• Orion the Mighty Hunter, it seems, is everyone's favorite constellation. It's little wonder. This configuration is filled with a greater number of bright shining stars than any other constellation.
• Around 6 to 7 o'clock tonight, Orion ascends over your eastern horizon, with

the brilliant moon to the left of the Giant Hunter on this Friday night. Although the moon will look plenty full tonight, it'll actually be a waning gibbous moon for North America. The moon turned full at 5:21 a.m. CST this morning or 10:21 Universal Time on December 28.
• As seen from mid northern latitudes (like in the United States and Europe), Orion assumes a recumbent position at early evening, with his famous belt of three moderately bright stars jutting upward. You'll always find Orion's two brightest and most colorful stars - Betelgeuse and Rigel - on opposite sides of Orion's Belt. Ruddy Betelgeuse is to the north (or left) of the belt, while sparkling blue-white Rigel lies to the south (or right)
• Once you're familiar with Orion, you can star-hop to numerous constellations. For instance, by drawing a line from Mintaka (the top star of Orion's Belt) through Betelgeuse, you can locate the two brightest stars of Gemini the Twins: Castor and Pollux. Orion's Belt points northwest to the constellation Taurus' brightest star Aldebaran (and in 2012 the nearby dazzling planet Jupiter). In the opposite direction,

Orion's Belt points southeast to the constellation Canis Major's brightest star Sirius, the brightest of the nighttime sky.
• But don't stop there! An imaginary line from the star Bellatrix and to the south Betelgeuse escorts you to Procyon, the brightest star in the constellation Canis Minor. Or look between Orion and Polaris, the North Star, to locate Capella, the brightest

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