The constellation Orion is pictured as a giant hunter with a shield in his hand, a belt, a sword and surrounded by his dogs (Canis Major and Canis Minor).* Orion is visualised as fighting the bull, represented by the constellation Taurus nearby.*Orion contains 2 of the 10 brightest stars in the night sky; Betelgeuse (red super giant) and Rigel (Blue white super giant).* The 3 bright stars in the middle represent his sword belt. The equator of the sky passes close to the upper star of his belt, so that half of Orion is in the Northern hemisphere and the other part in the southern hemisphere.* Below his belt you can see 3 stars representing his sword. Here can be seen a misty patch called the 'Great Nebula'. This can be seen with the naked eye and is a huge cloud of dust and gas inside which new stars are being formed.* Orion's appearance in the night sky means that winter is coming. From mid-northern latitudes, Orion is visible in the evening from November to early May and in the morning from late July to November.* The Pleiades star cluster lie beyond Orion. In mythology the Pleiades were the 7 daughters of the giant Atlas. They begged Zeus to save them from Orion's pursuit and so he placed them in the sky with Orion pursuing them east to west without ever being able to catch them up.
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