Backyard Universe: Here's how to see Orion in the Fayetteville area

Nothing beats a star-filled winter night sky.

There are more bright stars shining in winter’s sky than in summer with winter constellations Taurus, Auriga and especially Orion all containing very prominent bright stars.

Not surprisingly, winter sky watching is a cold pastime! Thankfully, more comfortable spring evenings are not far off and we can catch the bright stars of winter exiting toward the west under some hopefully warmer temps.

Orion shines due south

Considered the finest constellation in the sky, the stars of Orion the hunter are in a great position to be seen this time of year as soon as the sky grows dark. Orion lies due south about halfway up in the southern sky as soon as it gets dark.

Unlike many constellations or “star pictures” that supposedly show crude images of everything from bears to fish, Orion appears unmistakably as the figure of a man, a hunter, with a starry belt and bright stars marking his knees and shoulders. Fainter stars outline a raised club and a starry sword hanging from his belt.

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Those three “belt” stars are the key to locating Orion in our evening sky. The stars, named Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka shine with nearly equal brightness and are arranged in a tight, straight line, unlike any other bright star group in the sky. Above them, the stars Betelguese and Bellatrix mark Orion’s shoulders. Below the belt are bright stars Saiph and Rigel marking the hunter’s knees.

If you still have trouble picking out the constellation Orion, look for it shining just below the moon as darkness falls on March 10.

The Great Nebula

Hanging among the stars forming Orion’s sword is one special star that appears fuzzy to the unaided eye. A binocular view will show it fuzzier still ... and larger.  That fuzzball is a vast cloud of gas and dust known as the Great Nebula in Orion.

A view in a telescope reveals a bat-shaped wispy form of glowing gas interlaced with dark obscuring dust.

The entire region of Orion is filled with meandering clouds of gas and dust and the brightest and most defined area of this gas and dust is the Great Nebula.

Long exposure color photographs of the Great Nebula in Orion show vivid red and blue hues but don’t expect to see any of that color visually through a telescope. The color receptors in our eyes require high levels of light to see color and the faint wispy nebula just doesn’t cross that color view threshold. We, therefore, see a mostly black and white view as we observe the Great Nebula in our telescopes, though some observers note a slight greenish hue.

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Speaking of photographs of the Great Nebula, the first one was made in 1880 by amateur astronomer Henry Draper. He exposed his black and white photographic plate at the focus of an 11-inch refractor telescope for 50 minutes to record the first-ever photograph of a nebula.

Today, the Great Nebula in Orion is a popular target for amateur astronomers both visually and photographically. It’s best seen and photographed on clear dark moonless nights. While the Great Nebula is a faint object, it’s bright enough to be considered the nebula that is most readily visible with just the unaided eye.

The vital statistics of the Great Nebula are impressive. It glows more than 1,300 light-years away, meaning that the light we see from the nebula tonight left it about 1,300 years ago. The distance across the nebula is about 24 light-years.

If you’d like to have an incredible online view of the constellation Orion and its surrounding nebulosity check out a mosaic image created by Tennessee astrophotographer Matt Harbison at spaceforeverybody.com/Orion.

Matt spent seven years shooting and assembling this extraordinary color view of the constellation and the complex network of dust and gas that permeates it.

Each of the approximately 200 component images used in the mosaic was shot with a 5.5-inch telescope and the final result is an extremely high-resolution view of the sprawling constellation Orion. 

The impressive constellation Orion never disappoints, whether you gaze at it with your eyes alone or check out its rich areas of nebulosity with a small telescope.

Orion will continue to be seen in our evening sky throughout March, but it will appear more toward the west each night until it disappears from the evening sky around early May.

If you have a question about astronomy, send it to Backyard Universe P.O. Box 297, Stedman, NC 28391 or email johnnyhorne937@gmail.com