LIST OF CONSTELLATIONS
This list contains constellations not previously considered. Their features and interesting objects are indicated. They can be found on star maps.
CIRCUPOLAR CONSTELLATIONS
Cepheus - Mythical Ethiopian king Cepheus (Cepheus) was the husband of Cassiopeia and the father of Andromeda. It is interesting because a class of variable stars called “Cepheids” was first discovered here.
The Dragon . Greek myth says it is a dragon Ladon, whom Hera placed it in the garden Hesperides to protect the tree with golden apples; getting these apples, Hercules killed the dragon. Another myth refers to the campaign of the Argonauts: the dragon Kolhis , prototype of the constellation, guarded the Golden Fleece (see also Aries ), which was supposed to be obtained Jason . There is also a version that this dragon was Python . Has an interesting nebula.
Giraffe - nothing particularly remarkable.
Lynx - almost empty space.
CONSTELLATIONS OF THE AUTUMN SKY
Pegasus - An ancient constellation. Included in the starry sky catalog Claudius Ptolemy "Almagest" called "Horse" " In Greek mythology Pegasus - a winged horse born from drops of the blood of Medusa the Gorgon. The Babylonians called this constellation simply " horse ", among the ancient Greeks - Big Horse . The Arabs still call the constellation Big Horse - Al-faras Al-azam.One of the ancient constellations. Included in the catalog of the starry sky of Claudius Ptolemy “Almagest”. Interesting because of the spherical constellation M15 . Consists mainly of giant stars. The mechanism of their existence is still not clear.
Andromeda - According to Greek myths, Andromeda was the daughter of an Ethiopian king Kepheus (Cepheus) and Queen Cassiopeia . She was given by her father as a sacrifice to a sea monster Kitu (according to some versions, Keto), who devastated the country, but was saved Perseus . After death she turned into a constellation. Several neighboring constellations ( Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cetus and Cepheus ) are also named after characters from this myth. It is interesting because the galaxy closest to us is located in it - Andromeda's nebula.
Perseus - An ancient constellation. Included in the starry sky catalog
Claudius Ptolemy "Almagest".
Mythological Perseus is the main character of one of the most famous ancient Greek myths. Constellation Perseus , represented by faint but still visible stars to the naked eye, appears to be a man holding a round object at some distance from himself. Surrounding constellations Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Pegasus and Andromeda arranged so that they form a plot group of one of the myths associated with Perseus . There is a constellation somewhat to the side Whale , named after the monster also present in this myth.
Triangle
Whale Ancient constellation. Included in the starry sky catalog Claudius Ptolemy "Almagest". It is usually believed that it depicts a monster sent Poseidon eat the one chained to the rock Andromeda and killed by Perseus . One of the largest in the sky. There is, among other things, an interesting star - Tau Ceti , which is similar in many respects to our Sun. In this regard, fans of aliens assured everyone that there is intelligent life there. Now they’ve kind of forgotten about it. Song of Vysotsky Tau Whale
Lizard - a small constellation about which there is nothing to say.
CONSTELLATIONS OF THE WINTER SKY
Big dog - an ancient constellation, with the configuration of bright stars really resembling a dog, formed around main star Sirius . Myths about the origin of the star are transferred to the entire constellation. So, ancient greek myths they call the dog the prototype of the heavenly Dog Orion (the constellation is nearby) or Ikaria . The constellation is included in the starry sky catalogClaudius Ptolemy "Almagest" called "Dog".
Do you know where the word pleasant to our ears came from “ holidays "? The word is not Russian, but a Latin word slightly modified in the Russian manner, meaning in literal translation... " dog days! “Such an unexpected name for a pleasant period of rest turns out to be directly related to the main star of the constellation Canis Major , the brightest star of the sky shining Sirius. Once in Ancient Egypt , in the days close to the summer solstice, Sirius first appeared in the rays of dawn. This moment of the year was carefully determined by the Egyptian priests, since it was soon followed by the flood of the Nile, and then the sizzling summer heat.
Already the Egyptians noticed that the onset of the summer solstice is associated with the heliacal, i.e., the first pre-dawn sunrise Sirius (α Canis Major ) - the brightest star in the sky. The Egyptians called it a star Sothis.
It is interesting to note that a word closely related to Sirius and the name of the constellation Canis Major. IN Ancient Egypt Siriushad two names: Sothis and Anibus . The first one means " Radiant" or "Brilliant", and the second - "Dog Star" ", which later passed to the ancient Romans, who called it " Stella canikula" or simply "Vacation".Early morning appearance Holidays coincided with the onset of the hottest time of the year, when a break in work was announced; trade was suspended, and city lifethe holiday period began, which the Romans called days Holidays . From the Latin word " holidays " passed into Russian, but they began to write it with a small letter, and in our country it acquired the meaning of a break in classes.
Heliacal risings of Siriuswere observed especially carefully. Centuries and even millennia of observations have made it possible to establish thatheliacal sunrises Sirius approximately coincide with the beginning of the Nile flood, when the counting of the new economic year began in Ancient Egypt. Meeting the first pre-dawn sunrises Sirius were celebrated as great celebrations and were accompanied by special ceremonies.
The coincidence made a striking impression on the ancient Egyptians three great natural phenomena: onset solstice , first appearance Sothis and the beginning of the fruitful flood Nila . Therefore, it is not surprising that in the inscriptions dating back to the era Ancient kingdom(3rd millennium BC e.),find mentions of the majestic Sothis . But this name also appears at a later time. So, on the wall of the famous temple of the goddess Hathor in Dendera a hieroglyphic inscription was made: “The great Sothis shines in the sky, and the Nile overflows its banks».
It's funny that among the Romans, holidays were considered an anxious time. There was a belief that Dog Star causes rabies in dogs and fever in humans. These days no one looks at Sirius with fear, but always with admiration. It is impossible not to admire this heavenly diamond, looking at the rainbow tints, which have a clearly defined blue color. Sirius - one of the stars closest to us, seventh in order of distance from the Sun. A space rocket flying at an average speed of 10 km/s would reach Sirius in 300000 years. Light travels the same distance in 9 years.
Sirius about twice the size (in diameter), twice as heavy and twice as hot Sun . In this case, the luminosity Sirius 24 times superior to solar and replacement Sun Sirius would create unbearable heat on Earth , a heat that would likely boil all of the Earth's oceans.
Small dog - in many ways similar to Big dog . Main star - Procyon.
Auriga - The constellation has been known since ancient times, included in the starry sky catalog Claudius Ptolemy "Almagest". There is no generally accepted myth about its origin: they also see the Troezen king in him Hippolyta, and Myrtila, and Erichthonia , and other heroes. IN ancient times directly next to Charioteer constellation was located Goat (or Little Goats), associated with the goat Amalthea, who suckled Zeus . Gradually it merged with Charioteer . It is for this reason that in celestial atlases the figure Charioteer holds a goat on his back and two kids on his left arm. Ancient sources called the author of the constellation Goat Kleostrata of Kinedos.
It has a number of objects of interest to astronomers. Brightest star Chapel . Consists of two giants located close to each other.
Unicorn - a vast, but poor constellation of bright stars. Has a remarkable diffuse nebula" Socket ".
Eridanus - An ancient constellation. The Greeks attributed it Eudox , but he is probably only the author of the first description of the constellation. Due to its sinuous shape, in many cultures the constellation was identified with a river. Under this name it is included in the starry sky catalog Claudius Ptolemy "Almagest". Eridanus proper - a river in ancient Greek mythology, identified with various rivers, particularly rivers Euphrates, Po and Nile . The name of the main star of the constellation, Achernar , means “end of the river” in Arabic. Word Eridan easily etymologized based on the Aryan language: Er - Yarila's phallus - a symbol of fertility. Dan - river (Don, Donets, Danapr, Danube). Then Eridan - fertile river. Same - Jordan - Eridan, Dan River in Palestine.
Eridanus usually associated with the myth of Phaethone, son of Helios who lost control of the celestial chariot Sun . According to one version of the myth, Zeus struck Phaethon by lightning and thrown into the river Eridanus , according to another, the constellation represents the winding path of a chariot.
An extensive and long constellation extending beyond the horizon. Epsilon Eridani , another alien fan fetish. Only specialists can find something interesting there.
CONSTELLATIONS OF THE SPRING SKY
Little Leo - almost empty space.
Chalice, Raven, Sextant- the same.
Bootes - An ancient constellation. Alternative name in Ancient Greece - Arctophylax ("Guardian of the Ursa ", meaning constellation Big Dipper). Included in the starry sky catalogClaudius Ptolemy's Almagest.The constellation is associated with Arcade, son of the nymph Callisto , who mistakenly hunted his mother, turned The hero is a bear.
The main very bright star is Arcturus . Several double stars.
Hound dogs - there are a number of interesting objects accessible through the telescope. Such as the galaxy M51 , star clusters and double stars.
Hydra - An ancient constellation. Included in the starry sky catalog Claudius Ptolemy "Almagest" under the name "Water Serpent" " The ancient Greeks considered the constellation to be an image Lernaean Hydrafrom the second feat Hercules . Several interesting variable stars.
CONSTELLATIONS OF THE SUMMER SKY
Lyra - An ancient constellation. Included in the starry sky catalog Claudius Ptolemy "Almagest". Lyra - favorite musical instrument Ancient Greece , and, obviously, this is why myths name a number of owners of its prototype: Arion (Ariy he), Orpheus (Orpeia - I screaming songs) and Apollo (Scorched) who received it fromHermes (Er-place - boundary post). Vega (perpetual motion)translated from Arabic - “ falling kite " It was believed that this was a kite, which Zeus sent to steal the body of a Tartarian nymph Campa at Briareus , when he was going to bring her entrails as a sacred sacrifice. In ancient atlases Lyra often depicted in the claws of a kite.
The brightest star in the northern hemisphere of the sky is Vega . Interesting planetary nebula, a number of variables and double stars.
Eagle - Even 5 thousand years ago the Sumerians called this constellation Eagle . The Greeks saw him as an eagle sent by Zeus to kidnap Ganymede . See also constellation Aquarius. Eagle included in the starry sky catalog Claudius Ptolemy "Almagest". Some of the stars now included in Orla , Ptolemy does not include it in the constellation, but describes it as “stars around Orla , which are given a name Antinous ”, without, however, singling it out into an independent constellation. Later in the Roman Empire they began to distinguish a separate constellation from the constellation Antinous. Altair - a white, hot and very close star to us (5 ps). Cepheid η Orla , several faint double stars.
Hercules - Initially, the constellation was not personified and was called “Kneeling" Included in the starry sky catalog Claudius Ptolemy "Almagest"under this name. Even Arata in Apparitions "(III century BC) it is also said: "The image of a husband near them, exhausted by severe suffering. The name is unknown to us, nor the cause of sorrowful suffering"(Arat, "Apparitions", 65). However, already from the 5th century BC the Greeks began to call the constellation “ Hercules." Hercules (Latinized Hercules ) - the main character of the ancient Greece, son of Alcmene and Zeus , famous for his twelve labors.
It is remarkable, first of all, because it is in this constellation that apex - that imaginary point towards which all our solar system led by the Sun at a speed of 20 km/s . This is the movement relative to the nearest stars. It should not be confused with appeal Suns around the Galaxy , which occurs at a speed close to 250 km/s , and is currently directed towards the constellation Cepheus . Vast constellation Hercules , with 140 stars visible to the naked eye, has a number of interesting objects. First of all, an extraordinary starα Hercules . Of the bright stars, it is the largest, significantly surpassing even Betelgeuse . Our imagination turns out to be powerless to imagine this very cold gigantic red star, with a diameter of 800 times larger than the Sun.
We have already encountered globular star clusters more than once, but here in the constellation Hercules , there are two particularly remarkable formations of this kind.The brighter one, the globular cluster M13 , easy to find with binoculars between the starsη and ζ Hercules. In a three-inch (7.6 cm) telescope, it breaks up at the edges into individual stars; these countless tiny sparkles bordering the gigantic “ball of stars” are amazingly beautiful
In a globular cluster M13 about half a million stars, mainly of “late” spectral classes. Unlike open star clusters, which are formed mainly from hot giants, the brightest stars of globular star clusters (including M13 ) are cool red giants. Hot blue stars are a rare exception here. In globular star clusters there are apparently many stars that resemble Sun . Many variable stars are found in globular star clusters (in M13 About one and a half dozen of them were discovered), mainly short-period Cepheids. All globular clusters are very distant objects. From M13 , for example, rays of light fly to us almost 24,000 years!
Currently, about a hundred globular star clusters are known. In our Galaxy , as, apparently, in others, they form a spherical subsystem.The diameters of globular star clusters are very impressive - from 60 to 300 light years. It is characteristic that in “balls of stars" there are no dust or gas nebulae. But although the interstellar space there is very transparent, the view of the sky, especially from the center of the globular cluster, is unusually enchanting. Imagine thousands of stars, not inferior in brilliance to Venus, and many thousands of other stars, comparable to Sirius, completely dotting the sky!
Globular clusters are very stable formations. We don’t know how they arose, but we can safely say that these formations can exist without any fundamental changes for many billions of years!
On November 16, 1974, a powerful radio transmitter from one of the largest (mirror diameter 300 m) radio telescopes in the world Arecibo (Puerto Rico) sent a radiogram in the direction of the star cluster M13 . The experimenters’ calculation was simple: among the tens of thousands of stars forming a cluster, there are very likely some that are surrounded by planetary systems. It is possible that some of these planets are inhabited by intelligent beings that will receive radio signals from Earth. It was also assumed that they would be able to decipher the contents of the earthly radiogram, but we would have to wait for a response from them 48,000 years , so this experience has only symbolic meaning. (But in my opinion, the idea is stupid and senseless)
Small horse, Dolphin, Arrow - small constellations. There is nothing particularly interesting.
