The winter sky: Orion, the Winter Triangle and Sirius
Winter evenings have more bright stars than any other time of year, and Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, rides high. Find the three evenly spaced stars of Orion's Belt and you can work your way across the whole winter sky. In China those three stars are the core of the mansion Shen, the body of the White Tiger of the West.
The sky over Taipei, January 15, 9 p.m.
Taipei, January 15, 9 p.m.. The maps show the sky as you look up: north at the top, east on the left; the center is the zenith and the rim is the horizon. Planets and the Moon are left out because they move from year to year; use the tool on this page to see a given night.
You can see the same sky at about 7 p.m. in mid-February and about 11 p.m. in mid-December. The sky runs about two hours earlier each month, so the positions below work in other months if you shift the time.
All worked examples on these pages are calculated for Taipei (25°N). Further north, northern stars ride higher and southern ones lower; the tool on this page will redraw the sky for London, New York, Vancouver, Sydney and other cities.
Use this table to find them
| Target | Chinese name | Western name | Position, Jan 15, 9 p.m. | How to recognize it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orion's Belt | 參宿二 Shen Xiu Er | Alnilam, Orion | southeast, about 61° up | Three equally bright stars evenly spaced in a straight line, the core of the mansion Shen |
| Orion's left shoulder | 參宿四 Shen Xiu Si | Betelgeuse, Orion | southeast, about 65° up | A clearly red bright star up and to the left of the Belt |
| Orion's right foot | 參宿七 Shen Xiu Qi | Rigel, Orion | south, about 56° up | A bluish-white bright star down and to the right of the Belt |
| Winter Triangle: Sirius | 天狼 Tian Lang (天狼星) | Sirius, Canis Major | southeast, about 39° up | Extend the Belt down to the left: the first very bright star you hit, the brightest star in the night sky |
| Winter Triangle: Procyon | 南河三 Nan He San | Procyon, Canis Minor | east, about 44° up | A yellowish-white star east of Betelgeuse, forming an equilateral triangle with Betelgeuse and Sirius |
| Gemini | 北河三 Bei He San | Pollux, Gemini | east, about 49° up | North of Procyon, two bright stars side by side: Castor and Pollux |
| Auriga | 五車二 Wu Che Er | Capella, Auriga | north, about 68° up | A yellow bright star high, a little north of the zenith |
| Taurus | 畢宿五 Bi Xiu Wu | Aldebaran, Taurus | south, about 81° up (nearly overhead) | Extend the Belt up to the right: an orange-red star in the V of the Hyades (the mansion Bi) |
| The Pleiades | 昴宿六 Mao Xiu Liu | Alcyone, Taurus | west, about 77° up (nearly overhead) | Further up and right from Aldebaran, a tight little cluster |
| Canopus, the Old Man Star | 老人 Lao Ren (南極老人星) | Canopus, Carina | south, about 9° up (very low) | Directly below Sirius, a bright star near the southern horizon, the second-brightest star in the night sky |
Positions from our sky engine (Taipei, no refraction). Elsewhere in Taiwan the difference is small; further north, southern stars sit a few degrees lower for every degree of latitude you gain.
The Winter Hexagon
Start at Rigel and join Aldebaran, Capella, Pollux, Procyon and Sirius in turn to get a huge hexagon with Betelgeuse inside it. All seven stars are first magnitude or brighter, so you can see them from a city.
Canopus: the Old Man Star seen from Taiwan
Canopus (α Carinae, declination about −53°) is rarely seen from northern China, and its appearance was taken as a good omen; it became the Old Man Star, the star of longevity in folk religion. From Taiwan it is visible but low: at most about 12° in Taipei and 15° in Kaohsiung. Between 9 and 11 p.m. in January and February, look near the southern horizon directly below Sirius from somewhere with a clear view south. From most of Europe and the northern US it never rises.
The red of Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant whose brightness varies irregularly; it dimmed dramatically in late 2019 and early 2020, drawing attention worldwide, and later recovered. With Rigel, one red and one blue, it is the best pair for seeing that stars have different colors.
Three common misconceptions
The Belt is called Shen, so Shen is three stars.
Besides the three Belt stars, Shen includes the corner stars Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Saiph and Rigel, seven in all. The name shen is sometimes read as "three", referring to the Belt.
Sirius is the brightest thing in the night sky.
Sirius is the brightest star. Venus, Jupiter and sometimes even Mars outshine it, to say nothing of the Moon.
Canopus can't be seen from Taiwan.
It can, just low: at most about 12° in Taipei and 15° in Kaohsiung, directly below Sirius on winter evenings.
Tonight's sky: what is overhead right now
Pick a date, a time and a place to draw the whole sky at that moment, with the Moon, the planets, the bright stars that are up, and the Chinese lunar mansion crossing the meridian due south. Switch between Western constellation lines and Chinese asterisms. Everything is calculated in your browser.
Star catalog: about 1,600 Hipparcos stars brighter than magnitude 5 (compiled from d3-celestial, BSD license). The Moon and planets use simplified formulas accurate to within 0.3°; atmospheric refraction is ignored.
A straight word: this is astronomy, not fortune-telling
These pages are about stars you can actually see: where they are, which season brings them, and what East and West call them. The "mansion of the day" in the Chinese almanac, the twelve signs of Western astrology and the stars of Zi Wei Dou Shu all borrow star names, but they are separate systems of calculation and do not match what is in the sky that night. Everything on this site is for reference and entertainment.
Try another date: the sky on your night
Pick a date, time and place; the tool draws the whole sky with the Moon and planets marked.
The Winter Sky FAQ
Which three stars make the Winter Triangle?
Betelgeuse in Orion, Sirius in Canis Major and Procyon in Canis Minor.
What is Orion called in Chinese astronomy?
Mainly the mansion Shen (the Belt plus the bright corner stars) and the mansion Zi (the three small stars of the head), part of the White Tiger of the West.
Can you see Canopus from Taiwan?
Yes. On winter evenings it is near the southern horizon directly below Sirius, at most about 12° up in Taipei and 15° in Kaohsiung.