Having looked at alpha (Betelgeuse), the great topaz star on Orion's right shoulder, and admired the splendor of its color, we may turn the four-inch upon the star Sigma 795, frequently referred to by its number as "52 Orionis." It consists of one star of the sixth and another of sixth and a half magnitude, only 1.5" apart, p. 200°. Having separated them with a power of two hundred and fifty diameters on the four-inch, we may try them with a high power on the three-inch. We shall only succeed this time if our glass is of first-rate quality and the air is perfectly steady.
The star lambda in Orion's head presents an easy conquest for the three-inch, as it consists of a light-yellow star of magnitude three and a half and a reddish companion of the sixth magnitude; distance 4", p. 43°. There is also a twelfth-magnitude star at 27", p. 183°, and a tenth or eleventh magnitude one at 149", p. 278°. These are tests for the five-inch, and we must not be disappointed if we do not succeed in seeing the smaller one even with that aperture.
Other objects in Orion, to be found with the aid of our map, are: Sigma 627, a double star, magnitude six and a half and seven, distance 21", p. 260°; Omicron Sigma 98, otherwise named iota Orionis, double, magnitude six and seven, distance 1", p. 180°, requires five-inch glass; Sigma 652, double, magnitudes six and a half and eight, distance 1.7", p. 184°; rho, double, magnitudes five and eight and a half, the latter blue, distance 7", p. 62°, may be tried with a three-inch; tau, triple star, magnitudes four, ten and a half, and eleven, distances 36", p. 249°, and 36", p. 60°. Burnham discovered that the ten-and-a-half magnitude star is again double, distance 4", p. 50°. There is not much satisfaction in attempting tau Orionis with telescopes of ordinary apertures; Sigma 629 otherwise _m_ Orionis, double, magnitudes five and a half (greenish) and seven, distance 31.7", p. 28°, a pretty object; Sigma 728, otherwise A 32, double, magnitudes five and seven, distance, 0.5" or less, p. 206°, a rapid binary,[2] which is at present too close for ordinary telescopes, although it was once within their reach; Sigma 729, double, magnitudes six and eight, distance 2", p. 26°, the smaller star pale blue--try it with a four-inch, but five-inch is better; Sigma 816, double, magnitudes six and half and eight and a half, distance 4", p. 289°; psi 2, double, magnitudes five and a half and eleven, distance 3", or a little less, p. 322°; 905, star cluster, contains about twenty stars from the eighth to the eleventh magnitude; 1267, nebula, faint, containing a triple star of the eighth magnitude, two of whose components are 51" apart, while the third is only 1.7" from its companion, p. 85°; 1376, star cluster, small and crowded; 1361, star cluster, triangular shape, containing thirty stars, seventh to tenth magnitudes, one of which is a double, distance 2.4".