Orion series - 4

Many of the brighter stars are given names which are known as Bayer designations. These designations, which were introduced by Johann Bayer in his star atlas Uranometria (named after Urania) in 1603, consist of a Greek letter followed by the genitive (in Latin) of the name of the constellation in which the star lies (source : WP.)

For Orion, major stars, ordered by magnitude, are :

Name...... Distance (ly)...... Notes
β Rigel...... 773...... East (left) foot
α Betelgeuse 427...... West (right) shoulder
γ Ori........ 243...... left shoulder
ε Ori .......1342 ......belt, center
ζ Ori A...... 817 ......belt, right
κ Ori ....... 721 ......right foot
δ Ori A ......916 ......belt, left
ι Ori ....... 1325 ......sword (with M42)

ly : light years, opposed to heavy years.