BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Betelgeuse – Red Supergiant

Betelguese is the star that represent's Orion's right shoulder. It's also one apex of the Winter Triangle and marks the center of the Winter Hexagon. Very bright, distinctly red, and part of the hunter's commanding presence, you can find it easily in the winter sky.

Betelgeuse – Red Supergiant

Here is a magnificent photograph of the constellation Orion taken by the talented astrophotographer Rogelio Bernal Andreo. The photo is annotated with the names of the main stars and showing other features of interest.

As you can see here, Betelgeuse is one of three stars forming the Winter Triangle. The other two are Sirius in Canis Major and Procyon in Canis Minor. (Monoceros the Unicorn is partly in the Triangle, but it contains no bright stars.)

An annotated photo of the Winter Hexagon over Manla Reservoir in Tibet. [Click to enlarge] Manla Reservoir is a dark sky site, but the six stars of the hexagon are bright and visible even in urban areas. Betelgeuse isn't one of the stars forming the hexagon, but you can see it near the center of the asterism.

Photo credit: Jeff Dai

From March to May you can see the Spring Triangle in northern skies. In summer the Summer Triangle is most prominent, but may be seen all year round in most of the northern hemisphere. There is also a Winter Triangle. But grandest of all is the Winter Hexagon.

Winter Hexagon

Diagram of the The Winter Triangle and Winter Hexagon