Orion

It is very difficult to miss this pattern in a clear sky -  a quadrilateral pierced by 3 stars. This is part of constellation called "Orion", name of a Greek Hunter. This is also known as "Mrig" in India and has a lot of cultural significance as when moon is in "Mrig", it kick starts the monsoon season.

Names of 4 stars forming the quadrilateral in clock-wise direction are as below

1. Betelgeuse

2. Bellatrix

3. Rigel

4. Saiph

Names of the stars forming the straight line, called as Belt of Orion given from bottom to top are as below

1. Mintaka
2. Alnilam
3. Alnitak

You can view this image where I've labelled these stars.

2 out of these 7 feature in the list of top 10 brightest stars visible from Earth

Rigel - 6th brightest
Betelgeuse - 8th brightest

Using Orion one can locate various other famous stars in the night sky. More about that in my next post ..