Home > Anishinaabek Constellation, Constellations, Ephemeris Program, Observing > Ephemeris: 12/16/2025 – Finding Orion and the Wintermaker

Ephemeris: 12/16/2025 – Finding Orion and the Wintermaker

December 16, 2025

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, December 16th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:03, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:14. The Moon, 3 days before new, will rise at 6:19 tomorrow morning.

In the east, the central winter constellation Orion the hunter throws a leg over the horizon around 7 PM as Robert Frost told in his poem Star-Splitter. The upright rectangle that is his body is tilted to the left as he rises on December evenings. A bright red star, Betelgeuse, is at the top left of the rectangle, his shoulder. At the opposite corner is blue-white Rigel, a knee. In the center of the rectangle is a line of three stars nearly vertically aligned as he rises, which represents his belt. The stars of Orion’s belt are how many folks can find him. The Anishinaabe native peoples of this area call him the Wintermaker whose arms are held wide to encompass the winter stars. His rising in the evening heralds the coming of winter, five days from now.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EST, UT – 5 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

A Finder animation, looking toward the southeast on a December evening, for Orion and the Wintermaker. The Wintermaker has his arms outstretched, from Aldebaran to Procyon, embracing all the winter stars. Created using Stellarium, LibreOffice Draw, and GIMP.
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