The star Delta Orionis, one of the stars of Orion’s belt. It is an eclipsing binary that varies between magnitudes 2.1 and 2.3 in a period of 5.7 days. The main star is an O9.5 bright giant. Mintaka is estimated to be about 700  l.y. away. It forms a wide double with an unrelated background star of magnitude 6.9.