Orion the Hunter is such a great constellation, and I have to believe many stargazers share the same opinion. Even if you’re not all that much of a stargazer, you can’t help but notice the mighty celestial hunter prowling westward across the winter heavens.

It’s one of the few constellations that actually resembles what it’s supposed to be. With just a passing glance you can easily see the torso of Orion with his broad shoulders and gigantic thighs. To me and others, Orion also resembles a giant hourglass oriented diagonally in the evening southeastern sky. In this week’s Skywatch, I want to feature at least a few of Orion’s many astronomical treasures. Next week will be storytime as I’ll share some of the great mythological tales involving Orion.

Armed with many layers of clothes, boots and your warmest hat, you can brave the January cold. Something warm to sip on really helps, as well. If you can be out in the countryside, great, but even in suburban skies plagued with moderate light pollution, I think you’ll like what you see. Binoculars and/or a small telescope enhance the experience but are not strictly necessary.

Orion’s great calling card is, without a doubt, his belt, made up of three bright stars close together in a nearly straight line. Even though the belt stars Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka appear to be close together, they are physically nowhere near each other. They’re not only hundreds of light-years from Earth, but hundreds of light-years from each other. Call it a celestial coincidence or divine intervention that these stars align as orderly as they do from our vantage point in the Milky Way galaxy.

Below Orion’s belt stars, there are three more stars in a short line that aren’t quite as bright. That trio makes up Orion’s sword, and without too much eyestrain, you can see that the middle star is “fuzzy.” That’s not a single star but rather a stellar nursery. You’re witnessing the Great Orion Nebula. It’s around 1,500 light-years away, with just one light year equaling nearly 6 trillion miles. It’s a gigantic cloud of hydrogen gas, and with a small telescope, or even a decent pair of binoculars, you can see a tiny cluster of at least four stars near the center. These infant stars were born gravitationally out of this giant mass of hydrogen gas during the last several million years, although one of the stars may be as young as 50,000 years old, which is extremely young when you’re talking stellar. The Hubble telescope has even detected what may be planets developing around the new stars.

The Orion Nebula (Mike Lynch)

As intriguing as the Orion Nebula is through a “conventional” visual telescope, it’s incredible through a smart photographic telescope like a ZWO See Star S50, or S30, both less than $600. I really think these scopes are the wave of the future. They’re easy to operate and are nearly light pollution-proof. Anyway, with one of these photographic scopes you’ll see more structure to the nebula and it’ll be in color, mainly a mauve-ish tint. Attached is a photo of the Orion Nebula I took with my SeeStar S50.

The reason we see the Orion Nebula as well as we do is that it’s literally being lit up like a fluorescent light. The very young and extremely active stars hidden within the nebula are emitting so much intense radiation that the atomic structure of the surrounding gas is disrupted, causing it to glow as brightly as it does. We’re only seeing just a small part of the Orion Nebula though. There’s a lot more to it that isn’t glowing, but thousands and thousands of stars are still forming within it that will eventually light up the surrounding hydrogen womb.

(Mike Lynch)

Another one of Orion’s celestial hallmarks is the bright star Betelgeuse in the upper left corner of the hunter. Like many stars, Betelgeuse has an Arabic name. Arabic cultures in the Middle Ages and earlier cataloged the night sky, and many of their star names are still in use today.  What I love about the name Betelgeuse is that it roughly translates to English as “armpit of the great one”. As you can see in the diagram Betelgeuse actually marks the armpit of Orion.

Astronomically, Betelgeuse is one of the single biggest things you’ve ever seen. It’s considered a red supergiant star, and even with the naked eye you can detect its reddish hue. Betelgeuse fluctuates in diameter and brightness. Most astronomers believe its diameter fluctuates from about 400 million miles to over 800 million miles. Our own home star, the sun isn’t even a million miles in diameter. Betelgeuse is approximately 600 light-years from Earth, and is dying a slow death that someday will turn extremely violent! It’s using up all of the hydrogen and helium fuel in its core. When that happens to extremely massive stars like Betelgeuse, they become extremely unstable, and eventually the star explodes in a spectacular fashion. This is called a supernova explosion. Many astronomers think this could happen to Betelgeuse within a million years, maybe even next week. I wouldn’t wait up for it outside in your lawn chair, though. You could turn into a popsicle!

