The great show in the winter sky

Just when winter is coming, we can watch some of the most beautiful constellations in the night sky. One of them, is Orion constellation, a region that shows interesting objects as nebulae, star clusters and different types of stars. It represents a hunter in Greek mythology, the lover of Artemis, goddess of the hunt.

In this constellation you can see two of the brightest stars in the sky. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant that marks the hunter’s shoulder, while Rigel is a blue supergiant star that marks the knee. Bellatrix, Orion´s left shoulder, is a blue giant. Saiph serves as the hunter´s right foot. There is a chain of three stars that mark his belt: Alnitak, Alnilam y Mintaka. Below of Alnitak there is a chain of stars and a visible nebula, the Orion Nebula: this represents the hunter’s sword. Other stars form the head and the shield.

Other constellations in this region are Canis maior and Taurus. Canis major represents Orion's dog, following its owner through the sky. There you can watch Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky and one of the closest stars to Earth, at a distance of 8,6 light-years.Taurus represents the figure of a celestial bull charging towards Orion. The head of the bull is the V-shaped star cluster named the Hyades; the brilliant red Aldebaran, an orange giant star, marks its eye. Taurus has one of the best known open clusters, with seven stars easily visible to the naked eye. This is the Pleiades, also named the Seven Sisters. They are the daughters of Atlas and Pleione in Greek mythology.

Red and blue giants, nebulae, star clusters... celestial bodies that tell fantastic stories for the cold winter nights.
And now, it is time to look for all these elements in the sky. In a few week it will be easu. Try to recongnize these constellations and imagine your own stories with your own characters in the sky. In the sky map, draw your own constellations connecting stars, draw your characters and write a short history about them, in English, of course! The best ones will be published in our blog.