Chanterelle - an interesting planetary nebula.
Shield - several star clusters.
Snake - consists of two parts - Head and Tail. The middle is clenched in a fist Ophiuchus. In the Snake some interesting double stars. Ophiuchus famous above all"Bernard's Flying Star"Firstly, this star moves very quickly. Secondly, the deviation of its trajectory suggests the presence of somewhat smaller planets Jupiter. Also in Ophiuchus There are globular clusters, a planetary nebula, and double stars.
STARRY SKY OF ANTARCTICA
It is hardly worth listing the constellations that a Russian astronomy lover will never see. But trips and business trips to southern countries are now far from uncommon, and perhaps some of the readers will find themselves under the southern starry sky. Then the general overview that we will now give will help him understand this unfamiliar picture. The beauty of the southern sky is in no way inferior to the northern one.
Let us transport ourselves mentally to the center, the core of the harsh Antarctic continent, to the point where, penetrating the earth’s surface, the imaginary earth’s axis rushes into the glittering stars of infinity. This axis does not meet on its way any more or less bright star, at least not inferior in brilliance Polar . The south pole of the world is located in a constellation extremely poor in bright stars Octanta . There are only three stars brighter in this fairly vast constellation 5 m . They are all far from the celestial pole. Role North Star a barely noticeable star performs in the southern sky star 6 m Omega Octanta , spaced from the pole by 54" . Among the stars visible to the naked eye, Omega Octanta closest to the south pole of the world. However, due to the insignificance of visible brilliance, she could never, like Polar , play the role of a guiding star.
In the sky observed from the south pole, the first thing that attracts attention is five unfamiliar very bright stars. The brightest of them is second in brilliance only to Sirius. This is Canopus , the main star of the constellation Kiel . Despite the considerable distance from Earth (before Canopus 180 light years),α Carina successfully competes with Sirius , reaching the brilliance of a star in the earthly sky - 0 m ,9 . Canopus - a yellowish supergiant with a surface temperature of 7600° . It is 85 times in diameter and 1900 times more luminous than Sun .
Attracts attention and Achernar - the main star of the constellation already familiar to us Eridani . A white supergiant with a surface temperature of 15 000° emitting light 800 times more intense Sun and exceeding it in diameter by 3.4 times - these are the main physical characteristics Achernara . The other three very bright stars are located nearby in the sky: these areα Centauri, β Centauri and α Southern Cross . Their brightness is respectively 0 m .3, 0 m .9 and 1 m .4, so α Centauri is the third brightest star in the earth's sky (after Sirius and Canopus).
At an altitude of 30° another bright star is visible, also accessible to observers in the northern hemisphere. This Fomalhaut or α Southern Fish , which can be observed on summer nights low above the horizon in the southern half of the sky.
Look carefully at the map of the southern starry sky. Among the unfamiliar constellations, there are few that have expressive, memorable outlines. The most beautiful of them is the famous constellation Southern Cross . This is how it was called for the first time by contemporaries. Magellan (XVI century). Indeed, four bright stars can be mistaken for the extremities of an imaginary celestial cross. Nearby is a constellation Centauri , characterized by a triangle of bright stars. In the constellations Keel, Stern and Sails , which were once united into one constellation Ship Argo , many bright, but randomly scattered stars. It is impossible to see any external resemblance to the silhouette of an ancient ship here. The remaining unfamiliar constellations of the southern sky, such as, for example, are even less consistent with their names. Chameleon, Painter and others.
In the starry sky Antarctica You can use a telescope to find many double and multiple stars, star clusters and nebulae. Let us select from them only the most remarkable or even unique ones, the likes of which are not found in our sky. The main attraction of the Antarctic sky is, undoubtedly, Toliman, or α Centauri , the closest star to us. Seeing this nearby sun is the cherished desire of every astronomy lover. But if this desire is not destined to come true, it is still useful to find out details about the nearest star.
Alpha Centauri - triple star. The main yellow star, very similar to Sun , has a very bright orange satellite. In terms of luminosity, this satellite is almost three times inferior to to the sun , and its surface has a temperature of only 4400° . In mass and size, both stars are similar to Sun , and the orbital period in this pair is almost 80 years. The third component in this triple system is the star Proxima (i.e. "closest") Centauri. She's at 2400 A. i.e. closer to us than the main yellow star. Proxima Centauri- a cool red dwarf that emits light 20,000 times less than Sun . Angular distance between Proxima and main componentsα Centauri very large, approximately four times the apparent lunar diameter.
If Proxima could have been replaced by at least such an ordinary star as Sun , α Centauri would turn into the most beautiful triple star in the earth's sky. But Proxima - red star 11th magnitude, completely lost among many other telescopic stars. Circulation period Proxima around the general center of mass of the system is very long and in any case no less than several thousand years.
Is there any chance that around these three the nearest stars orbiting habitable planets? In a relationship Proxima For Centauri, the answer would seem to be no. This star is too small and cold to be like ours to the sun , the source of life. In addition, it belongs to the class of flare stars of the type NU Kita, and sharp fluctuations in radiation are harmful to living organisms.
Another thing is the main components of the triple system Alpha Centauri, designated A and B . American astronomer S. Dole calculated for these stars the sizes of their ecospheres, that is, areas suitable for Earth-like life. More precisely, within ecosphere Dole the physical conditions are such that if there were Earth-like planets there, people on these planets could live without special protective equipment (for example, such as spacesuits). It turned out that for both components A and B the radii of their ecospheres (within which stable planetary orbits can exist) are respectively equal to 2.68 AU. e. and 2.34 a. e. The probability that there are habitable Earth-like planets near these stars is doula , close to 0.05. In other words, there is one chance in twenty that there are habitable planets in the system of the nearest triple star to us! (Which, however, I very much doubt. Why? Read my book"We are alone in the universe"
)
In the constellation Carina There are two very bright open star clusters that are close to us. The first of them consists of 160 stars, the second - of 130. Both are distant from Earth at the same distance - 400 ps.
Two globular star clusters are very spectacular 47 Tucana and Omega Centauri. Cluster 47 Toucans - the most abundant known globular star cluster. It unites tens of millions of stars!
But what is completely unique is the famous Magellanic Clouds, Big and Small . The first of them is visible in the constellation Golden Fish , the second - in the constellation Toucan . On a dark starry night they really look like something strange, likelike phosphorescent motionless clouds. However, after about half an hour we are convinced thatMagellanic Cloudsmove along with the entire starry sky, and at the same time their location relative to the stars remains unchanged.
Big Cloud the shape vaguely resembles the Segner wheel familiar from school lessons, Small Cloud - training punching bag (Fig. 2). In the sky Magellanic Cloudsoccupy a significant area. Big Cloud has a diameter of 12°, which is 24 times greater than the diameter of the lunar disk, Small - 8°.
First Magellanic Cloudswere described by satellite Magellan and his biographer Pigafetta . Eyewitnesses always note the similarity of clouds with Milky Way: Magellanic Cloudsseem to be torn pieces of it. The similarity here is not only external. Telescopic observations reveal the stellar nature of these amazing formations. Yes, these are huge star systems closest to us, satellites of our Galaxies . They include many tens of millions of stars, among which more than 2000 variables have been discovered, several dozen star clusters and nebulae. Almost 165,000 years it takes a ray of light to reach Magellanic Clouds, while the distances between their centers are approximately half as large.
Magellanic Cloudsin true size they are significantly inferior to ours Galaxy, and the Andromeda nebula. But still a Big Cloud has a diameter of about 20,000, and Maloe - about 17,000 light years. Big Cloud comparable to a galaxy M33 from the constellation Triangulum (diameter 9 kps), and if not for the proximity to our pashas Galaxy, both clouds could be considered full-fledged independent star systems. It is very likely that Magellapian Cloudsrevolve around a common center of gravity. Together with our Galaxy they form a triple star system - an analogue of a triple star. The periods of revolution in this system are very long and most likely amount to hundreds of millions, or even billions of years. Note that both Clouds are immersed in the thinnest common gas veil of neutral hydrogen.
IN Large Magellanic Cloudapproximately 75% of variable stars belong to the Cepheid type. It contains about 6,000 star clusters and individual stars that have a record for their luminosity.
In the center Large Magellanic Cloudthere is a gigantic gas-dust diffuse nebula called Tarantula. Its mass is equal to five million solar masses, and it is considered a record holder among space objects of this type. In total in Large Magellanic Cloud115 diffuse nebulae have been recorded. Their total mass is approximately 8-9 percent of the total mass of the Cloud.
A constellation is a section of the celestial sphere with all the celestial objects projected onto it from the point of view of an earthly observer. Modern astronomers divide the entire sky into 88 constellations, the boundaries between which are drawn in the form of broken lines along the arcs of celestial parallels (small circles of the celestial sphere parallel to the celestial equator) and declination circles (large semicircles perpendicular to the equator) in the equatorial coordinate system of the 1875 era. Modern names constellations and their boundaries were established by decisions of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1922–1935. From now on, these boundaries and names of the constellations were decided to be considered unchanged (Table 1).
The word "constellation" (from the Latin constellatio) means "a collection (or group) of stars." In ancient times, “constellations” were expressive groups of stars that helped to remember the pattern of the starry sky and, with its help, navigate in space and time. Each nation had its own traditions of dividing stars into constellations. The constellations used by modern astronomers mostly have names and include bright stars traditional for European culture.
It should be understood that a constellation is not a specific area in outer space, but only a certain range of directions from the point of view of an earthly observer. Therefore, it is incorrect to say: “The spaceship flew to the constellation Pegasus”; It would be true to say: “The spaceship flew in the direction of the constellation Pegasus.” The stars that form the constellation pattern are located at very different distances from us. In addition to stars in a certain constellation, very distant galaxies and nearby objects of the Solar System can be visible - all of them at the time of observation belong to this constellation. But over time, celestial objects can move from one constellation to another. This happens most quickly with close and fast-moving objects: the Moon spends no more than two to three days in one constellation, planets - from several days to several years; and even some nearby stars have crossed the boundaries of constellations over the past century.
The apparent area of a constellation is determined by the solid angle it occupies in the sky; it is usually indicated in square degrees (Table 2). For comparison: the disks of the Moon or the Sun occupy an area of about 0.2 square meters in the sky. degrees, and the area of the entire celestial sphere is about 41253 square meters. hail
The names of the constellations are given in honor of mythical characters (Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Perseus, etc.) or animals (Leo, Dragon, Ursa Major, etc.), in honor of remarkable objects of antiquity or modernity (Libra, Altar, Compass, Telescope , Microscope, etc.), as well as simply by the names of those objects that resemble figures formed by bright stars (Triangle, Arrow, Southern Cross, etc.). Often one or more of the brightest stars in a constellation have their own names, for example, Sirius in the constellation Canis Major, Vega in the constellation Lyra, Capella in the constellation Auriga, etc. As a rule, the names of stars are associated with the names of constellations, for example, they designate parts of the body of a mythical character or animal.
Constellations are monuments of man's ancient culture, his myths, his first interest in the stars. They help historians of astronomy and mythology understand the way of life and thinking of ancient people. Constellations help modern astronomers navigate the sky and quickly determine the position of objects.