There are many more astronomical treasures in the constellation Orion that you can explore with apps like Sky Guide and many others, but its belt, the Orion Nebula and Betelgeuse are the big three. What I also love about Orion are all the other bright stars and constellations that surround the great heavenly hunter. I like to call this part of the sky “Orion and his gang,” and this winter, the very bright planet Jupiter is a member of the gang. Jupiter’s also the brightest star-like object in the entire night sky.

Get to know the main player of the winter sky, and I know you’ll fall in love with him, too. Next week, the great stories of Orion.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

Related Articles

Skywatch: Extended stargazing pleasure in January

Skywatch: Season’s greetings

Skywatch: The tiny Christmas tree challenge

Skywatch: Jumpin’ Geminids

Skywatch: Holiday celestial lights

Happy New Year with good news, my fellow readers. The first of the 2026 titles are here, promising exciting books for adults and children from some of our most popular, award-winning Minnesota authors, including Louise Erdrich, Mary Casanova, Julie Schumacher, Marcie Rendon, Shannon Gibney and Kao Kalia Yang, as well as some newcomers. This is just the beginning; there will be more titles announced in the months ahead. Several 2025 latecomers were worth mentioning here as well. Enjoy.

“Liar’s Creek” by Matt Goldman (Minotaur Books)

Fiction

“The Jilted Countess”: by Loretta Ellsworth (Harper Perennial) — Based on a true story, a young Hungarian countess jilted by a GI persuades a Minneapolis newspaper columnist to help her find an American husband as she learns social differences between her homeland and America after her marriage.

“Liar’s Creek”: by Matt Goldman (Minotaur Books) — A mystery set in a quiet Minnesota town, where a man who left without looking back returns to discover his family is facing a crisis.

“Loon Point”: by Carrie Classon (Lake Union Publishing) — Set in the beauty of Minnesota’s North Woods, a debut exploring how chosen family can sweeten bitterness into surprising joy.

“The Luminous Fairies and Mothra”: by Shin’ichiro Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga and Yoshie Hotta; translated and with an afterword by Jeffrey Angles (University of Minnesota Press) — Originally published in Japanese, this is the first official English translation of the novella formed the basis for the film “Mothra.”

(HarperCollins)

“Python’s Kiss”: by Louise Erdrich (Harper) — The winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize offers 13 stories that include magical realism, cultural themes and humans facing extraordinary circumstances. With illustrations by the author’s daughter Aza.

“Patient, Female” by Julie Schumacher (Milkweed Editions)

“Patient, Female”: by Julie Schumacher (Milkweed Editions) — The winner of the Thurber Prize for Humor for “Dear Committee Members” balances sorrow against laughter in stories about women and social blunders, generational misunderstandings, and other situations with humor and wit.

“The Trestle”: by James A. Engen (Independently published) — Subtitled “A Story From the East Side of Saint Paul.” Anchored by Hamm’s Brewery, 3M and Whirlpool, a look at heartache and tragedy among generations proud of where they lived.

“Terry Dactyl”: by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (Coffee House Press) — A search for intimacy and connection, from club culture to the art world, from the AIDS crisis to COVID, with a protagonist who has lived many lives. <there are two t’s in her first name>

“A Wasp in the Beehive”: by Mary Logue (University of Minnesota Press) — Third in the series featuring Irish immigrant Brigid Reardon, who is living in Salt Lake City in 1881 when her new employer, a leader in the Church of Latter-Day Saints, is found murdered in his home.

“Wolf Hour”: by Jo Nesbo; translated by Robert Ferguson (Knopf) — A serial killer lurks on Minneapolis streets and maverick detective Bob Oz is reminded of himself. This Oslo-based author is a Minnesota favorite.

