Are you keen to give stargazing a go but don't know what you can see? Get to know the winter night sky in the northern hemisphere with tips from Sir Patrick Moore and his expert guests on The Sky at Night.
The videos below show you how to recognise the prominent winter constellation Orion and point out other interesting night sky highlights.
For more tips, listen to the Stargazing Live audio guides. And make sure to watch these video collections about the night sky in the autumn and the spring and summer.
Image: A Hubble Space Telescope image of the central region of the Orion Nebula (Credit: NASA/STScI/Rice Univ./C.O'Dell et al.)
Dr Chris Lintott gives a tour of the stars that make up Orion, The Hunter, a constellation easily seen during the winter months in the northern hemisphere. This includes the instantly recognisable Orion's Belt - a diagonal line of three stars under which hangs a sword - a vertical collection of stars and nebulae.
Astronomers Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel discuss the wonders to be found near a diagonal line of three stars in the constellation Orion known as Orion's Belt. The Horsehead Nebula is very difficult to see, even if you have a large telescope, but star cluster Collinder 70 can be seen with just a pair of binoculars.
Astronomers Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel discuss the Orion Nebula, a major sight found in a part of the constellation Orion known as the Sword of Orion. Also known as Messier 42 (M42), the Orion Nebula is an interstellar cloud of gas and dust just visible with the naked eye from Earth.
Sir Patrick Moore notes that when we look at the prominent winter constellation Orion, we do not see bright galaxies. Dr Chris Lintott explains that during the winter months, we are looking through a stunted spiral arm of the Milky Way known as the Orion Spur. Because we are looking through our galaxy, it is difficult to see galaxies out in the wider Universe. But our view of the night sky changes in the spring and autumn.
Astronomical distances
Galaxies
Giant stars
Milky Way
Nebulae
Star clusters
Stars
Supernovae
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