Stars have long attracted humanity, attracted to themselves with beauty, mystery and mystery. In religions of different nations, they were given special importance, believing that their location could affect the fate of a person, the heroes of myths and legends also found refuge in the starry sky. One of the most famous constellations in the night sky is Orion - a beautiful constellation, which is located south of the equator, in the southern part of the sky. The ancient Egyptians gave him the name - "king of the stars", and considered the constellation the home of the god Osiris. It is easy to recognize by asterism. The belt of Orion is three bright stars that, as if on the same straight line, adorn the clothes of a giant hunter.
The legend, which is reflected in the night sky, is mixed. According to one version, the brave hunter, the son of Poseidon, Orion pursued the Pleiades sisters. To stop him, the goddess Artemis sent Scorpio, who inflicted a deadly bite to the hunter. After the death of Orion was placed in heaven by his father Poseidon. According to another version, Orion chases with the hunting Big Dog for the Hare, and this episode is captured in the stars. Such is the legend describing the Orion belt, the confirmation of which can be seen in the outlines of the constellation.
It is one of the most noticeable in the night sky, due to the fact that it combines many bright stars. Five of them relate to stars of the second magnitude, four to the third magnitude and two to the first (these are the white-blue Rigel and the red Betelgeuse). Both Rigel and Betelgeuse are supergiants. The crossbar exceeds in diameter our sun thirty-three times. It is located at a distance of more than five hundred light-years from us, and the light of the star that we see now was emitted by it even at the time when Columbus discovered America.
Another bright star entering the Orion belt is Betelgeuse, whose name is translated from ancient Arabic as “giant's shoulder”. This star is four hundred times the diameter of the sun. Near Rigel there is a star that seems cloudy and blurry. Around it you can see a misty spot through a telescope. This is the Orion Nebula, which is a cloud of luminous gas. It could make ten thousand stars, such as our sun. The nebula is at a distance of one thousand three hundred light-years. There is another nebula in the constellation Orion. It is called the “Horsehead”, because the gas-dust cloud in outline resembles the head of a stallion.
No wonder the constellation Orion belt is considered the most beautiful in the starry sky. When Orion rises above the horizon, you can observe seven bright stars that form a hexagon. These are Pollux, Capella, Sirius, Procyon, Aldebaran and Rigel. Bright Betelgeuse stands out in the middle of the constellation. Ancient people saw the outline of the stars of the hunter Orion armed with a club. Three bright stars entering the Orion belt carry Arabic names. These are Alnilam - the "pearl belt", Mintaka - the "belt" and Alnitak - the "sash." The constellation of Orion is also noteworthy in that, from below and to the right, there is an area in which there are no bright stars, and it is the opposite of the bright belt of Orion. There are constellations, the names of which are associated with water: Whale, Pisces, the Eridan River and Aquarius.
The best time when the belt of Orion is especially clearly visible in the sky is the winter months - December and January. You can observe the constellation throughout Russia.
