Winter Hexagon overhead (Bradford)

Stepped off the bus and immediately Sirius caught my left eye. Fairly elevated, not too much scintillating.

As I cut through a dark parking lot, the southern sky opened up. Orion, high up, Auriga higher still. I had to crane for the Pleiades. Took in the whole hexagon. Fantastic, majestic, huge. Lovely with no Moon.

The stars to the west seemed dim. Was there high cloud? Not enough stars to pick out constellations.

Betelgeuse looked very close to Bellatrix in terms of brightness. At one point, I thought brighter. Most of the time it seemed the same. Definitely better than Saiph. Definitely better than Mintaka. But then I thought the same magnitude as Alnitak and Alnilam. They are both 1.7.

Flip dark winter chill.