The home of the Rigelian Slime Devils

As promised, let's start our tour of the Winter Circle, or Winter Hexagon as some call it.

Go outside (yes, outside. I know it's cold so dress warm) at about 8 p.m. MST and look to the southeast for the hourglass form of Orion, the Hunter. You won't even need a dark-sky place.

The four bright stars marking his shoulders and knees can't be missed, and the three stars in a diagonal forming a belt across his middle which holds the three-star sword hanging below it.

Let's start at his left knee (the one on the right as you are looking at it). That's bright blue Rigel. If you are a Trekkie, like me, you will know that is where the Rigelian Slime Devils come from.

Rigel, the sixth brightest star in the sky, is a huge blue super giant star between 700 to 800 light years away. That means the light we are seeing now left Rigel in the year 1310. It is 17 times as massive as our sun and about 57,000 times brighter.

Technically it is a three-star system. The second star, Rigel-B, can sometimes be seen in a telescope larger than 6 to 8 inches. It is a double-star but its companion is not an optical double. It is inferred by spectroscopic examination.

If you have a pair of binoculars, move up and slightly left to locate the second "star" in the sword hanging below Orion's belt. It really isn't a star as you will be able to see. It is the famous Orion Nebula, M-42. In binoculars it is a fuzzy spot but when viewed through even a modest telescope it takes on the wonder of a full-blown fan-shaped nebula.

The Orion Nebula is one of the first objects I ever viewed through a telescope and the first object sought when I received an 11-inch Dobsonian mounted scope for Christmas a couple of years ago. In the 11-inch the nebula's fan shape filled the field of view and after a couple of minutes of viewing my daughter had to remind me to breathe.

It is unfortunate that all the bright and glowing colors we see in photographs of M-42 will not be seen as we look at it through binoculars or a telescope.

A lot of people are disappointed when viewing nebular or other objects through telescopes; the color just will not be there. It will be a flat shade of gray. Although, when I did view M-42 through the 11-inch for the first time, I thought I could see a faint trace of green. But, according to my fellow astronomers, it was only in my imagination, but I can imagine a lot.

While you are in the area, examine the other objects in Orion's sword. Another fuzzy nebular spot on the top and a small star grouping for the bottom object. A part of the Milky Way runs down the right side of Orion (left as you are looking at it) and some interesting objects can be found there and down into Canis Major and Minor.

SKY WATCH:

The gas giant planet Neptune is moving eastward away from Jupiter in the southwest just after sunset. The blue-green planet is still viewable down and right of bright Jupiter in the same binocular field of view. New moon, Jan 15. Monday, Jan. 18, look in the southwest to find a conjunction of a very slender crescent moon, and Jupiter (above left), and Neptune (below left). There could even be some earthshine on the dark side of the moon.

NEXT TIME:

Exciting Aldebaran and the Hyades and more astronomical blathering.