The Winter Sky

Orion and Rosette

During the winter Orion dominates the sky. The constellations striking appearance is easy to spot and fun to view everytime you go outside into the cold.

Below Orions Belt hangs its sword in which we can see the famous Orion Nebula. Both the belt and sword can be seen in this picture.

Hyades, Pleiades and Planets

The two brightest stars of Orion are Betelgeuze and Rigel. These stars clearly show the difference in colors between individual stars. Betelgeuze shows orange on this image while Rigel is bright white. On better images Rigel clearly shines blue light. The color difference between the stars is caused by the different properties of both stars. The temperature on Betelgeuzes surface is much lower than on Rigels. Betelgeuze has a surface temperature of a mere 3500 Kelvin while Rigels surface temperature is some 10000 Kelvin.

Also on this image is the Rosette Nebula, a reddish nebula in Monoceros, the Hyades, the Pleiades with Jupiter and Saturn in between.

Image Data:

Object:	The Winter Sky
Optics:	Zuiko 28 mm F/2.8 at F/2.8
Camera:	Olympus OM-1
Exposure Time:	6 minutes
Film:	Kodak Elitechrome 100 (EB-2)
Date:	2001 January 15
Time:	21:05 CET (20:05 UT)
Location:	Beesd, The Netherlands (Europe)