Watch Orion Move West in the Night Sky

If you go for a walk on a clear night in late March or early April, you can see a big change in the stars. The famous group of stars called Orion the Hunter is easy to see in January and February. By late March or early April, however, it has moved. After sunset, you will find Orion sitting very low in the western part of the sky.

Orion is disappearing into the bright light of the sun. Like all stars and groups of stars, Orion moves west as the seasons change. Unless they are very close to the North or South Pole, all stars and groups of stars are hidden by the sun's light for part of each year.

In other words, stars have seasons when we can see them, just like flowers have seasons when they bloom.

All stars and their groups move westward during a single night. Orion does this too. This nightly motion happens because Earth is spinning.

However, Orion's seasonal disappearance is different. It sinks into the sunset light during spring in the north and fall in the south. Think of Earth like a rider on a carousel in space. We are spinning, but we are also moving forward. Earth moves in a big circle, or orbit, around the sun. As we travel, the night sky points to different parts of space during the year.

Earth's trip around the sun puts the sun directly between us and Orion around the same time every year.

The exact date Orion disappears from your evening sky depends on where you live. If you live farther south, you can see Orion longer. For people in the central United States, Orion is lost in the sun's glare by early to mid-May.

For everyone in the U.S., Orion is gone by the summer solstice in June.

If you want to see how the stars shift west with the seasons, look at the sky at the same time every night. If you want to watch the stars drift west during one night, just sit in a chair and watch.

Either way, you can easily see Orion moving steadily toward the west.

In summary, as Earth travels around the sun each year, all the stars and groups of stars seem to shift westward in our sky. Orion is a great group of stars to watch for this effect.