| Table 1. CONSTELLATIONS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER OF RUSSIAN NAMES | ||
| Russian name | Latin name | Short designation |
| Andromeda | Andromeda | And |
| Twins | Gemini | Gem |
| Big Dipper | Ursa Major | UMa |
| Big Dog | Canis Major | CMa |
| Scales | Libra | Lib |
| Aquarius | Aquarius | Aqr |
| Auriga | Auriga | Aur |
| Wolf | Lupus | Lup |
| Bootes | Boots | Boo |
| Veronica's hair | Coma Berenices | Com |
| Crow | Corvus | Crv |
| Hercules | Hercules | Her |
| Hydra | Hydra | Hya |
| Pigeon | Columba | Col |
| Hound Dogs | Canes Venatici | CVn |
| Virgo | Virgo | Vir |
| Dolphin | Delphinus | Del |
| The Dragon | Draco | Dra |
| Unicorn | Monoceros | Mon |
| Altar | Ara | Ara |
| Painter | Pictor | Pic |
| Giraffe | Camelopardalis | Cam |
| Crane | Grus | Gru |
| Hare | Lepus | Lep |
| Ophiuchus | Ophiuchus | Oph |
| Snake | Serpens | Ser |
| Golden Fish | Dorado | Dor |
| Indian | Indus | Ind |
| Cassiopeia | Cassiopeia | Cas |
| Centaur (Centaurus) | Centaurus | Cen |
| Keel | Carina | Car |
| Whale | Cetus | Set |
| Capricorn | Capricornus | Cap |
| Compass | Pyxis | Pyx |
| Stern | Puppis | Pup |
| Swan | Cygnus | Cyg |
| a lion | Leo | Leo |
| Flying fish | Volans | Vol |
| Lyra | Lyra | Lyr |
| Chanterelle | Vulpecula | Vul |
| Ursa Minor | Ursa Minor | UMi |
| Small Horse | Equuleus | Equ |
| Little Leo | Leo Minor | LMi |
| Small Dog | Canis Minor | CMi |
| Microscope | Microscopium | Mic |
| Fly | Musca | Mus |
| Pump | Antlia | Ant |
| Square | Norma | Nor |
| Aries | Aries | Ari |
| Octant | Octans | Oct |
| Eagle | Aquila | Aql |
| Orion | Orion | Ori |
| Peacock | Pavo | Pav |
| Sail | Vela | Vel |
| Pegasus | Pegasus | Peg |
| Perseus | Perseus | Per |
| Bake | Fornax | For |
| Bird of paradise | Apus | Aps |
| Cancer | Cancer | Cnc |
| Chisel (sculptor) | Caelum | Cae |
| Fish | Pisces | Psc |
| Lynx | Lynx | Lyn |
| Northern Crown | Corona Borealis | CrB |
| Sextant | Sextans | Sex |
| Net | Reticulum | Ret |
| Scorpion | Scorpius | Sco |
| Sculptor | Sculptor | Scl |
| Table Mountain | Mensa | Men |
| Arrow | Sagitta | Sge |
| Sagittarius | Sagittarius | Sgr |
| Telescope | Telescopium | Tel |
| Taurus | Taurus | Tau |
| Triangle | Triangulum | Tri |
| Toucan | Tucana | Tuc |
| Phoenix | Phoenix | Phe |
| Chameleon | Chamaeleon | Cha |
| Cepheus | Cepheus | Cep |
| Compass | Circinus | Cir |
| Watch | Horologium | Nor |
| Bowl | Crater | Crt |
| Shield | Scutum | Sct |
| Eridanus | Eridanus | Eri |
| South Hydra | Hydrus | Hyi |
| Southern Crown | Corona Australis | CrA |
| Southern Fish | Piscis Austrinus | PsA |
| South Cross | Crux | Cru |
| Southern Triangle | Triangulum Australe | TaA |
| Lizard | Lacerta | Lac |
| Table 2. CONSTELLATIONS: AREA AND NUMBER OF STARS VISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE | |||||
| Russian name | Square sq. hail |
NUMBER OF STARS | |||
| brighter than 2.4 | 2,4–4,4 | 4,4–5,5 | complete | ||
| Andromeda | 722 | 3 | 14 | 37 | 54 |
| Twins | 514 | 3 | 16 | 28 | 47 |
| Big Dipper | 1280 | 6 | 14 | 51 | 71 |
| Big Dog | 380 | 5 | 13 | 38 | 56 |
| Scales | 538 | 0 | 7 | 28 | 35 |
| Aquarius | 980 | 0 | 18 | 38 | 56 |
| Auriga | 657 | 2 | 9 | 36 | 47 |
| Wolf | 334 | 1 | 20 | 29 | 50 |
| Bootes | 907 | 2 | 12 | 39 | 53 |
| Veronica's hair | 386 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 23 |
| Crow | 184 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 11 |
| Hercules | 1225 | 0 | 24 | 61 | 85 |
| Hydra | 1303 | 1 | 19 | 51 | 71 |
| Pigeon | 270 | 0 | 7 | 17 | 24 |
| Hound Dogs | 465 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 15 |
| Virgo | 1294 | 1 | 15 | 42 | 58 |
| Dolphin | 189 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 11 |
| The Dragon | 1083 | 1 | 16 | 62 | 79 |
| Unicorn | 482 | 0 | 6 | 30 | 36 |
| Altar | 237 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 19 |
| Painter | 247 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 15 |
| Giraffe | 757 | 0 | 5 | 40 | 45 |
| Crane | 366 | 2 | 8 | 14 | 24 |
| Hare | 290 | 0 | 10 | 18 | 28 |
| Ophiuchus | 948 | 2 | 20 | 33 | 55 |
| Snake | 637 | 0 | 13 | 23 | 36 |
| Golden Fish | 179 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 15 |
| Indian | 294 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 13 |
| Cassiopeia | 598 | 3 | 8 | 40 | 51 |
| Centaur (Centaurus) | 1060 | 6 | 31 | 64 | 101 |
| Keel | 494 | 4 | 20 | 53 | 77 |
| Whale | 1231 | 1 | 14 | 43 | 58 |
| Capricorn | 414 | 0 | 10 | 21 | 31 |
| Compass | 221 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 12 |
| Stern | 673 | 1 | 19 | 73 | 93 |
| Swan | 804 | 3 | 20 | 56 | 79 |
| a lion | 947 | 3 | 15 | 34 | 52 |
| Flying fish | 141 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 14 |
| Lyra | 286 | 1 | 8 | 17 | 26 |
| Chanterelle | 268 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 29 |
| Ursa Minor | 256 | 2 | 5 | 11 | 18 |
| Small Horse | 72 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Little Leo | 232 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 15 |
| Small Dog | 183 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 13 |
| Microscope | 210 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 15 |
| Fly | 138 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 19 |
| Pump | 239 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 9 |
| Square | 165 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 14 |
| Aries | 441 | 1 | 4 | 23 | 28 |
| Octant | 291 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 17 |
| Eagle | 652 | 1 | 12 | 34 | 47 |
| Orion | 594 | 7 | 19 | 51 | 77 |
| Peacock | 378 | 1 | 10 | 17 | 28 |
| Sail | 500 | 3 | 18 | 55 | 76 |
| Pegasus | 1121 | 1 | 15 | 41 | 57 |
| Perseus | 615 | 1 | 22 | 42 | 65 |
| Bake | 398 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 12 |
| Bird of paradise | 206 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 10 |
| Cancer | 506 | 0 | 4 | 19 | 23 |
| Cutter | 125 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Fish | 889 | 0 | 11 | 39 | 50 |
| Lynx | 545 | 0 | 5 | 26 | 31 |
| Northern Crown | 179 | 1 | 4 | 17 | 22 |
| Sextant | 314 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Net | 114 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 11 |
| Scorpion | 497 | 6 | 19 | 37 | 62 |
| Sculptor | 475 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 15 |
| Table Mountain | 153 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| Arrow | 80 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| Sagittarius | 867 | 2 | 18 | 45 | 65 |
| Telescope | 252 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 17 |
| Taurus | 797 | 2 | 26 | 70 | 98 |
| Triangle | 132 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 12 |
| Toucan | 295 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 15 |
| Phoenix | 469 | 1 | 8 | 18 | 27 |
| Chameleon | 132 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| Cepheus | 588 | 1 | 14 | 42 | 57 |
| Compass | 93 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 10 |
| Watch | 249 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 10 |
| Bowl | 282 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 11 |
| Shield | 109 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 9 |
| Eridanus | 1138 | 1 | 29 | 49 | 79 |
| South Hydra | 243 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 14 |
| Southern Crown | 128 | 0 | 3 | 18 | 21 |
| Southern Fish | 245 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 15 |
| South Cross | 68 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 20 |
| Southern Triangle | 110 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 12 |
| Lizard | 201 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 23 |
| TOTAL NUMBER | 88 | 779 | 2180 | 3047 | |
Ancient constellations.
People's first ideas about the starry sky came to us from the pre-literate period of history: they were preserved in material cultural monuments. Archaeologists and astronomers have found that the most ancient asterisms - characteristic groups of bright stars - were identified by man in the sky back in the Stone Age, more than 15 thousand years ago. Some researchers believe that the first celestial images appeared simultaneously with the birth of the first drawings embodied in rock art, when the development of the left (logical) hemisphere of the human brain made it possible to identify an object with its flat image.
Two luminaries played a vital role for ancient man - the Sun and the Moon. By observing their movement, people discovered some important phenomena. Thus, they noticed that the daily path of the Sun across the sky depends on the season: it rises to the north in the spring and descends to the south in the fall. They also noticed that the Moon and the bright “moving stars,” which the Greeks later called “planets,” moved among the stars along approximately the same path as the Sun. And they also noticed that in different seasons of the year, different, but well-defined stars rise shortly before morning, and other stars set immediately after sunset.
To remember the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets, people marked the most important stars lying in the path of the moving luminaries. Later, having created gods for themselves, they identified some of them with the stars in the sky. The ancient Sumerians, who lived in the Middle East 5,000 years ago, gave names to many famous constellations, especially in the Zodiac, the region of the sky through which the paths of the Sun, Moon and planets pass. Similar groups of stars were identified by the inhabitants of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, Phenicia, Greece and other regions of the Eastern Mediterranean.
As is known, the gravitational influence of the Moon and the Sun on our planet causes a slow cone-shaped movement of the earth's axis, which leads to the movement of the vernal equinox point along the ecliptic from east to west. This phenomenon is called precession, i.e. anticipation of the equinox ( cm.: Earth – Earth Movement – Precession). Under the influence of precession, over several millennia, the position of the earth's equator and the associated celestial equator changes noticeably relative to the fixed stars; as a result, the annual course of constellations across the sky becomes different: for residents of certain geographical latitudes, some constellations become observable over time, while others disappear under the horizon for many millennia. But the Zodiac always remains the Zodiac, since the plane of the earth's orbit is practically unchanged; The sun will always move across the sky among the same stars as today.
In 275 BC Greek poet Aratus in the poem Phenomena described the constellations known to him. As research by modern astronomers has shown, Arat in Phenomena used a much earlier description of the celestial sphere. Since the precession of the earth's axis changes the visibility of the constellations from era to era, the list of Aratus constellations allows us to date the original source of the poem and determine the geographic breadth of observations. Independent researchers came to similar results: E. Maunder (1909) dated the original source to 2500 BC, A. Cromellin (1923) – 2460 BC, M. Ovenden (1966) – ca. 2600 BC, A. Roy (1984) - ca. 2000 BC, S.V. Zhitomirsky - approx. 1800 BC The location of the observers refers to 36 degrees north latitude.
Now we call the constellations described by Aratus “ancient.” Four centuries later, in the second century AD, the Greek astronomer Ptolemy described 48 constellations, indicating the positions of the brightest stars; Of these constellations, 47 have retained their names to this day, and one large constellation, Argo, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, was in the 18th century divided into four smaller constellations: Carina, Puppis, Sails and Compass.
Of course different peoples divided the sky in different ways. For example, in China in ancient times there was a map on which the starry sky was divided into four parts, each of which had seven constellations, i.e. only 28 constellations. And Mongolian scientists of the 18th century. numbered 237 constellations. The constellations used by the ancient inhabitants of the Mediterranean have become firmly established in European science and literature. From these countries (including Northern Egypt), about 90% of the entire sky can be seen throughout the year. However, for peoples living far from the equator, a significant part of the sky is inaccessible to observation: at the pole only half of the sky is visible, at the latitude of Moscow - about 70%. For this reason, even the inhabitants of the Mediterranean were not accessible to the southernmost stars; this part of the sky was divided into constellations only in modern times, during the era of geographical discoveries.
As a result of precession, the point of the vernal equinox over the past 2 millennia since ancient times has moved from the constellation Taurus through Aries to Pisces. This led to an apparent shift of the entire zodiacal series of constellations by two positions (since the countdown, according to tradition, begins from the constellation in which the vernal equinox point is located). For example, Pisces was originally the eleventh zodiac constellation, and now it is the first; Taurus was first - became third. Around 2600, the vernal equinox will move from Pisces to Aquarius, and then this constellation will become the first in the Zodiac. Note that the zodiac signs that astrologers use to designate equal parts of the ecliptic are strictly connected to the equinox points and follow them. Two thousand years ago, when the classic manuals that are still used by astrologers were written, the zodiac signs were located in the constellations of the Zodiac of the same name. But the movement of the equinox points has led to the fact that the zodiac signs are now located in other constellations. The sun now enters a certain zodiac sign 2–5 weeks earlier than it reaches the constellation of the same name. ( Cm. ZODIAC).
Constellations of new times.
The constellations described by Ptolemy faithfully served sailors and caravan guides in the desert for many centuries. But after circumnavigation of the world Magellan (1518–1521) and other navigators, it became clear that sailors needed new guiding stars for successful navigation in southern latitudes. In 1595–1596, during the expedition of the Dutch merchant Frederik de Houtman (1571–1627) around the Cape of Good Hope to the island of Java, his navigator Pieter Dirckszoon Keyzer (also known as Petrus Theodori) highlighted in the sky 12 new southern constellations: Crane, Dorado, Indian, Flying Fish, Fly, Peacock, Bird of Paradise, Toucan, Phoenix, Chameleon, Southern Hydra and Southern Triangulum. These star groups took their final form a little later when they were plotted on celestial globes, and the German astronomer Johann Bayer (1572–1625) depicted them in his atlas Uranometry (Uranometria, 1603).
The appearance of new constellations in the southern sky has prompted some enthusiasts to begin redividing the northern sky. Three new northern constellations (Dove, Unicorn and Giraffe) were introduced in 1624 by Jacob Bartsch, son-in-law of Johannes Kepler. Another seven, mostly northern constellations (Canes Venatici, Chanterelle, Leo Minor, Lynx, Sextant, Scutum and Lizard) were introduced by the Polish astronomer Jan Hevelius, using stars in areas of the sky not covered by the Ptolemaic constellations. Their description is published in the atlas Uranography (Prodromus astronomiae, 1690), published after the death of Hevelius. The French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (1713–1762), conducting observations at the Cape of Good Hope in 1751–1753, identified and cited in his Catalog of stars of the southern sky (Coelum australe stelliferum, 1763) 17 more southern constellations: Painter, Carina, Compass, Poop, Microscope, Pump, Square, Octant, Sails, Furnace, Cutter, Reticle, Sculptor, Table Mountain, Telescope, Compass and Clock, naming them after the instruments of science and art. They became the last of the 88 constellations currently used by astronomers.
Of course, there were many more attempts to rename parts of the night sky than the number of new constellations that have survived to this day. Many compilers of star maps in the 17th–19th centuries. tried to introduce new constellations. For example, the first Russian star atlas by Cornelius Reissig, published in St. Petersburg in 1829, contained 102 constellations. But not all proposals of this kind were unconditionally accepted by astronomers. Sometimes the introduction of new constellations was justified; An example of this is the division of the large constellation of the southern sky, the Ship Argo, into four parts: Poop, Keel, Sails and Compass. Since this area of the sky is extremely rich in bright stars and other interesting objects, no one objected to its division into small constellations. With the general agreement of astronomers, great scientific instruments were placed in the sky - Microscope, Telescope, Compass, Pump, Furnace (laboratory), Clock.
