You.

I'm Shannon Silverman, an astrophysicist with the West Virginia 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 that we are in the perfect spot to view everything that the northern skies have to offer, and even a little of the southern skies, too.

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

This constellation is most easily found by looking for the three star that make up the diagonal belt.

From these three stars you can look for the shoulders and legs of Orion, made up of four bright stars.

Of these, the distinctively orange Beetlejuice, Orion's right shoulder if he's facing us, and glowing blue white Rigel.

Orion's left leg if he's facing us, are two of the brightest stars in the entire night sky.

Both are supergiant star nearing the end of their lives and they are many times the size of the sun.

In fact, Beetlejuice is approximately 700 times as large.

But the two supergiant stars aren't the only interesting things about Orion.

If you look at Orion's belt, then look just under it, you'll see more fainter stars that form Orion's sword.

On a good dark night.

If you look closely, you might see that the middle of the sword isn't exactly a star, but a fuzzy cloud.

This is the Orion Nebula, a gigantic cloud of dust that serves as a stellar nursery where new stars are born.

The Orion Nebula is a beautiful object to look at with a telescope or even just binoculars.

Even in areas of light pollution, in addition to the supergiants and the nebula, Orion's Belt can help us find another incredibl feature of the winter night sky.

Serious.

Serious is the brightest star in the entire night sky.

North or south.

With no competition at all in the Northern hemisphere.

The next brightest star, Arcturus, is less than half as bright.

Sirius is easy to spot on its own, but if you need a little hel looking in the right direction, Orion's Belt is there for you.

The diagonal stars at the belt point directly to Sirius.

The star is a stunning blue white color, and it looks so bright.

Not because it's very big.

It's only slightly larger than the sun, but because it's very close at a little less than nine light years away, not counting the sun, Sirius is actually the 10th closest star to us.

Orion rises just after sunset, but is most easily visible by about 10 p.m.. For serious, you might have to wait a little longer, as its more southern position means it takes longer for it to ris high enough to see in the sky, but it should be visible by about 11 p.m. on the next clear winter night.

Maybe you can catch a glimps of some of the beautiful sights that our West Virginia skies have to offer.

Thank you for joining.

Keep an eye out for more almost heavens on our channel and our socials.

Until next time, be be.