A request to our astronomically-inclined Dopers.
Is Orion visible from Antarctica? My visualization is failing me today.
With a declination of + 5 degrees, I would think that it would not clear the horizon of Antartica, but I would like confirmation.
(Yes, I am reading a terrible book. The “scientists” are following seismic activity on a line in Antarctica that follows the “meridian of Orion’s belt” and after the inevitable catastrophe a survivor is looking up at the constellation. This is at page 7. I am just looking for another reason to throw the book across the room and excuse myself from reading any further.)
The “belt”, if you’ve got a clear shot at the horizon. 552 km W of South Pole, Antarctica
CMC +fnord!
The belt of Orion is located just below the celestial equator. Viewed from the South Pole, it forever circles the horizon, and is just visible (assuming an unobstructed horizon view) throughout the four months that the sky is dark.
Antarctica extends northward as far as 63 degrees South, at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. From the northern point of the peninsula, objects as far north as 27 degrees can be seen.
As you move away from the Pole, Orion’s belt would rise and set each day and climb higher above the horizon. For it to be visible at a particular time and place, of course, it has to be above the horizon and the sky has to be dark.
Note also that Orion is a pretty big constellation. At the South Pole, the belt would be pretty close to the horizon, but Rigel, say, shouldn’t present much problem, nor the sword, if your skies are good and clear (which I think they usually are in Antarctica).