Animation of the Orion constellation. Orion, the hunter, is one of the best known constellations in the sky. It is made up of 7 main stars, which are, in order of being highlighted; the red supergiant Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), Bellatrix, Saiph, the white supergiant Rigel (Beta Orionis) and Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka (Zeta, Epsilon and Delta Orionis respectively), which make up the belt. Below the belt is the sword of Orion, which contains the Orion nebula (M42), which is visible as a pink patch. The relative sizes of these stars are shown as are their distances from the Sun. |