Children’s picture books/young adult

“The Blue House I Loved”: by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Jen Shin (University of Minnesota Press) — A Hmong girl tells of her beloved aunt and uncle’s first house in America in St. Paul — long gone, but still alive in the family’s memories.

“Napesni Renegade” by Marcie Rendon (Copperfield Books)

“Napesni Renegade: A Bison’s Journey”: by Marcie Rendon, illustrated by Sam Zimmerman (Charlesbridge) —  A tale based on a true story about a wild bison who is moved from Wyoming to Minnesota’s Red Lake Ojibwe reservation where he joins a herd that is part of the tribe’s mission to repopulate the area with bison.

“Northwoods Lullaby”: by Mary Casanova, illustrated by Jordan Sundberg (University of Minnesota Press) — It’s time to sing a lullaby and all through the northwoods different animals join in, to the delight of a child and adult on an evening hike encountering loons, bear cubs, foxes and hares and wolf pups. The author began to hum while rocking her newborn grandchild to sleep, and she shares the lullaby now with other children.

“Northwoods Lullaby” by Mary Casanova (University of Minnesota Press)

“Where Is My Sister?”:  by Shannon Gibney, illustrated by Huy Voun Lee (University of Minnesota Press) — When the family’s much-anticipated baby dies, Mama tells the two older siblings that the baby is in the cemetery but will always be their sister. Explores the heartbreak of losing an infant and the love that joins family together.

“A Year Without Home”: by V.T. Bidania (Penguin Young Readers/Nancy Paulsen Books) — The author’s middle grade debut tells the story of her family’s escape from Vietnam to two different refugee camps, and as a year passes, the young protagonist learns how to rebuild home no matter where she is and finally finds her voice.

Nonfiction

“Making Mill City”: by Robert M. Frame III (University of Minnesota Press) — Subtitled “Flour and Fortune in Minneapolis.”

“August Wilson’s American Century”: by Laurence A. Glasco (University of Pittsburgh Press) — A look at Pittsburgh’s influence on the life and work of the acclaimed author of the American Century play cycle, who wrote much of his work in St. Paul.

“Remember the Main”: by Meg Gorzycki (Minnesota Historical Society Press) — The story of the Main Club, opened in 1983, a hub for LGBTQ social life in the Twin Ports of Duluth-Superior and the Iron Range.

(Some information about forthcoming books later in the year is based on publishers’ descriptions.)

Related Articles

46 best books of 2025: Our top fiction and nonfiction book recommendations

Want to read more in 2026? Here’s how to revive your love of books

Readers and writers: A book to end the year, and a look back at a great year for readers

32 mysteries and thrillers from 2025 to read over the holidays

With new memoir, Tom Freston hopes to show young people there are multiple paths to success

What to know when the Vikings host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday afternoon:

When: Noon Sunday
Where: U.S. Bank Stadium
TV: WCCO Ch. 4
Radio: KFAN 100.3 FM
Line: Vikings -7.5
Over/Under: 35.5

Keys for the Vikings

— It seems like quarterback J.J. McCarthy is going to get a chance to finish this season on a high note. He’s worked his way back from a hairline fracture in his right hand and is in position to get the start in the finale. It’s a chance for McCarthy to build some positive momentum after an up-and-down campaign to this point. He should be asked to throw as much as possible. He desperately needs the reps. A byproduct of McCarthy getting to showcase himself for the Vikings could be helping star receiver Justin Jefferson continue his streak of reaching 1,000 yards. It would be the sixth straight season to begin his career.

Keys for the Packers

— It’s hard to see a pathway for the Packers beating the Vikings this weekend. They are expected to play mostly backups to keep themselves fresh for the playoffs. That means reserve quarterback Clayton Tune is going to get the start. It could be a miserable experience for Tune going up against Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores on the other end. The goal for the Packers should be getting out of this game as healthy as possible. That doesn’t lend itself to being competitive.

