Morning blogsters:

Orion's an hour or two above the western horizon, clear sky.  If you're outside before dawn you ought to be able to get a good look at him.

That bright, middle star of his belt isn't a star.  It's a globular cluster.  A whole snowstorm of stars, all bunched up so's they look like one.  Fairly impressive through a telescope.  Although maybe my memory's serving me wrong.  Maybe that one's a nebula.  It's been 25 years since I looked at it through a telescope.

In the early times of telescopism the instruments weren't clear enough to distinguish between a globular cluster and a nebula unless the nebula was a particularly good one, such as the Horseshoe or the Crab.  A guy named Messiere, or something similar located as many as he could find and catalogued them.  Now all are M 294 or whatever, numbered by his initial.

Anyway, if you're outdoors you might amuse yourself by taking a look.

Jack