Bye-bye Orion…

Tonight is a symbolic and poignant one for me here in Glasgow; tonight Orion’s right foot Rigel sets at 2232, by which point astronomical twilight won’t even have ended.

Screen capture from the excellent Starwalk app for iPhone

This means that Orion is setting into the glow of the Sun in the west, and very soon won’t be visible at all. By the end of April Orion will be setting by 2100, only minutes after the Sun, so will be invisible until it appears next winter.

These dates will differ somewhat for you depending on where you are: if you’re further north than Glasgow Orion will already have begun to vanish in the longer days, and if you’re further south it will linger a bit, but to all intents and purposes that’s it for Orion till winter.

So take the opportunity to go and see Orion the Hunter while you can, before he vanishes into the glare of the Sun.