But there were also unsuccessful attempts to rename the constellations. For example, European monks more than once tried to “Christianize” the vault of heaven, i.e. expel from it the heroes of pagan legends and populate it with characters from the Holy Scriptures. The constellations of the Zodiac were replaced by images of the 12 apostles, etc. The entire starry sky was literally redrawn by a certain Julius Schiller from Augsburg, who published an atlas of constellations in 1627 entitled “ Christian starry sky...". But, despite the enormous power of the church in those years, the new names of the constellations did not receive recognition.
There were also many attempts to give the constellations the names of living monarchs and commanders: Charles I and Frederick II, Stanislav II and George III, Louis XIV and even the great Napoleon, in whose honor they wanted to rename the constellation Orion. But not a single new name that went “to heaven” for political, religious and other opportunistic reasons managed to stay there for long.
Not only the names of monarchs, but even the names of scientific instruments did not always linger in heaven. Thus, in 1789, the Vienna Observatory astronomer Maximillian Hell (1720–1792) proposed the constellation Tubus Herschelii Major (Herschel's Large Telescope) in honor of William Herschel's famous 20-foot reflector. He wanted to place this constellation between Auriga, Lynx and Gemini, since it was in Gemini that Herschel discovered the planet Uranus in 1781. And the second small constellation Tubus Herschelii Minor, in honor of Herschel’s 7-foot reflector, Hell proposed to single out Taurus from the faint stars east of the Hyades . However, even such ideas, dear to the astronomical heart, did not find support.
The German astronomer Johann Bode (1747–1826) proposed in 1801 to distinguish the constellation Lochium Funis (Sea Log) next to the constellation “Ship Argo” in honor of the device for measuring the speed of a ship; and next to Sirius he wanted to place the constellation Officina Typographica (Typography) in honor of the 350th anniversary of the invention printing press. In 1806, the English scientist Thomas Young (1773–1829) proposed to distinguish between Dolphin, Lesser Horse and Pegasus a new constellation “Volta Battery” in honor of the galvanic cell invented in 1799 by the Italian Alessandro Volta (1745–1827). The constellation “Sundial” (Solarium) did not stay in the sky either.
Some complex names of the constellations were simplified over time: “The Fox and the Goose” became simply the Chanterelle; "Southern Fly" became simply "Fly" (as "Northern Fly" quickly disappeared); The “Chemical Furnace” became the Furnace, and the “Mariner’s Compass” became simply the Compass.
Official boundaries of the constellations.
For many centuries, the constellations did not have clearly defined boundaries; Usually on maps and star globes, constellations were separated by curved, intricate lines that did not have a standard position. Therefore, from the moment of the formation of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), one of its first tasks was the delimitation of the starry sky. At the 1st General Assembly of the IAU, held in 1922 in Rome, astronomers decided that it was time to finally divide the entire celestial sphere into parts with precisely defined boundaries and, by the way, put an end to any attempts to reshape the starry sky. It was decided to adhere to the European tradition in the names of the constellations.
It should be noted that although the names of the constellations remained traditional, scientists were not at all interested in the figures of the constellations, which are usually depicted by mentally connecting bright stars with straight lines. On star maps, these lines are drawn only in children's books and school textbooks; They are not needed for scientific work. Now astronomers call constellations not groups of bright stars, but areas of the sky with all the objects located on them, so the problem of defining a constellation comes down only to drawing its boundaries.
But the boundaries between the constellations were not so easy to draw. Several famous astronomers worked on this task, trying to preserve historical continuity and, if possible, prevent stars with their own names (Vega, Spica, Altair,...) and established designations (a Lyrae, b Perseus,...) from getting into "alien" constellations. At the same time, it was decided to make the boundaries between the constellations in the form of broken straight lines, passing only along the lines of constant declinations and right ascensions, since it was easier to fix these boundaries in a mathematical form.
At the IAU general assemblies in 1925 and 1928, lists of constellations were adopted and the boundaries between most of them were approved. In 1930, on behalf of the IAU, Belgian astronomer Eugene Delporte published maps and detailed descriptions of the new boundaries of all 88 constellations. But even after this, some clarifications were still made, and only in 1935, by the decision of the IAU, this work was put to an end: the division of the sky was completed.
Names of constellations.
The Latin names of the constellations are canonical; they are used by astronomers from all countries in their scientific practice. But in each country these names are also translated into their own language. Sometimes these translations are not controversial. For example, in the Russian language there is no single tradition for the name of the constellation Centaurus: it is translated as Centaurus or as Centaur. Over the years, the tradition has changed, translating such constellations as Cepheus (Cepheus, Cepheus), Coma Berenices (Hair of Berenice, Hair of Berenice), Canes Venatici (Greyhounds, Hounds, Hounds). Therefore in books different years and different authors, the names of the constellations may vary slightly.
Based on the Latin names of the constellations, abbreviated three-letter designations were adopted for them: Lyr for Lyra, UMa for Ursa Major, etc. (Table 1). They are usually used to indicate the stars in these constellations: for example, the star Vega, the brightest in the constellation Lyra, is denoted as a Lyrae (genitive case of Lyra), or briefly - a Lyr. Sirius – a CMa, Algol – b Per, Alcor – 80 UMa, etc. In addition, four-letter designations for constellations have been adopted, but they are practically not used.
In addition to the officially approved ones, each country also has its own popular names for the constellations. Usually these are not even constellations, but asterisms - expressive groups of bright stars. For example, in Rus', the seven bright stars in the constellation Ursa Major were called Ladle, Cart, Elk, Rocker, etc. In the constellation of Orion, the Belt and Sword stood out under the names Three Kings, Arshinchik, Kichigi, Rake. The Pleiades star cluster, not identified by astronomers as a separate constellation, nevertheless had its own name among many peoples; in Rus' it is called Stozhary, Sieve, Beehive, Lapot, Nest (Duck's Nest), etc.
Names and designations of stars.
There are more than 100 billion stars in our Galaxy. About 0.004% of them are cataloged, while the rest are unnamed and even uncounted. However, all bright stars and even many faint ones, in addition to the scientific designation, also have their own name; They received these names in ancient times. Many of the currently used star names, for example, Aldebaran, Algol, Deneb, Rigel, etc., are of Arabic origin. Now astronomers know about three hundred historical names of stars. Often these are the names of the body parts of those figures that gave the name to the entire constellation: Betelgeuse (in the constellation Orion) - “shoulder of a giant”, Denebola (in the constellation Leo) - “tail of a lion”, etc.
Table 3 lists the names, designations, and magnitudes (in visual magnitudes) for some popular stars. These are mostly the brightest stars; and a group of faint stars in the constellation Taurus: Alcyone, Asterope, Atlas, Maya, Merope, Pleione, Taygeta and Electra are the famous Pleiades.
Starting at the end of the 16th century. detailed study of the sky, astronomers were faced with the need to have designations for each and every star visible to the naked eye, and later through a telescope. Beautifully illustrated Uranometry Johann Bayer, where constellations and the legendary figures associated with their names are depicted, the stars were first designated by letters of the Greek alphabet approximately in descending order of their brightness: a is the brightest star of the constellation, b is the second brightest, etc. When there were not enough letters from the Greek alphabet, Bayer used Latin. The full designation of a star according to the Bayer system consists of a letter and the Latin name of the constellation. For example, Sirius, the brightest star of Canis Major, is designated as a Canis Majoris, or abbreviated as a CMa; Algol is the second brightest star in Perseus, designated b Persei, or b Per.
Later, John Flamsteed (1646–1719), the first Astronomer Royal of England to determine the exact coordinates of stars, introduced a system of naming them that was not related to brightness. In each constellation, he designated the stars by numbers in order of increasing their right ascension, i.e. in the order in which they cross the celestial meridian. Thus, Arcturus, aka a Bootis, is designated according to Flamsteed as 16 Bootis. Modern star charts usually bear the ancient proper names of bright stars (Sirius, Canopus,...) and Greek letters according to the Bayer system; Bayer designations in Latin letters are rarely used. The remaining, less bright stars are designated by numbers according to the Flamsteed system.
With the publication of increasingly in-depth catalogs of the starry sky, containing data on dimmer stars, new notation systems adopted in each of these catalogs are regularly introduced into scientific practice. Therefore, cross-identification of stars in different catalogs poses a very serious problem: after all, the same star can have dozens of different designations. Special databases are being created to make it easier to search for information about a star using its various designations; the most complete such databases are maintained at the Astronomical Data Center in Strasbourg (Internet address: cdsweb.u–strasbg.fr).
Some outstanding (but by no means the brightest) stars are often named after the astronomers who first described their unique properties. For example, “Barnard's Flying Star” is named after the American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard (1857–1923), who discovered its record-breaking proper motion in the sky. Following it in terms of the speed of its own motion is the “Kapteyn star,” named after the Dutch astronomer Jacobus Cornelius Kaptein (1851–1922) who discovered this fact. Also known are “Herschel’s garnet star” (m Cep, a very red giant star), “van Maanen’s star” (the closest single white dwarf), “van Biesbrouck’s star” (a luminary of record low mass), “Plaskett’s star” (a record massive double star), “Babcock’s star” (with a record strong magnetic field) and some others, in total - about two dozen remarkable stars. It should be noted that these names are not approved by anyone: astronomers use them informally, as a sign of respect for the work of their colleagues.
Of particular interest when studying the evolution of stars are variable stars that change their brightness over time ( cm. VARIABLE STARS). Accepted for them special system designations, the standard of which is established by the “General Catalog of Variable Stars” (Internet address: www.sai.msu.su/groups/cluster/gcvs/gcvs/ or lnfm1.sai.msu.ru/GCVS/gcvs/). Variable stars are designated by the Latin capital letters from R to Z, and then combinations of each of these letters with each of the subsequent ones from RR to ZZ, after which combinations of all letters from A to Q are used with each subsequent one, from AA to QZ (excludes from all combinations the letter J, which can easily be confused with the letter I). The number of such letter combinations is 334. Therefore, if a larger number of variable stars are discovered in a certain constellation, they are designated by the letter V (from variable) and a serial number, starting from 335. A three-letter designation of the constellations is added to each designation, for example, R CrB , S Car, RT Per, FU Ori, V557 Sgr, etc. Designations in this system are usually given only to the variable stars of our Galaxy. Bright variables from among the stars designated by Greek letters (according to Bayer) do not receive other designations.
| Table 3. PROPER NAMES AND BRIGHTNESS OF SOME STARS | ||
| Name | Designation | Shine (sound signal) |
| Acrux | a Cru | 0,8 |
| Algenib | g Peg | 2,8 |
| Algol | b Per | 2,1–3,4 |
| Aliot | e UMa | 1,8 |
| Albireo | b Cyg | 3,0 |
| Aldebaran | a Tau | 0,9 |
| Alderamin | a Cep | 2,5 |
| Alcor | 80 UMa | 4,0 |
| Altair | a Aql | 0,8 |
| Alcyone | h Tau | 2,9 |
| Antares | a Sco | 1,0 |
| Arcturus | a Boo | –0,04 |
| Asterope | 21 Tau | 5,3 |
| Atlas | 27 Tau | 3,6 |
| Achernar | a Eri | 0,5 |
| Bellatrix | g Ori | 1,6 |
| Benetnash | h UMa | 1,9 |
| Betelgeuse | a Ori | 0,5 |
| Vega | a Lyr | 0,03 |
| Gem | a CrB | 2,2 |
| Deneb | a Cyg | 1,3 |
| Denebola | b Leo | 2,1 |
| Dubhe | a UMa | 1,8 |
| Canopus | a Car | –0,7 |
| Chapel | a Aur | 0,1 |
| Castor | a Gem | 1,6 |
| Mayan | 20 Tau | 3,9 |
| Markab | a Peg | 2,5 |
| Merak | b UMa | 2,4 |
| Merope | 23 Tau | 4,2 |
| Mira | oCet | 3,1–12 |
| Mirakh | b And | 2,1 |
| Mizar | z UMa | 2,1 |
| Pleiona | 28 Tau | 5,1 |
| Pollux | b Gem | 1,1 |
| Polar | a UMi | 2,0 |
| Procyon | aCMi | 0,4 |
| Regulus | a Leo | 1,4 |
| Rigel | b Ori | 0,2 |
| Sirius | aCMa | –1,5 |
| Spica | a Vir | 1,0 |
| Taygeta | 19 Tau | 4,3 |
| Toliman | a Cen | –0,3 |
| Fomalhaut | a PsA | 1,2 |
| Electra | 17 Tau | 3,7 |
Description of constellations (in alphabetical order of Russian names).
A detailed description of the types of celestial objects mentioned below can be found in the articles: GALAXIES, STARS, QUASAR, INTERSTELLAR MATTER, MILKY WAY, NEUTRON STAR, NOVA, VARIABLE STARS, PULSAR, SUPERNOVA, NEBULA, BLACK DA RA.
Andromeda.
In Greek myths, Andromeda is the daughter of the Ethiopian king Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. And Perseus saved Andromeda from a sea monster sent by Poseidon. In the sky, all the characters of this legend are located nearby.
The constellation Andromeda is easy to find if on an autumn evening in the southern sky you find 4 bright stars - the Great Square of Pegasus. In its northeastern corner is the star Alferats (a And), from which three chains of stars that make up Andromeda diverge to the northeast, towards Perseus. Its three brightest stars are Alferats, Mirakh and Alamak (a, b and g Andromedae), with Alamak being a stunning double star.
