Orion

[fermoy8 (Chas)]

I would like to know the features of Orion (e.g. like Sirus) and the name of the star that follows him up from the horizon in the evenings, please.

[JB80 (Jarrod)]

If you download the free software Stellarium it will tell you all the information you need and more.

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Originally Posted by fermoy8

I would like to know the features of Orion (e.g. like Sirus) and the name of the star that follows him up from the horizon in the evenings, please.

Hi Chas
Welcome to IceInSpace

I totally agree with Jarrod, download the free planetarium program Stellarium. It has the constellations brilliantly covered.

First thing to remember about Orion (The Hunter constellation) is that he is upside down to us in the southern hemisphere. His belt and sword are sometimes called the saucepan here in Aus. His general features are that he is holding his shield (in some lore) in one hand, a club in the other, facing towards Taurus the Bull in the West and The (Pleiades) Seven sisters (whom he lusts over and who are taking refuge on the back of Taurus).

If you mean what constellation is following him (from the Eastern horizon, that would be Canis Major (His Dog). The brightest star in this is Sirius.

At the same time, on the Northern horizon from Orion will be Gemini (The Twins).

All this and more you can find in Stellarium. Free Open source and for most Operating Systems (Windows (32bit & 64bit). Mac OS X, Linux, Ubuntu, etc)

http://www.stellarium.org/

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Chas
Very likely as Allan said the star you are thinking of following Orion is Sirius. The constellation it is in is Canis Major (the Big Dog) which is one of the few constellations that looks like what it is supposed to represent, like an upside down dog.
The other possibility is that it is the Planet Jupiter, which will be the brightest object in the night sky (apart from the moon!) at the moment and will be in Gemini to the north east (ie below and to the right) of Orion.

Hope this helps

Malcolm

[noeyedeer (Matt)]

+1 for Jupiter. Orion has many features .. it's such a beautiful area of the summer sky. from nebula to clusters and a miriad of double stars. like Allen suggested stellarium is a wise choice .. or maybe some apps for your phone too.

www.skymaps.com/downloads.html have charts too for the southern hemisphere.

matt