Orion is useful as an aid to locating other stars. By extending the line of the Belt southeastward, Sirius can be found; northwestward, Aldebaran. A line eastward across the two shoulders indicates the direction of Procyon. A line from Rigel through Betelgeuse points to Castor and Pollux . Orion's seven brightest stars form a distinctive hourglass-shaped asterism, or pattern, in the night sky. Four stars—Rigel, Betelgeuse, Bellatrix and Saiph form a large roughly rectangular shape, in the center of which lie the three stars of Orion's Belt Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. Coincidentally, these seven stars are among the most distant that can easily be seen with the naked eye. Descending from the 'belt' is a smaller line of three stars (the middle of which is in fact not a star but the Orion Nebula), known as the hunter's 'sword'.