The most important object in the constellation is the spiral galaxy Andromeda Nebula (M 31, according to the Messier catalog) with its two satellites - dwarf galaxies M 32 and NGC 205 (NGC - New General Catalog, one of the popular catalogs of nebulae, star clusters and galaxies). On a moonless night, the Andromeda Nebula can be seen even with the naked eye, and is clearly visible through binoculars; you should look for it northwest of the star n And. Although back in the 10th century. Persian astronomer al-Sufi observed the Andromeda Nebula, calling it a “little cloud,” but European scientists discovered it only at the beginning of the 17th century. This is the closest spiral galaxy to us, approximately 2.5 million light years away. Outwardly, it resembles a pale oval the size of the disk of the Moon. In reality, its diameter is about 180 thousand light years, and it contains about 300 billion stars.
Other interesting objects in this constellation include the open star cluster NGC 752, the planetary nebula NGC 7662 and one of the most beautiful edge-on spiral galaxies, NGC 891.
Twins.
The bright stars Castor (“coachman”, a Gem) and Pollux (“fist fighter”, b Gem), separated by 4.5 degrees, represent the heads of human figures whose feet stand on the Milky Way, adjacent to Orion. To the naked eye, Castor appears to be a single star, but in reality it is a tiny cluster of six stars located 45 light-years from the Sun. These 6 stars are grouped into three pairs, which can be distinguished with a small telescope or strong binoculars. Two bright blue-white components with apparent magnitudes 2.0 and 2.7 form a visual binary with an angular separation of 6I, orbiting a common center of mass with a period of about 400 years. Each of them is a binary system with orbital periods of 9.2 and 2.9 days. The third component is 73I away from them, consists of two red dwarfs and is an eclipsing binary, changing its brightness from 8.6 to 9.1 magnitude with a period of 0.8 days.
The constellation Gemini is known as very “fruitful”: within its boundaries, William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus in 1781, and in 1930 Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. Of the objects of interest for observation, it contains the star cluster M 35 and the planetary Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392). The binary star U Gem has components so close to each other that material from one of them flows onto the surface of the other, which is a white dwarf (see STARS). With an interval of several months, thermonuclear reactions begin on the surface of the white dwarf, leading to an explosion: for 1–2 days, the star’s brightness increases from 14 to 9 magnitude. That's why the star U Gem is called a dwarf nova.
Other interesting objects include the open cluster M 35 and the planetary Eskimo Nebula (or Clown Nebula, NGC 2392), consisting of a 10th magnitude star surrounded by a bright envelope.
Big Dipper.
The Greek myth is widely known about how Zeus turned the beautiful nymph Callisto into a bear to save her from the revenge of his wife, Hera. Having soon died from the arrow of Artemis, Zeus raised the bear-Callisto to the sky in the form of the constellation Ursa Major. However, this large constellation is much older than the Greek myth about it: it was probably the first to be highlighted in the sky by ancient people. Its seven bright stars form the famous Bucket; this asterism is known among many peoples under different names: Plow, Elk, Cart, Seven Sages, etc. All the stars of the Bucket have their own Arabic names: Dubhe (a Ursa Major) means “bear”; Merak (b) – “lower back”; Fekda (g) – “thigh”; Megrets (d) – “beginning of the tail”; Aliot (e) – the meaning is not clear; Mizar (z) – “sash”. The last star in the handle of the Bucket is called Benetnash or Alkaid (h); in Arabic, “al-Qaeed banat our” means “leader of the mourners”; in this case, the asterism is no longer thought of as a bear, but as a funeral procession: ahead are mourners, headed by a leader, and followed by a funeral bier.
Ursa Major's Bucket is a rare case when the designation of stars in Greek letters is not in descending order of their brightness, but simply in the order of their location. Therefore, the brightest star is not a, but e. The stars Merak and Dubhe are called “pointers” because a straight line drawn through them rests on the North Star. Near Mizar, the keen eye sees the fourth magnitude star Alcor (80 UMa), which in Arabic means “forgotten” or “insignificant”.
One of the largest planetary nebulae, the Owl Nebula (M 97), is visible in Ursa Major, as well as many galaxies and their clusters. Spiral galaxy M 101 is visible flat, and spiral M 81 and peculiar M 82 form the core of one of the closest groups of galaxies to us, the distance to which is about 7 million light years.
Big Dog.
This winter constellation contains the brightest star in the night sky - Sirius; his name comes from the Greek. seirios, "burning brightly." The true luminosity of Sirius is slightly higher than the solar one - only 23 times (the luminosity of many other stars is hundreds and thousands of times higher than the solar one). Why then does this blue-white star appear so bright? The reason is that Sirius is one of the closest stars to us: the distance to it is only 8.6 light years.
In Ancient Egypt, Sirius was called the Star of the Nile because its first morning sunrise foreshadowed the flooding of the Nile on the summer solstice. In addition, Sirius and the constellation itself were already associated with the dog 5000 years ago; its ancient Sumerian name is the Dog of the Sun; the Greeks called it simply “dog”, and the Romans called it “doggie” (Canicula, hence the summer holiday period).
One of the remarkable discoveries of the 19th century is associated with Sirius: the prediction and discovery of unusual compact stars - white dwarfs. After measuring with high precision the positions of bright stars for many years, the German astronomer Friedrich Bessel (1784–1846) noticed in 1836 that Sirius and Procyon (a Canis Minor) deviated from a straight line in their motion relative to more distant stars. Bessel suspected that these stars exhibited oscillatory motion, and on this basis he predicted that Sirius and Procyon had invisible satellites. Having learned that he was hopelessly ill, Bessel published his forecast in 1844, indicating that the satellite of Sirius should orbit with a period of about 50 years. In those years, the idea of the existence of invisible stars was so unusual that even Bessel’s highest authority did not save him from harsh criticism from his colleagues. Let us remember that only in 1845–1846 J. Adams and W. Le Verrier, based on deviations in the movement of the planet Uranus, made a prediction about the existence of a hitherto invisible planet in the solar system. Fortunately, this planet - Neptune - was immediately discovered exactly where scientists expected to find it. But Bessel’s theoretical discovery was not confirmed for almost 20 years.
Sirius' companion was discovered first; it was noticed by the American optician Alvan Clark (1804–1887) in 1862 while testing a new telescope. The satellite was named "Sirius B" and nicknamed "Puppy". Its luminosity is 10 thousand times weaker than that of the main star - Sirius A, its radius is 100 times less than that of the Sun, but its mass is almost the same as that of the Sun. Therefore, Sirius B has a colossal density: about 1 ton per cubic centimeter! And in 1896, the satellite Procyon was discovered. This is how white dwarfs were discovered - stars that have completed their evolution and have shrunk to the size of a small planet. The satellite is visible at a distance from 3І to 12І from Sirius A and revolves around it exactly with the period indicated by Bessel.
South of Sirius lies the beautiful open cluster M41, 2,300 light-years away. Another interesting cluster is NGC 2362, several dozen members of which surround a 4th magnitude star t CMa. This is one of the youngest star clusters: its age is about 1 million years.
Scales.
In the beginning this constellation represented the altar; then it was depicted as an altar or lamp, grasped in the giant claws of a scorpion, which is why in Almagest it is described as "Scorpio's claws". Only shortly before the beginning of the Christian era, the Romans gave it its current name, but even now the stars a and b Libra are still called the Southern and Northern Claws. The eclipsing variable star d Lib changes in brightness from magnitude 4.8 to magnitude 6.0 with a period of 2.3 days.
Aquarius.
For the ancient Sumerians, this constellation was one of the most important, since it personified the sky god An, who gives life-giving water to the earth. According to the Greeks, Aquarius depicts several mythical characters at once: Ganymede, the Trojan youth who became a cupbearer on Olympus; Deucalion, the hero of the flood, and Cecrops, the ancient king of Athens.
A famous asterism in Aquarius is the Jug, a small Y-shaped group of four stars lying exactly on the celestial equator. The central of these stars, z Aqr, is a fascinating double. Also interesting are the globular cluster M2, the planetary nebulae Saturn (NGC 7009) and the Helix (NGC 7293). The radiant of the Delta Aquarids meteor shower, active in late July, lies in Aquarius.
Auriga.
The star pentagon located north of Gemini. The brightest star (a Aur) is the yellow Capella, which the ancients called the “little goat”, and is the sixth brightest star in the sky. For observers of the Northern Hemisphere living above 44 degrees latitude, it is a non-setting circumpolar star, i.e. visible every clear night.
Against the background of the Milky Way near Capella, three stars stand out as a flat triangle - h, z and e Aurigae; they are also called "goats". The closest to the Chapel is e Aur - the most mysterious of the three “goats”. Every 27.08 years, its apparent brightness weakens over six months from 3.0 to 3.9 magnitude; it stays in this state for about a year, and then within six months it restores its shine to its original level. It is not yet clear what is eclipsing this star. Mencalinan (b Aur) is also an eclipsing variable with a period of 3.96 days; However, only an experienced eye can notice the weakening of its brightness at the time of the eclipse, since the brightness of the star weakens by only 10%. If you have good binoculars, you can see three amazing open clusters in this constellation - M 36, M 37 and M 38.
Wolf.
This mythical figure was called the “monster of death” by the Sumerians, and the “beast” by the Greeks. The constellation lies mostly in the Milky Way, so it contains many bright stars. At the latitude of Moscow, this southern constellation never rises completely above the horizon, so it is practically inaccessible for observation. One of the first identified historical supernovae was Supernova Volka of 1006.
Bootes.
Residents of the Northern Hemisphere can observe this large and beautiful constellation all summer. Its brightest star, Arcturus (“guardian bear”), and several weaker stars form an elongated diamond shape, reminiscent of a giant kite.
Arcturus is easy to find by continuing the "tail" of the Big Dipper to the south by about 30 degrees. It is the brightest star north of the celestial equator, 37 light-years away and 110 times as luminous as the Sun. Arcturus belongs to a rather rare type of star - red giants, i.e. strongly aged stars, similar to our Sun in their youth. Arcturus's considerable age is also indicated by its movement: it moves quickly relative to the Sun, therefore, it belongs to the spherical halo of the Galaxy. While the Sun and many other stars move in almost circular orbits lying in the plane of the Galaxy, Arcturus revolves around the galactic center in a highly inclined orbit, crossing the galactic plane in our era.
Of particular interest is the 4.5 magnitude star t Boo. This is a very close star (52 light years) similar to the Sun. In the 1990s, a planet was discovered near it - one of the first found outside the solar system. A very unusual planet: with a mass almost 4 times that of Jupiter, it orbits a star 8.4 times closer than Mercury orbits the Sun. Its year (i.e., orbital revolution) lasts only 3.3 Earth days! We can say that this giant planet lives in the crown of its star. Astronomers call such planets “hot Jupiters.” The origin of life on them is unlikely.
Veronica's hair.
Eratosthenes called this small and very dim constellation “the hair of Ariadne,” and Ptolemy generally attributed its stars to the constellation Leo. But the birth of this constellation has a precise dating: it is named after Berenice - the wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy III Euergetes (3rd century BC), who, according to legend, cut off her beautiful hair and placed it in the temple of Venus in gratitude to the goddess for a military victory granted to her husband. And when the hair disappeared from the temple, the astronomer-priest Konon told Verenike that Zeus had taken it to heaven. Only in 1602 this constellation was officially included in Tycho Brahe's catalog.
On a moonless night, far from city lights, in this constellation you can see with the naked eye the open cluster Coma Berenices, about 42 stars of which, 250 light years away from us, form a thin lacy pattern. Ptolemy knew this cluster and placed it in his catalogue.
A small telescope will allow you to see in this constellation the nearby globular star clusters M 53 and NGC 5053, as well as the Black Eye galaxy (M 64) with a huge dark dust cloud around the core. It is curious that within the boundaries of this modest constellation lies the north galactic pole, which means that by looking in this direction, perpendicular to the translucent disk of our Galaxy, we have a chance to see the farthest corners of the Universe. It is very fortunate that at the southern border of the constellation a large cluster of galaxies, Coma–Virgo, begins, not very far from our Local Group of galaxies (42 million light years) and therefore has a large angular diameter (about 16 degrees). This cluster contains more than 3000 galaxies, including several spiral ones: M 98, strongly inclined to the line of sight, M 99, observed almost flat, large spirals M 88 and M 100. This cluster is usually called Virgo, since its central part lies in the neighboring constellation Virgo, and also because in Coma Berenices there is also another, much more distant (400 million light years) and rich cluster of galaxies, to which the name Coma was assigned.
Crow.
This small constellation lies south of Virgo. The four brightest stars of the Raven form an easily visible figure. The ancient Sumerians called it the “great petrel,” and the Babylonians identified it with the bird-god Anzud. The star Algorab (d Crv) is a very beautiful double star, easily visible through binoculars. Among the distant objects, the pair of colliding galaxies NGC 4038 and 4039, known as the “Antennas,” is certainly interesting: two long, curved “tails” formed under the influence of the gravitational tidal effect diverge in opposite directions from their cores.
Hercules.
The not particularly bright stars of this large constellation form an expressive figure. The Greeks even 5 centuries BC. this constellation was referred to as "Hercules". The Arabic name of the beautiful double star Ras Algethi (a Her) translates as “head of the kneeling one.” Its orange main component fluctuates chaotically from magnitude 3 to 4, while its green-blue 5.4 magnitude companion is itself a close binary system with an orbital period of 51.6 days. This magnificent orange-green pair can be "separated" with a small telescope or powerful binoculars.
