12/23/2019 – Ephemeris – Orion, rising even higher now

Ephemeris for Monday, December 23rd. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:05, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:18. The Moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 6:34 tomorrow morning.

The large and bright constellation of Orion the hunter is in the southeast at 9 p.m., with the bright star Sirius below it near the horizon. The equally spaced line of three stars of Orion’s belt are nearly vertical and point down to Sirius, also known as the Dog Star in Canis Major, Orion’s greater dog. Those three belt stars are in the center of an elongated rectangle of stars that tilt to the left. At the top left of Orion’s shoulder stars is the red giant star Betelgeuse. The right shoulder star is Bellatrix. Both Bellatrix and Sirius along with the names of other stars and constellations should be familiar to fans of the Harry Potter novels and movies, as members of the house of Black. The knee stars at the bottom of the rectangle are, from left to right Saiph and the brilliant blue giant star Rigel. Between his belt and knees are stars of his sword.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The named bright stars of Orion and Canis Major, the dog rising below Orion with Sirius. Beside the stars mentioned in the program are the stars of Orion’s belt that have their own program later on in winter. Created using Stellarium.

In this season of Biblical stories it’s nice to note that Orion is mentioned four times in the Old Testament.  In Isaiah, Amos and twice in Job.  In Hebrew his name is “Kesîl”, meaning Fool.