sirius and Canis Major. You
can also use the belt stars to point up
to Aldebaran, which is this bright star
in Taurus the Bull. Then you can use
a shoulder stars, to point you to Procyon.
Next, you can use the knee all the way up
to shoulder and this points you up to
Gemini, which is this constellation here.
Then finally on the other side of
Orion, it will point you up to Auriga,
which is this Pentagon looking shaped
constellation. If we take all that away
again and we want to look at what these
individual constellations look like- here
is where they sit in the sky. Here is
Orion, Canis Major, [Canis] Minor, Gemini Auriga, and then
Taurus right here. You can even see a
portion of the constellation called
Cancer. Orion also has
really cool bright stars within this
constellation. Let's take a look at
what these look like. The bright stars
that are named within this constellation
we have Betelgeuse, right here, some
people often pronounce this as
Betelgeuse, but it's actually ba-til-guys .
This is a bright red star, it's a red
giant star, towards the end of its life.
It's about 310 light years away so
it's pretty close to the earth in
relation to many other things. The other
bright star right here is Rigel.
Rigel is a whitish whitish blue star and
it's very, very large. It's a supergiant
star towards the end of its life and
it's very far away 900 light years away.
Again in comparison to other
things that is relatively close. Then
we have Bellatrix right here. This is
another blueish colored star and it is
250 light years away. The other stars I'd
like to quickly talk about in Orion are
the belt stars. If we take a closer
look at these stars we have all Alnitak,
which is 1,100 light years away. Then all
Alnilam, which is 1200 light years away.
Then Mintaka and this one is 1,400
light-years away. So they all have
general meanings that surround the word
belt or string of pearls in Arabic.
What's important to know about the
three belt stars is, right here, you have
the great Orion Nebula and you also have
the Horsehead Nebula right here. If
you have a set of binoculars this is a
really great area to look at. If we
were to zoom in on this area right here-
you could see the Horsehead Nebula. This
is such a cool picture and and here this
is a colored version to help you see all
the little details within the cloud of
gas and dust, but this is what it would
look like through a telescope. So again.
very cool celestial object. If we
bounce back here looking at the great
Orion Nebula, this is what this looks
like. This is a colored version, again,
to help bring out the features with
Orion but it's also known as Messier
object 42 and 43. So this is the great
Orion Nebula and it's really a stellar
nursery where the stars are being born.
Just to recap. Orion the Hunter- it's a
constellation that can be seen in the
winter months. It's seasonal so it's not
one we see all year round only during
the winter. The best way to look for
it are to find the three belt stars
right here. We also have Betelgeuse,
Rigel, and Bellatrix right here. The
celestial objects you can take a look at
are the Orion Nebula, the great Orion
Nebula, right here, and then the Horsehead
Nebula is right near that first belt
star. Thank you so much for watching! 
I hope you enjoy this video- teaching you
a little bit about the constellation of
Orion.