The decoration of the constellation is the globular cluster M 13, barely visible to the naked eye as a nebulous speck between the stars h and z Hercules. But through a telescope this cluster looks amazing! Its total brightness is equivalent to one star of 5.7 magnitude. This ancient cluster contains more than a million stars, located 22 thousand light years away from us. All of them are much older than the Sun. It should also be noted that the not so bright, but also very rich globular cluster M 92. From it the light travels to us for 26 thousand years.
Hydra.
The largest of all the constellations, this “sea serpent” lies south of the ecliptic, along which it stretches from Cancer in the west to Libra in the east. A compact group of six stars under Cancer is the Head of the Hydra. To the southeast lies the brightest star of the constellation, which the Arabs called Alphard, which means “lonely”, since there are no bright stars near it. It is also often called the Heart of the Hydra - Cor Hydrae.
In the “tail of the serpent” is the red giant R Hya, a long-period variable that was discovered by G. Moraldi in 1704. In those years, the period of change in its brightness (from 3.5 to 9 magnitude) was about 500 days, but by now it has shortened up to 389 days. Astronomers classify such variable stars in the “mirids” class, named after the star Mira in the constellation Cetus.
The extremely red variable star V Hya is a rare type of carbon star; it is a red giant whose atmosphere condenses carbon. Of interest are the open cluster M 48, the globular cluster M 68, the spiral galaxy M 83 and the planetary nebula NGC 3242, nicknamed the Ghost of Jupiter.
Pigeon.
This constellation, poor in interesting objects, lies southwest of Canis Major, in contact with the constellations of the Ship Argo (Poop, Carina, Sails), which is sometimes considered as Noah's Ark. If we remember the biblical myths, then such a neighborhood is not surprising.
Hound Dogs.
The constellation is located next to the Big Dipper - right under the handle of the Dipper. At the end of the 17th century, the British tried to rename the Hounds the Heart of Charles in honor of the executed English king Charles I. Under this name (Cor Caroli Regis Martyris) it even appeared on some maps and star globes. But it didn’t take root: all that remained from this attempt was the name Heart of Charles (Cor Caroli), which was assigned to the star of the Hounds. This beautiful double star is often observed through a telescope by astronomy enthusiasts.
And the star Y CVn, which the great Italian astronomer Angelo Secchi (1818–1878) called “La Superba” for its amazing spectrum, is one of the reddest stars visible to the naked eye. It belongs to the “carbon” stars, in the spectrum of which there are almost no blue and ultraviolet rays due to their strong absorption by C 3 carbon molecules.
The beautiful Whirlpool Galaxy (M 51) was the first nebula to reveal a spiral structure: it was noticed and sketched by the Irish astronomer William Parsons (Lord Ross) in 1845, using a giant telescope he created with a diameter of about 2 meters. Located 3.5 degrees southwest of the last Dipper Handle star, this galaxy extends one of its two spiral arms toward a small companion galaxy. Whirlpool is one of the closest galaxies to us: the distance to it is 25 million light years.
Virgo.
There are many interesting stars and galaxies in this large zodiacal constellation. The brightest star is Spica, which means "ear" in Latin. This is a very close binary system; in it, two hot blue stars revolve around a common center of mass with a period of 4 days; each of them is ten times more massive than the Sun, and the luminosity of each is a thousand times higher than the Sun. These stars are so close to each other that mutual gravity and rapid rotation deform their bodies: they have an ellipsoidal shape, so their orbital motion leads to a slight fluctuation in Spica's brightness.
The star Porrima (g Vir), which means “goddess of prophecy,” is one of the closest double stars to us: the distance to it is 32 light years. Its two components, like two drops of water similar to each other, revolve in a very elongated orbit and have a period of 171 years. The brightness of each of them is 3.5 magnitude, and together 2.8. The maximum distance between them was about 6І in 1929, then they could be separated in an amateur telescope; but by 2007 it will decrease to 0.5I and the star will become visible as a single star.
At a distance of about 55 million light years lies the Virgo galaxy cluster, containing more than 3000 members, including the elliptical galaxies M 49, 59, 60, 84, 86, 87 and 89; the crossed spiral M 58, the bright spiral M 90, the spiral M 85 turned edge-on towards us and the large, flat spiral M 61. The Sombrero Galaxy (M 104) is visible almost edge-on, so named because of the powerful dark dust line running along the equatorial plane. The brightest quasar 3C 273 is located in the constellation Virgo; its relatively high brightness (magnitude 12) makes it the most distant object accessible to an amateur telescope: the distance to it is about 3 billion light years!
Dolphin.
A small but cute constellation, similar to a diamond of four stars with a “tail” of two stars. It lies between the Eagle and Cygnus, east of Sagittarius, an equally small and pretty constellation. According to Greek myth, this is the same dolphin that helped Poseidon find the nymph Amphitrite, for which he was placed in heaven. An interesting object is the double star g Del in the northeastern corner of the diamond.
The Dragon.
The long figure of this constellation meanders around the north celestial pole, enveloping Ursa Minor on three sides. The "dragon's" head is easy to find directly north of Hercules, under his left leg, bent at the knee. But the long, twisting body of the dragon is not easy to trace, for it contains many faint stars. Greek myth indicates that this is the dragon Ladon, whom Hera placed in the Garden of the Hesperides to protect the tree with golden apples.
In the past, the stars of this constellation played a more important role than in our era. As a result of the precession of the earth's axis, the north and south poles of the world move among the stars. From 3700 to 1500 BC the north pole of the world moved near the star Thuban (a Dra), and then it was she who pointed the direction to the north. Nowadays, as we know, this role is played by the North Star in Ursa Major.
The movement of the celestial pole occurs with a period of 25,770 years around the ecliptic pole, towards which the axis of the earth's orbit is directed. Interestingly, this spot in the sky is marked by a pretty object: the bright greenish-blue planetary nebula NGC 6543 is located almost exactly at the north pole of the ecliptic, between the stars x and c Draco.
Every year on October 8–10, the Draconid meteor shower is observed, caused by particles from the periodic comet Giacobini–Zinner. Its meteors, flying out of the radiant at the head of the “dragon,” are characterized by low speed. Usually several meteors can be seen within an hour.
Unicorn.
Located between Canis M. and Canis Major, Monoceros lies almost entirely in the Milky Way, so it contains many objects associated with the process of star formation: dark and light nebulae, young star clusters, although there are no particularly bright stars in this constellation.
The young star cluster NGC 2244 is surrounded by a cloud of hot gas that astronomers call the emission nebula NGC 2237–9, or colloquially the Rosette Nebula, because it appears as a wispy ring enclosing the star cluster. The apparent size of the Rosette is twice that of the lunar disk. This cloud is 11 thousand times more massive than the Sun and about 55 light years in diameter.
Of interest in Monoceros are the open clusters M 50 and the Christmas Tree (NGC 2264), which includes the dark Cone Nebula with its apex facing it from the south; as well as the “Hubble Variable Nebula” (NGC 2261), which changes its brightness by 2 magnitudes due to the variability of the radiation of the star illuminating it. It is said that this nebula was the first object photographed by the Palomar 5-meter telescope. Monoceros also contains the most massive double star in our Galaxy, discovered by J. Plaskett in 1922. It has a period of 14.4 days. and consists of two very hot stars of spectral class O8; therefore it is commonly called "Plaskett's Hot Star". The total mass of this system is about 150 solar masses, and its main component is 80–90 times more massive than the Sun.
Altar.
Perhaps in ancient times it was one of the constellations of the Zodiac, but later some of its stars were attributed to Scorpio. The Sumerians called it “the constellation of ancient sacrificial fire,” and Ptolemy called it “the censer.” According to Eratosthenes, this is the altar on which the gods made a common oath when Zeus was about to attack his father Kronos.
This constellation lies in the Milky Way, so there are many bright stars and interesting objects in it. For example, it contains one of the closest globular star clusters, NGC 6397, located 8,200 light years away. So far, about 150 of these ancient star clusters have been discovered in the Galaxy, and obviously there are no more than 200 of them in total. They are scattered throughout the entire volume of our star system, at distances of up to 400 thousand light years from its center. Therefore, their average distance from the Sun is very large, and it is quite difficult to study them. An ordinary telescope detects only the brightest stars in them - red giants; and only the largest telescopes are able to see numerous solar-type stars in these clusters; there are hundreds of thousands of them, and sometimes millions!
Unlike globular clusters, which shed the remnants of the gas from which their stars formed billions of years ago, open clusters are often located near gas clouds genetically associated with them. The rather bright and young open cluster NGC 6193, with a total stellar brightness of about 5.5 magnitude, illuminated and heated the emission nebula NGC 6188 around itself, against which a complex interweaving of dark nebula filaments is observed.
Painter.
Having identified this group of stars into a separate constellation, Lacaille called it the Painting Machine, i.e. easel. Nowadays, this name has been simplified and began to be perceived as “artist”, and not as “drawing device”. This small group of not very bright stars is visible only in the sky of southern countries. It is very easy to find it there: literally at the border of the Painter there is the “number 2 star” of the entire sky - Canopus from the constellation Carina.
Around the star b Pic, 55 light years away, at the end of the 20th century. a rotating disk of dust particles and ice floes was discovered; perhaps this is a planetary system in the process of formation (at the beginning of the 21st century, the presence of rather large objects was noted in it). At an angular distance of 8.5 degrees northwest of the star b Pic is Kapteyn's Star, a red dwarf known for being second only to Barnard's Flying Star in terms of its own speed (8.654I/yr).
Giraffe.
A large northern constellation consisting of very faint stars. But one of them is very popular among astronomy lovers. It is a dwarf nova Z Giraffe (Z Cam) that typically erupts once every 2–3 weeks, increasing its brightness from magnitude 13 to magnitude 10 in less than 2 days. But often, and quite unexpectedly, it pauses its flares and freezes at 12.5 magnitude, experiencing only slight fluctuations in brightness. This “switching off” of outbreaks can last for months, or even years, and suddenly suddenly stops. In order to understand the functioning mechanism of this strange star, it is necessary to accumulate long series of observations. Amateurs provide great assistance to professional astronomers in this matter. Detailed information about this star can be found on the website of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (www.aavso.org).
For deep space lovers, the large spiral galaxy NGC 2403, which has a brightness of about 9 magnitude, is of interest in the constellation Giraffe.
Crane.
Southern constellation, inaccessible for observation in Russia. Its brightest star, Alnair (a Gru), 1.7 magnitude, is 100 light-years away.
Hare.
An ancient constellation located directly below Orion. Arat wrote: “At Orion’s feet, day after day, the Hare runs, escaping the chase. But Sirius is relentlessly following his trail, not lagging behind even a step.” G Lep, 29 light-years away, is a double star with components that differ greatly in color: next to the bright white star is a red companion. Binoculars are enough to observe them.
One of the most interesting red stars in the entire sky is R Lep, which was discovered in 1845 by astronomer John Russell Hind (1823–1895), who named it the Crimson Star and described it as “a drop of blood on a black background.” This Mira Ceti type variable was first studied by Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt (1825–1884): with a period of 432 days, its brightness changes from 5.5 to 11.7 magnitude. This is an excellent object for amateur observations. The globular cluster M 79 is also visible in Hare.
Ophiuchus.
Greek myths associate this constellation with the name of Asclepius - the god of healing, the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis. Having killed his wife for treason, Apollo handed over the baby Asclepius to be raised by the wise centaur Chiron, an expert in medicine. The grown-up Asclepius came to the daring idea of resurrecting the dead, for which the angry Zeus struck him with lightning and placed him in heaven. Arat included in Ophiuchus the “snake” that he holds; now it is an independent constellation of the Snake, unique in that it consists of two parts separated by Ophiuchus.
Although the constellation partially lies in the Milky Way, there are few bright stars in it. Ophiuchus is not considered a zodiac constellation, but the Sun spends about 20 days in it in the first half of December.
It was in this constellation that the last supernova observed in our Galaxy, described by I. Kepler in 1604, erupted. A repeat nova RS Oph erupted in 1898, 1933, 1958, 1967 and 1985; its outbreak is quite likely in the coming years. At the eastern border of the constellation is Barnard's Flying Star, a red dwarf whose short distance (6 light years) makes it second from the Sun after the a Cen system, and its rather high speed of movement combined with its short distance makes it the fastest star in the sky (10. 3І/year).
This constellation contains many globular clusters (M 9, 10, 12, 14, 19 and 62), as well as dark nebulae such as the S Nebula (B 72) and the Tube Nebula (B 78 represents the cup of the tube, and B 59, 65 , 66 and 67 form the shank and mouthpiece of this pipe).
Snake.
The only constellation consisting of two divided parts: each of them is in the “hands” of Ophiuchus. The Head of the Serpent (Serpens Caput) lies to the northwest, and the Tail of the Serpent (Serpens Cauda) lies to the east of Ophiuchus. At the very end of the Tail of the Serpens, on the border with the constellation Aquila, there is a double star q Ser, easily accessible to observation with a small telescope. It is 142 light years distant and consists of two white components of magnitude 4.6 and 5.0, separated by a distance of 22I. In the Head of the Serpent, 7 degrees southwest of the star a Ser, you can find the globular cluster M 5, which has magnitude 7 and is 26 thousand light years away; its age is about 13 billion years. The large open cluster M 16 is embedded in the diffuse Eagle Nebula, named for the shape of the dark dust cloud at its center.
Golden Fish.
