Hi, I'm Shannon Silverman, astrophysicist at the Clay center.

And welcome to Almost Heavens.

Here in West Virginia, we're just about halfway between the North Pole and the equator.

That means we are in the perfect spot to view everything the northern skies have to offer, and even a little of the southern skies to.

At this time of year, one of the most easily recognizable constellations is Orion the Hunter.

Orion is often used as a navigational aid, as it's very distinctive and features such as the belt and two of the constellations particularly bright and recognizable stars, Beetlejuice and Rigel, are easy to both find and describe to other stargazers.

This makes Orion very helpful in locating other stars and features in the night sky.

In fact, from Orion, we can locate another navigational aid the asterism known as the Winter triangle.

Asterisms are unofficial constellations and include both parts of recognized constellations such as the Big Dipper and Ursa major, as well as entirely new formations made up of stars from multiple constellations.

The Winter triangle is the latter made up of three stars from three constellations Beetlejuice and Orion, Sirius and Canis Major, and Procyon and Canis Minor.

Starting in Orion, find the belt, which is made up of three stars in a diagonal line following the diagonal down toward the horizon.

The belt makes a line directly toward an incredibly bright star to the south.

This is serious the brightest star of the entire night sky, and a part of the constellatio Canis Major, or the Great Dog.

Sirius is one point of the Winter triangle, and typically thought of as the top of the upside down triangle, returning briefly to Orion.

The star that makes up Orion's righ shoulder is distinctly orange.

This is the supergiant star Beetlejuice.

You don't have to go anywhere from here.

Beetlejuice is another corner of the Winter triangle, often considered one of the two points of the base of the triangle.

The third star is Procyon i Canis Minor, or the small dog, and it's most easily found by looking to the east of Beetlejuice.

Procyon is a brigh star, brighter than Beetlejuice, and with nothing els particularly bright around it, it's usually easy enough to spot as it' almost parallel to Beetlejuice.

It forms a very nice third corner of a nearly equilateral triangle.

The Winter triangle provides another signpost to help stargazer locate objects in the night sky, particularly when combined with Orion.

Now that you can find the Winter triangle, see if you can come up with some patterns to lead you to other nearby objects of interest by using this asterism.

Even if the stars that make up the triangle don' directly point to your target, it's a great way to orient yourself, and it may very well help you find whatever it is you're looking for.

Thank you for joining.

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Until next time.