How to Find Orion: A Beginner's Guide to the Hunter

If you only ever learn one constellation, make it Orion. It's big, bright, easy to recognize even from a city, and once you know it, it points the way to half a dozen other sights. Here's how to find the Hunter and what to look for once you have.

When to look

Orion is a cold-weather constellation for the Northern Hemisphere. In October and November it rises in the east late in the evening. By December and January it's well up by mid-evening, and it's highest in the south around 9 or 10 p.m. in January and February. By late spring it has slipped into the evening twilight in the west. Because Orion sits on the celestial equator, it's visible from almost everywhere on Earth. From the Southern Hemisphere it simply appears upside down.

Step 1: find the belt

Look for three bright stars of similar brightness in a short, straight, evenly spaced line. That's Orion's Belt, and there's nothing else quite like it in the sky. From left to right as it rises in the east, the stars are Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

Step 2: find the shoulders and knees

The belt sits in the middle of a large rectangle of four bright stars. Above the belt are the Hunter's shoulders; below are his knees or feet.

• Betelgeuse marks one shoulder (upper left for Northern Hemisphere viewers). It's a red supergiant, and you can see its orange-red color with the naked eye.
• Rigel marks the opposite foot (lower right). It's a hot, blue-white star and usually the brightest star in Orion.
• Bellatrix and Saiph complete the rectangle.

Step 3: find the sword and the Orion Nebula

Hanging below the belt is a short, fainter line of stars: Orion's Sword. The middle "star" of the sword isn't a star at all. It's the Orion Nebula, a vast cloud of gas and dust where new stars are being born, roughly 1,300 light-years away. Under dark skies it looks like a small fuzzy patch to the naked eye. In binoculars or a small telescope, it's one of the most beautiful sights in the night sky.

Use Orion as a signpost

• Follow the belt down and to the left to reach Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
• Follow the belt up and to the right to reach Aldebaran, the orange eye of Taurus the Bull. Keep going about the same distance again and you'll reach the Pleiades, a tiny, misty cluster of blue stars.
• Draw a line from Rigel through Betelgeuse and keep going to find the twin stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini.

Bonus: Orion's meteor shower

Every October, Earth passes through debris from Halley's Comet and we get the Orionids, meteors that appear to fly out of Orion's club. In 2026 they peak the night of October 21–22. Check our October Night Sky Guide for viewing tips.

Quick tips

• Give your eyes 15–20 minutes to adjust to the dark, and use a red light or your phone's night mode.
• Binoculars make the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades pop, and any pair will do.
• Once you know Orion, try our guide on how to find the North Star next.

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Photo: the constellation Orion, photographed by the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-54. Image: NASA.

Clear skies!