For those traveling to southern latitudes, this constellation is very remarkable: in it, near the border with the Table Mountain constellation, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) galaxy is visible, stretching across the sky at 11 degrees and 190 thousand light years away from us, i.e. ten times smaller than the spiral galaxy in Andromeda. It is a remarkable object, rich in young stars, clusters and nebulae; No wonder J. Herschel called it “a blooming oasis, surrounded on all sides by desert.” The most interesting place in this galaxy is the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070), the largest among the known emission nebulae (diameter 1800 light years and mass 500 thousand solar years). Astronomers of past centuries mistook it for a bright star and gave it the star designation 30 Dor. Only much later did they learn that it was a giant star archipelago in a neighboring galaxy.
In the very heart of Tarantula there is an extremely dense cluster of very young and massive stars, to which at the end of the 20th century. the attention of many astronomers was riveted: a suspicion arose that there was one supermassive star with a mass of about 2000 solar. The theory of the structure of stars does not allow the existence of such massive bodies. Indeed, the most astute telescopes were able to show that this is not one star, but a very dense cluster of them. On February 23, 1987, near the Tarantula Nebula, astronomers recorded a supernova explosion. This is the closest supernova observed since the invention of the telescope.
Indian.
The southern constellation, very poor in interesting objects. The star e Ind, 11.8 light years away, is one of the closest to the Sun.
Cassiopeia.
A beautiful constellation, mainly located in the Milky Way and always accessible to observation in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The brightest stars of Cassiopeia (from 2.2 to 3.4 magnitudes) form a figure that is easily distinguishable even during a full moon and resembles the letter M at the beginning of winter and the letter W at the beginning of summer.
This constellation contains one of the most powerful sources of galactic radio emission - Cassiopeia A. This is a rapidly expanding shell of gas, ejected during a supernova explosion, which was observed in 1572. As noted by Tycho Brahe and other astronomers of those years, the supernova shone brighter than Venus.
The star Shedar (a Cas) should attract the attention of astronomy lovers: since the 19th century. it is included in catalogs of variable stars, but its variability has not yet been confidently confirmed. Other interesting objects include: open clusters M 52, M 103, NGC 457 and NGC 7789, dwarf elliptical galaxies NGC 147 and NGC 185 - satellites of the Andromeda Nebula; diffuse nebula NGC 281 and a giant gas sphere - the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635).
Centaur.
Centaur, also known as Centaurus, is one of the southernmost constellations known to ancient stargazers. Initially, it included those stars from which the constellation Southern Cross was later formed. But even without them, Centaur is a large constellation containing many bright stars and interesting objects. According to Greek myths, the centaur who went to heaven is the immortal and wise Chiron, the son of Kronos and the nymph Philyra, an expert in science and art, the teacher of Greek heroes - Achilles, Asclepius, Jason. For this reason, it can be considered the Teacher Constellation.
The brightest star of this constellation was called by ancient astrologers Rigil Centaurus - “foot of the centaur”; its other name is Toliman, and in our time it is known as a Cen, the closest star to the Sun: 4.4 light years away. This is one of the brightest stars in the sky, and also a beautiful double: its components are separated by an angular distance of about 20І and rotate with a period of 80 years. The brighter of them, a yellow dwarf, almost an exact copy of our Sun, has an apparent magnitude of zero, and its neighbor is an orange dwarf of the first magnitude. In 1915, at a short distance from this pair of stars, the English astronomer Robert Innes (1861–1933) discovered an 11th magnitude star. It turned out that it is located a little closer to the Sun than the bright pair a Cen: the distance to it is 4.2 light years. For this she was given her own name - Proxima, which means “closest”.
Although Proxima Centauri is a very dim red dwarf, inferior to our Sun in mass and size by 6–7 times, and in luminosity by tens of thousands of times, it is at the same time a very active flare star, the brightness of which can change by half in just A couple of minutes. For many years, astronomers believed that Proxima was the third member of the Alpha Centauri system. In catalogs it was designated as “a Cen C” and it was even calculated that it orbits the central binary star (a Cen A + a Cen B) in about 500 thousand years. However, recently a doubt has arisen: perhaps Proxima is an independent star that accidentally and briefly approached the a Cen system.
In the constellation Centaur, the largest globular cluster in our Galaxy is visible - w Cen (NGC 5139), consisting of several million stars, including 165 pulsating variables with periods of about half a day. Although the cluster is 16 thousand light years away, it is the brightest in the sky. Centaur is also home to the unusual elliptical galaxy NGC 5128, crossed by a patchy dark streak of interstellar dust; astronomers believe that relatively recently it was torn to shreds and is now absorbing its neighbor - a spiral or irregular galaxy. This “cannibal” is also known as the powerful radio source Centaur A.
Keel.
A large constellation lying near the south pole of the world, partly in the Milky Way. The constellation is decorated with the magnificent pale yellow giant Canopus, which ranks second in brightness after Sirius. 330 light years away from us, Canopus actually shines 16 thousand times more powerful than the Sun and 760 times more powerful than Sirius. It can be observed in countries located south of 37 degrees north latitude. Canopus is an important navigation star, the presence of which in the sky is welcomed by the creators of spacecraft. The fact is that Canopus, having an extremely high brilliance, lies only 15 degrees from the pole of the ecliptic. Therefore, along with the Sun, it is used in spacecraft orientation systems. It is important that the brilliance of Canopus, like the brilliance of the Sun, is extremely stable: this makes it easier to recognize the landmark.
Another famous star of this constellation, Eta Carinae (h Car), behaves completely differently. Edmond Halley observed it in 1677 as a 4th magnitude star. Later, astronomers noted its irregular variability, and in 1840 its brightness increased significantly. By 1843 it reached its maximum, and then h Car became brighter than Canopus, reaching a record magnitude of -0.8 magnitude. Then it began to fade and, after a decade, was no longer visible to the naked eye. At its minimum magnitude it was magnitude 8, but in the last years of the 20th century. its brightness began to gradually increase again.
Research by astrophysicists has shown that the variability of the brightness of the h Car star is not so much to blame for itself as for the surrounding very compact and dense dust nebula with a diameter of only 0.4 light years. It consists of matter ejected from the star itself, and quickly changes its shape and transparency. If not for this nebula, we would have seen a star of colossal brightness, since its luminosity is 5 million times higher than the Sun. However, almost all of this light is absorbed by the nebula's dust and re-emitted in the infrared, making h Car the brightest source in the infrared sky (excluding Solar System objects).
The mass of the star h Car is 100 times that of the Sun, but every year it loses 0.07 solar masses in the form of stellar wind - more than any other known star. This gas flies away from it at a speed of 700 km/s. Far from the star, it cools, and the resulting tiny solid particles form an almost opaque “cocoon” around the star. It is clear that this cannot continue for long; Usually such instability marks the end of a star's life. Its current calm is temporary: it is quite likely that in the coming centuries, and maybe decades, it will explode as a supernova!
The star h Car is located almost at the very center of the giant gas nebula of the same name (NGC 3372) with an angular size of 3 degrees. Since its distance is about 8,000 light-years, this angle corresponds to a nebula diameter of 400 light-years, which is 10 to 15 times larger than the Orion Nebula. At the very center of the bright H Car Nebula, right next to the star H Car, lies the pretty dark Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324), which really looks like a key hole. Also worth seeing in Carina are the open clusters NGC 2516 and NGC 3532 and the globular cluster NGC 2808.
Whale.
In Greek myths, this is a monster sent by Poseidon to destroy the country of King Cepheus and destroy his daughter Andromeda. The whale is surrounded mainly by "water" constellations: it lies south of Pisces, stretching from Aquarius in the west to Eridanus in the east. The star o Cet has long been called Mira, i.e. "amazing". At the beginning of the 17th century. it was discovered as the first long-period variable; it is a red giant that changes its brightness from magnitude 3 to magnitude 11 with an average period of 332 days.
Of interest is a compact spiral galaxy with a bright central part M 77 (NGC 1068) of 9th magnitude; It belongs to the type of Seyfert galaxy; active processes of energy release occur in its core. Also noteworthy is the large but rather faint spiral galaxy NGC 247, with a dim core and an unusual dark oval region on the disk, wrapped in a loop by a spiral arm.
Capricorn.
A relatively small and featureless constellation, which late in the evening in August and only on a moonless night can be found in the Zodiac between Aquarius and Sagittarius. If you see a really bright star in Capricorn, then know that it is not a star, but a planet. The ancients called this constellation "goat fish", and in this strange form it is represented on many maps. However, sometimes it is identified with the god of forests, fields and shepherds Pan. His stars form a silhouette reminiscent of an inverted hat, although if desired, you can also see the figure of a horned animal in them, as G. Ray did (1969). The most notable object in Capricorn is the globular cluster M 30 with a very dense core. In this constellation, on September 23, 1846, the planet Neptune was discovered; This was done by the astronomers of the Berlin Observatory Johann Halle (1812–1910) and Heinrich d'Arre (1822–1875), who the day before received an accurate theoretical prediction from the French mathematician and astronomer Urbain Le Verrier (1811–1877).
Compass.
This constellation was not isolated from the ancient Argo Ship, but was born along with those 14 new constellations that Lacaille came up with in 1752. But it was so precisely located among the other parts of the Argo Ship that they began to be considered a single historical whole. The most curious object in this constellation is undoubtedly the repeated nova T Pyx, which flared brightly in 1890, 1902, 1920, 1944 and 1966, i.e. approximately every 20 years, but after 1966 it has not had any bright flares (although chaotic fluctuations in brightness are observed). Variable star researchers are paying special attention to this object: they expect an outbreak any day now. Although the declination of this star is -32 degrees, it can be observed with some difficulty from the southern regions of Russia.
Stern.
A major constellation in the Milky Way, rich in interesting stars and beautiful clusters; part of the ancient constellation Ship Argo. The brightest star in the constellation Puppis, z Pup named Naos, is a blue supergiant of the rare spectral class O5, one of the hottest and most powerful stars: its luminosity is 300 thousand times higher than the Sun. The eclipsing binary star V Pup changes its magnitude from 4.7 to 5.3 with a period of 1.45 days; its entire cycle can be observed with the naked eye. One of the brightest novae of the last century was CP Pup: on November 11, 1942, its brightness reached 0.3 magnitude. Open clusters M 46, M 47, M 93 and NGC 2477 are interesting to observe.
Swan.
The extremely expressive figure of this constellation really resembles the silhouette of a swan with outstretched wings and a long, elongated neck; this "bird" flies south along the Milky Way. Since the period of visibility of the constellation falls on a favorable season for observations - summer and early autumn - this constellation is familiar to many. At the tip of the Cygnus cross is the bright star Deneb (a Cyg). Together with Vega (in Lyra) and Altair (in Orel) it forms the famous asterism - the Summer Triangle. In Arabic, “Deneb” just means “tail”; this blue-white star is one of the brightest supergiants with a luminosity 270 thousand times higher than the Sun. At the bird's head is a b Cyg star called Albireo, a stunning visual binary that is easy to see with a small telescope; one component is golden yellow, like topaz, and its companion is blue, like sapphire. Another interesting star is 61 Cygni, very similar to the Sun and the 14th among the stars closest to us. It was the first to which astronomers were able to measure the distance (11.4 light years). F. Bessel did this in 1838.
Near Deneb, against the background of the pale glow of the Milky Way, a dark region stands out - the Northern Coalsack, one of the nearby interstellar clouds of gas and dust. Also interesting is the ragged complex of emission nebulae called the Network, or Veil (NGC 6960 and NGC 6992), a very elegant lacy remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred about 40 thousand years ago. Outlines of a bright nebula North America(NGC 7000) indeed resemble the known continent. One of the most powerful radio sources, Cygnus A, is associated with a distant (about 600 million light years) galaxy, crossed in the center by a dark stripe; it is possible that this is a conglomerate of two colliding galaxies. And the bright X-ray source Cygnus X-1 has been identified with the star HDE 226868 and its invisible companion, which is considered one of the indisputable candidates for black holes.
A lion.
Ancient zodiac constellation. Myths connect Leo with the Nemean monster, who was killed by Hercules. The arrangement of bright stars really resembles a reclining lion, whose head and chest represent the famous Sickle asterism, similar to the mirror image of a question mark. The “dot” at the bottom of this sign is the bright blue-white star Regulus (a Leo), which means “king” in Latin. Among the ancient Persians, Regulus was known as one of the four “royal stars”; the other three are Aldebaran (a Taurus), Antares (a Scorpio) and Fomalhaut (a Southern Pisces). Sometimes Regulus is also called the Heart of the Lion (Cor Leonis). Its luminosity is only 160 times higher than that of the Sun, and its high apparent brightness (1.4 magnitude) is explained by its relative proximity to us (78 light years). Among the stars of the first magnitude, Regulus is located closest to the ecliptic, so it is often covered by the Moon.
At the base of the "lion's head" is the golden-yellow Algieba (g Leo), which means "lion's mane"; it is a close visual binary of magnitude 2.0. At the back of the figure is the star Denebola (b Leo), translated from Arabic as “lion’s tail.” It has a magnitude of 2.1 magnitude and is 36 light years away. The star R Leo is one of the brightest long-period variables, varying in brightness from magnitude 5 to 10; it was discovered by J. Koch in 1782. The very faint red dwarf Wolf 359 (visible magnitude 13.5) is the third among the closest stars (distance 7.8 light years); its luminosity is 50 thousand times less than the sun, and besides, it has a dark red color. If this star took the place of our Sun, then at noon on Earth it would be only slightly brighter than it is now at the full moon.
Among the distant objects in this constellation, the spiral galaxies M 65, 66, 95 and 96, as well as the elliptical galaxy M 105, are interesting. Their apparent brightness ranges from 8.4 to 10.4 magnitude. This constellation contains the radiant of the Leonid meteor shower, formed from the disintegration of the periodic comet Temple–Toutle and observed in mid-November; its meteors are very fast and bright.
