I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain...Roy Batty.Blade Runner, 1982
Orion, The Hunter, is a famous, easily recognizeable constellation located along the celestial equator which is visible from both the northern and southern hemispheres. In the northern hemisphere it is a winter constellation, visible in the night sky from November through February. The constellation contains 6 of the top 100 brightest stars in the sky.
Betelgeuse, (α Ori; α Orionis; Alpha Orionis [#11 AM: 0.2 to 1.5 var]): Betelgeuse is the red supergiant star at the upper-left in the picture. It has a mass of about 20 solar masses and a diameter perhaps 1000 times that of the Sun—it would reach out to beyond the orbit of Mars. It is estimated to be 640 light years away and about 8.5 million years old. Betelgeuse is a likely candidate for a Supernova event given its large mass and it is expected that that will happen soon, within a millenia, if it hasn't happened already.
Rigel (β Ori; β Orionis; Beta Orionis [#7 Apparent Magnitude: 0.12]): Rigel is the blue-white star at the lower right of the picture on the right. It is a blue supergiant seventeen times the mass of the sun. Rigel is the brightest (~40,000 times the luminosity of the sun) star in our local region of the Milky Way at approximately 770 light years distance.
Bellatrix (γ Ori; γ Orionis; gamma Orionis [#26 AM: 1.64]): Bellatrix comes from the Latin for 'female warior'. The bright blue-white star at the upper right is Bellatrix.
Saiph (κ Ori; κ Orioinis; Kappa Orionis [#52 AM: 2.05]). Saiph is approximately 720 light years from Earth and masses in at 15-20 solar masses. It is as far from the Sun as Rigel and about the same size, but it burns much hotter and most of the light it emits is in the ultraviolet so it doesn't appear as bright as Rigel.
The Orion Constellation