Caption: On the left is a resolved image of Betelgeuse from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and on the right is a non-HST wide-FOV image of constellation Orion (with Betelgeuse marked by an X mark). The lines joining the stars are NOT present on the sky, of course.

Features:

1. Betelgeuse (α Ori) is an M1-2 Ia-ab red supergiant star. On the sky, It is the eastern shoulder of the constellation Orion: i.e., the left shoulder on the image. In distance it is 222(48) pc from the Sun.

2. The resolved image is a bit hard to interpret. It's probably false-color with yellow being brighter and red, dimmer. The changing colors probably just show the limb darkening.

3. The photospheric radius is very uncertain---and so the size given in the image is NOT definitive. From modeling, the photospheric radius is known to be between 1.2 and 8.9 AU. So it may be larger or smaller than Jupiter's mean orbital radius 5.2044 AU. Beyond the photosphere is Betelgeuse's stellar atmosphere (see Wikipedia: Betelgeuse: Diameter).

4. Orion is one of the three constellations anyone can recognize--it is high overhead in the mid-winter night sky---the lord of the winter sky.

   The other two are the Big Dipper (officially an asterism in Ursa Major) and Cassiopeia (the Big W). Both are in the northern sky and are circumpolar constellations for those at mid-northern latitudes and farther north. Hence, they are all-year constellations for those regions.

5. The mythical Orion is a giant hunter of Greek mythology: he pursued the mythical Pleiades and was slain by Artemis in some versions of the myth. Now the constellation Orion pursues the Pleiades asterism (M45).