Midwinter's Celestial Highlights

Orion the Mighty Hunter will help you to find your stargazing bearings this month

- Bob Mizon

AS 2018 begins, the striking constellation of Orion dominates the southern sky, reaching its highest point due south at 22.00 mid-month. The Mighty Hunter helps us to find other winter constellations. Orion’s Belt, 1200 light years distant, points down towards Sirius, the brightest star of the night sky, in Canis Major the Great Dog. Above Orion’s left shoulder, represented by red giant Betelgeuse, is the rectangular group of Gemini, the Twins. To their right stands Taurus the Bull. Taurus contains the large Hyades star cluster, the Bull’s head, with its red eye Aldebaran, and the smaller triangle of seven glittering stars that is the Pleiades. Below Orion is a scattering of stars: the celestial Hare (Lepus). Look northwards near the horizon in the early evening for the saucepan-shaped Plough, part of the Great Bear (Ursa Major). Two of its stars, Merak and Dubhe, known as the ‘Polar Pointers’, indicate the position of Polaris the Pole Star, around which all other northern-hemisph