Last week in Skywatch I shared with you at least a little of the rich lore of my favorite constellation, Orion the Hunter, dominating the southeastern evening sky. It's one of a few of almost six dozen constellations we can see around Butler through the course of the year that actually looks like what it's supposed to be. It is without a doubt one of the most recognized constellation in the sky.

The torso of the hunter — with the bright stars Rigel at the left knee and Betelgeuse on the right armpit, along with the three bright stars in a row that depict Orion's belt — is easy to see, even in area of heavy city lighting. In the darker countryside skies, you can make out a fainter line of stars extending upward from Betelgeuse that make up the hunter's right arm clenching a club. Off the right of Bellatrix, you can see a fainter line of stars that allegedly makes up the figure of a lion Orion is holding by his tail. Politically correct illustrations of Orion have him holding up a shield instead of a lion.

I just love Orion! Can you tell?

This time of year, Orion is above the horizon most of the night as it ambles along from east to west across the southern half of the sky. It is appropriate we see Orion all night this time of year because, according to mythology, he was a half-god, half-mortal who slept by day and hunted by night.

Astronomically, Orion is the home of many bright stars, star clusters, and nebulae. Its hallmark is the perfect line of three stars in row that make up the hunter's belt. From the lower left to the upper right, they are Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. It's a huge astronomical coincidence these three stars are lined up so perfectly from our view because they have nothing to do with each other. They just happen to be nearly in our same line of sight. Alnitak is 825 light-years away, Alnilam is more than 1,360 and Mintaka is 918 light-years away.

All three stars in Orion's belt are a heck of a lot more powerful than our sun, intrinsically thousands of times more luminous than our home star. In many Latin American countries, Orion's belt is known as "The Three Marys" after the Biblical companions of the Mother of Jesus Christ.

Orion's brightest star, Rigel, is the hunter's left knee and is a bright blueish giant star at least 770 to 900 light-years away. It's about 80 times the diameter of our sun and more than 40,000 times as luminous. In fact, it's the most luminous star as far as visible light in our part of the Milky Way galaxy!

The second brightest star has one of the best star names in the sky, Betelgeuse, pronounced "beetle-juice." It shines in Orion's armpit, and in fact, Betelgeuse is an Arabic name, which roughly translates to "armpit of the mighty one." Even with the naked eye, you can easily see Betelgeuse is a giant red star. Actually it's a giant among giants. It's more than 600 light-years away and is known as a semi-irregular variable star that expands and contracts like a giant beating heart. It's difficult for astronomers to measure its diameter, but it is believed to vary in size from more than 400 million miles to more than 1 billion miles in diameter. Even at its smallest, I can tell you in good confidence when you gaze at Orion's armpit you're most likely looking at the single biggest thing you've ever seen!

Betelgeuse is believed by many astronomers to be a very young star, no more than 10 million years old. Our own sun is estimated to be more than 5 billion years old.

Super massive stars like Betelgeuse are real gas guzzlers and use up their nuclear fuel at a breakneck pace. In fact, Betelgeuse is actually nearing the end of its life. Sometime between now and the next few thousand years or so, Betelgeuse will explode in a tremendous supernova explosion and — for at least for a little while — will outshine the full moon! I'll have much to say about supernova explosions next month.

While Betelgeuse might be dying, there also is new life in Orion.

Look below Orion's belt for the three fainter stars that outline the hunter's sword. You can't help but notice the middle star in the sword is fuzzy. That's because it's not a star but a nebulae, a more than 25 light-year-wide cloud of hydrogen gas and dust almost 1,500 light-years away. It's almost 20 times the diameter of our solar system, and within it, before our very eyes, stars are being born.

Just as it is in billions and billions of other galaxies in our universe, stars form out of hydrogen nebulae. Because of gravity, globules of denser hydrogen within these clouds begin to collapse, which creates compression. If the gas ball is massive enough, heat because of the compression will be enough to fire up nuclear fusion and presto, you have a star, shining brightly.

Nebulae, depending on their size, can produce hundreds and hundreds of stars. The Orion Nebulae is so big it could produce more than 10,000 new stars!

Using even a small telescope, you can see four new stars that have formed in the great nebulae of Orion. They're called the Trapezium stars since the four new luminaries are arranged in a tiny trapezoid-baseball diamond shape. These stars are estimated to be infants, maybe only 10,000 years old and are showing signs of developing new solar systems.

There is a lot going on in that fuzzy little "star" below Orion's belt. If you got a new telescope for Christmas, you have to point at the Orion Nebulae, and while you're at it, scan all around Orion and its surrounding neighborhood. You'll run into small star clusters and nebulae all over the place. Just remember this time of year to let your telescope and all your eyepieces sit outside for at least a half-hour to acclimate to the cooler temperatures. Otherwise, your view through your scope could be really fuzzy and muddy.

Unfortunately, there are some celestial treasures within Orion and other constellations that are beyond the reach and ability of most backyard telescopes. You just can't gather enough light through your scope and into to your eyes fast enough.

That's where astrophotography comes in very handy. I'm really getting into this more and more, and with improving technology, it's becoming more within the reach of amateur astronomers.

With imaging, as it's referred to, you can take exposures of objects from the course of several seconds to more than several minutes and really get some special views and colors you just can't see otherwise.

Ever improving software also is extremely helpful in this endeavor. Examples of this are the Orion Nebulae and the Horsehead Nebula. The Horsehead Nebula, located near the star Alnitak in Orion's belt, is very difficult to see visually through even the largest backyard telescopes. But if you can take a photo of it through a telescope, you can "see" a whole lot more!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.