Related Articles

J.J. McCarthy will start for Vikings in finale against Packers

Vikings picks: ‘Experts’ expect Vikings to end season high note

An inside look at Harrison Smith’s weekly coffee dates with Kevin O’Connell

Packers to start QB Clayton Tune in regular-season finale against Vikings

Will the Vikings get Justin Jefferson over 1,000 yards?

In one of its most consequential rulings of the year, just before breaking for the holidays the Supreme Court held that President Donald Trump acted improperly in federalizing the National Guard in Illinois and in activating troops across the state. Although the case centered on the administration’s deployments in Chicago, the court’s ruling suggests that Trump’s actions in Los Angeles and Portland were likewise illegal.

Trump has said that his deployments of troops to these metro areas were just the beginning and that his administration planned to use military force in more cities across the country. The specter of U.S. troops being deployed against its citizens is inconsistent with a long history of not mobilizing the military for purposes of domestic law enforcement. Images of troops patrolling city streets are more often seen under authoritarian regimes, not in the United States. The Supreme Court’s ruling will immediately put a stop to this.

In coming to this conclusion, the Supreme Court interpreted two federal statutes: The first, 10 U. S. C. §12406(3), empowers the president to federalize members of a state’s National Guard only if he is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.” The Trump administration claimed that it needed to federalize the Illinois National Guard, and similarly troops in California and Oregon, because local police were unable to adequately protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, especially during protests and other demonstrations.

Whether this level of protection was actually called for is still much disputed, and in three separate rulings this year federal courts found that there was no such need in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland. However, the Supreme Court avoided that issue by explaining that the statutory provision means a president can federalize a state’s guard only if it can be shown that U.S. armed forces cannot provide adequate protection for the activities of the federal government.

In a 6-3 ruling, the court concluded that “the term ‘regular forces’ in §12406(3) likely refers to the regular forces of the U.S. military. This interpretation means that to call the Guard into active federal service under §12406(3), the President must be ‘unable’ with the regular military ‘to execute the laws of the United States.’”

This, in itself, is obviously a major limit on the ability of the president to federalize a state’s National Guard.

But the Supreme Court went even further, adding that to federalize a state’s guard would first require the state to be in a situation where the U.S. military could legally be deployed against its citizens, but that its use would be insufficient. Here, a second federal statute is critical. The Posse Comitatus Act, 18 U. S. C. §1385, adopted in 1868, prohibits the U.S. military from being deployed for use in domestic law enforcement except in very limited circumstances, such as when there is an insurrection in a state. Adopted soon after the end of Reconstruction, the act makes it a federal crime to deploy the military within U.S. borders except as expressly authorized by the Constitution or by a federal statute.

In plain English, the Supreme Court ruled that a president can federalize a state’s National Guard only in the rare circumstances where the Posse Comitatus Act allows the military to be used for domestic law enforcement, and then only if the U.S. military would be deemed inadequate to quell the unrest. The Court ultimately declared that “before the President can federalize the Guard under §12406(3), he likely must have statutory or constitutional authority to execute the laws with the regular military and must be ‘unable’ with those forces to perform that function.”

It is hard to imagine, except in the most dire of circumstances, how these requirements could be met. This is exactly as it should be. The U.S. military is not trained to police its citizens and it is not instructed as to the use of force to protect civil liberties. And removing policing from the control of state and local governments would dramatically expand the president’s power. The Supreme Court’s approach is precisely what Congress had in mind in 1878 in prohibiting the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

I, and many others, have criticized the Supreme Court for seeming to operate as a rubber stamp approving the Trump administration’s actions. But here the court served its essential role of enforcing the law and of enforcing checks on presidential power. And it did so in a way that will matter enormously in the months and years ahead in keeping this president from using the military to serve his political agenda within the United States.

Erwin Chemerinsky is the dean of the UC Berkeley Law School. He wrote this column for the Los Angeles Times.

Related Articles

Adam Minter: American fans aren’t enough for US sports anymore

Abby McCloskey: What’s worse than cherry-picked government data? None at all

Daniel DePetris: The foreign policy moves Donald Trump got right in 2025

David Fickling: The positive climate news you may have missed this year

Kevin Frazier: Beware of panic policies