Today:
The line of Orion’s Belt stars, extended to the right, points to the red star Aldebaran, the red eye of Taurus, the Bull. Aldebaran is 9th brightest star we can see, relatively nearby at a distance of 65 light years. It is a Red Giant star, more than 40 times the diameter of our Sun, giving it a large surface to send out great quantities of light.
Friday:
The Vernal or Spring Equinox marks the calendar arrival of Spring early this morning at 10:46 AM EDT, when the Sun is positioned directly above the Earth’s equator. Although the word equinox means “equal night”, the atmosphere bends the sun’s light, shifting it slightly higher, adding several minutes to the daylight.
Saturday:
Orion is an easy target, even on a moonlit night. Tonight, the lack of moonlight might give you an opportunity to see a fainter feature of our winter Giant. Look below his three belt stars, where a fainter line marks his sword. The very end of the sword is a little fuzzy, because it is not a star but a vast region of glowing gas and dust, called a nebula.