Orion the Hunter; Those aren't really stars

While most people would not think of winter is a great sky watching time, but some of the brightest stars and well known constellations are visible during the winter season.

Let's start tonight. Go to your favorite dark-sky place at about 8 p.m. local time and look east. There you will find Orion, the Hunter, the king of the winter sky just rising over the horizon.

There is no mistaking his hour-glass shape, the three stars for his belt stretching across the middle and the three stars hanging down below the belt representing his sword. Except those three are not stars. Just using a pair of binoculars will show that.

You can also use your imagination to make out the stars of his bow to the right and his arm holding his mighty club up and to the left.

The stars marking his shoulders are Betelgeuse -- a massive red giant star -- on the left, and Bellatrix on the right, the belt stars are (from left to right) Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka and the stars for his knees (although some call them his feet I think that would make him too short) are the brilliant, blue-white Rigel on the right and Saiph on the left.

Now, back to that sword.

What looks to us like single points of light are in reality (from top to bottom) the small open star cluster NGC 1977, the extremely beautiful and huge Orion Nebula in the middle, and the bottom star is Iota Orionis, or Na'iral Saif -- "The bright one of the sword" in Arabic. It is a binary star in a quadruple star system.

The Orion Nebula is best viewed through a telescope, even a small one because in binoculars all you can see is a fuzzy spot. But a telescope reveals the enormity of the gas cloud surround four small stars (the Trapezium) in the middle of it.

I will not go into the massive red gas cloud surrounding Alnitak and looping around Orion's right side or the small dark nebula called the Horse Head Nebula highlighted against the glowing background or to a formation called the Flame Nebula above it because those are best revealed in photographs.

Since we are outside stargazing, above Orion is the "V" shape of the mighty Taurus, the Bull. The "V" is the Hyades star cluster, a nice site in binoculars. A little further up and right of the bull is the small nest of glowing stars that is the Pleiades star cluster, again very nice in binoculars.

To the right is the elongated rectangle of Gemini with the two bright stars Castor (on top) and Pollux on the left end and above is the lopsided circle of Auriga, the Charioteer with the very bright star Capella on the top side.

So, as you can see, there is much to see, and that is just looking in one direction.

SKY WATCH: Jan. 1, third-quarter moon. If you are still our and about on the morning of Jan. 1, be outside at about 6:00 am MST looking east for a nice conjunction of the moon and the planet Jupiter. They will be about halfway up the sky above the southern horizon. If you still haven't had a glimpse of Comet Catalina (C2013 US 10) you will have help that morning. It will be very close to the bright star Arcturus in Bootes, the Herdsman. Can't find Arcturus? Remember our little phrase, follow the arc in the handle of the Big Dipper and "Arc To Arcturus." While the comet has the potential for being visible with just the eyes, binoculars are always a help. Best time for viewing is between 5 and 6 a.m. MST.

NEXT WEEK: More astronomical blathering.