Free constellation guide

How to find Orion by its belt.

Orion is a large constellation, but you do not need to learn every star at once. Start with the three stars of Orion’s Belt: a short, straight line with a clear rhythm.

The pattern to recognise

The Belt sits near the middle of Orion’s familiar outline. Two brighter stars lie on either side of it, helping suggest a broad-shouldered figure. Below the Belt is a looser line of stars called the Sword; under a dark sky, its middle can look softly hazy because it includes the Orion Nebula.

What a bright sky changes

Light pollution raises the background brightness of the sky. The main Belt stars and Orion’s brighter corner stars can still stand out, while fainter stars in the Sword and around the outline are often the first to disappear. That is not a failed observation: use the strongest stars as the pattern’s framework.

Practise before you look up

Bortle Bounded lets you learn the shape in steps, then practise it without guide lines. Orion is one of the free lessons, and the app adapts the lesson to brighter and darker skies. Sky Lens is a predicted guide based on time, place and, in Compass and Live, the way your phone points; it does not identify stars from camera images.