Flying fish.
The southern constellation lies between Carina and Table Mountain, occupying the star-poor region between the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud. This is a small group of 4th magnitude stars, one of those constellations that Frederic de Houtman and Pieter Keyser identified in the southern sky in 1596. Apparently, the flying fish struck European sailors hard. However, the artists of those years imagined this creature rather vaguely: in the star atlas Uranometry(1603) in place of this constellation a plump carp with feathered owl wings is depicted. The star g Vol has a 5.7 magnitude companion that can be seen through binoculars. The crossed spiral galaxy NGC 2442 is visible almost flat and has a magnitude of 11.
Lyra.
A small but amazing constellation lying between Hercules and Cygnus. In ancient Babylon, this constellation was called the “bearded vulture” (large hawk) or “charging antelope.” The Arabs called it the "falling eagle". Ancient tradition connects this constellation with the myths of Orpheus, for whom Hermes made a lyre from a tortoise shell. A constellation drawing sometimes combines several myths; so, in Uranometry Bayer's lyre is depicted on the chest of an eagle.
The main star Vega (a Lyr) is the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere and the fifth brightest in the entire sky. It is 25 light years away from us, has a luminosity 50 times higher than the sun, and in 12 thousand years it will become a polar star. Vega means "falling eagle" in Arabic. Together with two less bright stars it forms a small equilateral triangle, which itself lies in the northwestern corner of a small parallelogram representing a lyre. Together with the bright stars Deneb (in Cygnus) and Altair (in Orel), Vega forms the famous asterism - the Summer Triangle.
Sheliak (b Lyr), which means “turtle” in Arabic, is a mysterious eclipsing binary that varies in magnitude from magnitude 3.4 to magnitude 4.5 with a period of about 13 days. This star system is surrounded by a ring of gas, or a shell of material that is constantly being lost from the stars themselves. Next to Vega is e Lyr - “double double”, i.e. a visual binary system, each of whose components is also a close binary star. Recently, a fifth companion was identified, orbiting this system of two double stars.
Between the stars b and g Lyrae, which form the southern side of the parallelogram, there is a round planetary nebula of 9th magnitude, the Ring (M 57). This is an expanding shell of gas ejected and heated by the central star, whose temperature is about 100,000 K.
Chanterelle.
This constellation was introduced by Hevelius under the name Vulpecula cum Ansere, “little fox with a goose” (in its teeth!); is located south of Lebed. It has no bright stars, although it lies in the Milky Way. The most interesting object is the planetary nebula M 27, which received the nickname Dumbbell for its characteristic shape. It is easy to find even with binoculars: it is slightly brighter than magnitude 8 and lies 3 degrees north of g Sge (the brightest star at the Arrowhead). In 1967, within the boundaries of the Vulpecula constellation, the first radio pulsar was discovered - a rapidly rotating neutron star, the radiation of which was initially mistaken for a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization.
Ursa Minor.
Sometimes this constellation is called the Little Dipper. The last star in the “tail” of Ursa Major is the well-known Polaris, located in our era a little less than 1 degree from the north pole of the world. In 2102, Polaris will approach the pole at a minimum distance of 27ў 31І and then move away from it. The magnitude of Polaris is 2.0 magnitude, and the distance from us is 470 light years. In ancient times, the Arabs called Polaris “kid”, and the star b UMi was called Kohab, which means “north star”: indeed, from 1500 BC. e. 300 N each e. it was closest to the pole; its magnitude is 2.1 magnitude.
For many years, Polaris was known to astronomers as a classical Cepheid, changing its brightness by 0.3 magnitudes with a period of about 4 days. However, in the 1990s, the fluctuations in its brilliance suddenly stopped.
Small Horse.
This “foal” was invented by Hipparchus, and Ptolemy included it in his “Almagest”. The constellation consists of a small group of nondescript stars at the southwest corner of Pegasus, next to Dolphin. Its four brightest stars of magnitude 4–5 form an irregular figure the size of a Dolphin.
Small Leo.
A very featureless constellation placed by John Hevelius directly above Leo. It contains the radiant of a weak meteor shower active around October 24th.
Small Dog.
A small constellation east of Orion. Its brightest star is 0.4 magnitude Procyon, as well as Sirius (at Big Dog) and Betelgeuse (in Orion) form an almost equilateral triangle. On ancient maps, Canis Major and Canis Minor accompany the hunter Orion. "Procyon" in Greek means "the one before the dog", indicating that it rises from the horizon just before Sirius. Procyon is one of the stars closest to us (11.4 light years). Physically, it differs little from the Sun. Like Sirius, Procyon is a visual double star. In 1844, based on fluctuations in Procyon’s own motion, the German astronomer Friedrich Bessel (1784–1846) suspected the presence of a satellite, and on November 14, 1896, J. Scheberle, observing Procyon with the 36-inch refractor of the Lick Observatory, discovered a 13th magnitude star next to it. As in the case of Sirius, Procyon's satellite turned out to be a white dwarf, orbiting with a period of 40.65 years and having 15 thousand times less brightness than the main component of the system. The main difficulty in detecting it, like the satellite of Sirius, was the blinding effect of its brighter companion. The discovery of white dwarfs has led to significant progress in the study of stellar evolution.
Microscope.
A small and inconspicuous constellation containing no stars brighter than magnitude 5 and lying south of Capricorn.
Fly.
A small but beautiful constellation lying in the bright spur of the Milky Way, south of the Southern Cross. In the past this area was called Apis (Bee). In the binary star b Mus, the two 4th magnitude components, separated by a distance of 1.3I, orbit a common center of mass with a period of 383 years.
In January 1991, the orbital observatories GRANATE and GINGA discovered an X-ray nova burst in this constellation (designated XN Mus 1991). At the same place, ground-based astronomers noticed an optical nova flare. Studies have shown that this is a very close binary system with an orbital period of less than half a day, and one of its components - an invisible object with a mass of 9-16 solar masses - is almost certainly a black hole. In addition, characteristic gamma radiation comes from the system, indicating the annihilation of electrons and positrons there, therefore, this is how antimatter arises and dies!
Pump.
Under the name Antlia Pneumatica ( Air pump) Lacaille identified this small and faint constellation east of Compass and north of Velae. The brightest stars of Pump are red giants of magnitude 4–5.
Square.
This "carpenter's tool" lies southwest of Scorpio. Although both branches of the Milky Way pass through it, this area of the sky is mainly occupied by a dark clearing between them and is therefore poor in bright stars.
Aries.
Autumn-winter constellation lying west of Taurus. Aries is one of the most famous constellations of the Zodiac, although it contains no stars brighter than second magnitude. The reason is that in ancient times it was in Aries that the point of the vernal equinox lay, which is still marked with the sign of Aries (^). But in our era, the Sun enters the constellation Aries not on March 21, as before, but on April 18–19.
The Sumerians called Aries "the constellation of the ram." This is the same golden-fleeced ram that saved Frixus and Gella from their stepmother Ino. They were going to get to Colchis, but Hella drowned in the waters of the strait, which received her name - the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles). But Phrixus got to Colchis, sacrificed a ram, and gave the golden fleece to King Eetus, who sheltered him, who hung the skin on a tree in a grove guarded by a dragon. Then the Argonauts appear in this story...
The three main stars - Gamal ("ram's head"), Sheratan ("trace" or "sign") and Mesarthim (a, b and g of Aries, respectively) are easy to find: they lie south of the Triangle. The fourth magnitude star Mesarthim was one of the first binaries discovered using a telescope; Robert Hooke did this in 1664. Its two identical white companions are separated by an angle of 8І; They can be easily distinguished with a small telescope or good binoculars.
Octant.
The octant goniometer instrument is the smaller brother of the sextant, which has a digitized scale of 1/8 of a circle. And the constellation Octant is twinned with Ursa Minor, since it is in it, in Octant, that the south pole of the world lies (and not in the Southern Cross, as some think). On old celestial charts it can be found under the name Reflective Octant, for, like the sea sextant, it was equipped with a mirror. The constellation is inexpressive; it contains no stars brighter than 4th magnitude. The south pole of the world is located approximately between its two brightest stars - b and d. And the star closest to the pole, distant from it by about 1 degree and barely visible to the eye, is s Oct, whose brightness is 5.5 magnitude.
The brightest star in Octant n Oct is a binary with an orbital period of only 2.8 years; but it cannot be separated in an amateur telescope, because the distance between the components is only 0.05І. It is curious that star a in this constellation is far from the brightest; stars m and p are presented in two, and g – even in triplicate. In general, the constellation Octant leaves the impression of unkemptness.
Eagle.
A beautiful constellation in the Milky Way, southwest of Cygnus. It is easily recognized by the three bright stars located almost exactly along a straight line on the neck, back and left shoulder of the “eagle”: Altair, Tarazed and Alshain (a, g and b of the Eagle). The main "body of the bird" lies in the eastern branch of the Milky Way, and the two stars of its "tail" lie in the western branch of the "milk river". Even 5 thousand years ago, the Sumerians called this constellation the Eagle. The Greeks saw it as an eagle sent by Zeus to kidnap Ganymede, and called it the Bird of Zeus.
The brightest star in Orel is the white star Altair, which in Arabic means “flying hawk.” At just 17 light-years from the Sun, Altair has 11 times the luminosity of the Sun and is therefore one of the brightest stars in the sky. As a result of rapid rotation, the speed of which at the equator exceeds 250 km/s, Altair is strongly compressed along the polar axis.
7 degrees south of Altair is a classical Cepheid variable star h Aql, changing its brightness from 3.8 to 4.7 magnitude with a period of 7.2 days. Bright new stars flared up in Orel in 389 and 1918. The first of them appeared near Altair, was as bright as Venus and was observed for three weeks. And the second, noticed on June 8, 1918, reached a maximum brightness of –1.4 magnitude and turned out to be the brightest nova since the beginning of the 17th century. (when Nova Kepler erupted in 1604).
Orion.
Many consider this constellation the most beautiful in the entire sky. But Orion is not only a decoration of the winter sky, but also a real astronomical laboratory in which astronomers study the processes of the birth of stars and planets.
In the arrangement of the stars one can easily discern the figure of the great hunter Orion, the son of Poseidon. There are many bright stars in this relatively small constellation, and among the brightest there are variables. The constellation is easy to spot by the three magnificent blue-white stars in the hunter's belt - on the right is Mintaka (d Ori), which means "belt" in Arabic, in the center is Alnilam (e Ori) - "pearl belt", and on the left is Alnitak (z Ori) - “sash”. They are spaced the same distance from each other and are located in a line, one end pointing to the blue Sirius in Canis Major, and the other to the red Aldebaran in Taurus.
The red supergiant Betelgeuse (a Ori), which in Arabic means “armpit of the giant,” is a semiregular variable star pulsating with a period of about 2070 days; Moreover, its brightness varies from 0.2 to 1.4 magnitudes and averages about 0.7. Its distance is 390 light years and its luminosity is 8400 times that of the Sun. It is not for nothing that Betelgeuse is called a supergiant: its relatively modest luminosity is due to the low surface temperature, only about 3000 K. But it is one of the largest stars known to astronomers: if it is placed instead of the Sun, then at its minimum size it will fill the orbit of Mars, and at its maximum it will reach the orbit Jupiter!
In contrast to the cool and red star Betelgeuse, the stunning blue-white supergiant Rigel, which means "left foot of the giant" in Arabic, has a surface temperature of 12,000 K; its luminosity is almost 50 thousand times higher than the sun. There are very few such powerful stars in the Galaxy, and among those accessible to the naked eye are only Deneb (in Cygnus) and Rigel.
Below Orion's Belt is a group of stars and nebulae called the Sword of Orion. The middle star in Sword is q Ori, a well-known multiple system: its four bright components form a small quadrangle - the Trapezium of Orion; In addition, there are four more faint stars there. All of these stars are very young, having recently formed from interstellar gas in a very cold and invisible cloud that occupies the entire eastern part of the constellation Orion. Only a small piece of this giant cloud, heated by young stars, is visible in the Sword of Orion in a small telescope and even in binoculars as a greenish cloud; this is the most interesting object in the constellation - the Great Orion Nebula (M 42), approximately 1500 light years away from us and having a diameter of 20 light years. It was the first nebula photographed; American astronomer Henry Draper did this in 1880.
Located 0.5 degrees south of the eastern Belt star (z Ori), the well-known dark Horsehead Nebula (B 33) is clearly visible against the bright background of the IC 434 nebula.
Peacock.
The distant southern constellation lies between the Toucan and the Bird of Paradise. Its brightest star (a Pav), 1.9 magnitude, is called Peacock. In fact, it lies on the border of three constellations - Indian, Peacock and Telescope - and is the brightest for all three. Interesting objects to observe in Pavonidus are one of the most beautiful globular clusters, NGC 6752, and one of the largest intersecting spiral galaxies, NGC 6744.
Sail.
Part of the ancient constellation Ship Argo. The southern part of the constellation Velus falls on the most populated areas of the Milky Way, so it is rich in bright stars. With the naked eye you can count at least 100 stars in it. For historical reasons, it does not contain stars a and b; its brightest luminaries are designated g (Regor), d, l (Al Suhail), k and m. On the border of Parusov and Kiel there is the False Cross asterism, which often misleads those who come to the southern hemisphere for the first time. Unlike the real Southern Cross, the false one is not directed at the south celestial pole at all.
The double star g Vel is easily resolved through binoculars: its 2nd and 4th magnitude components are separated by a distance of 41І. Moreover, the main component itself is a complex system - it is a close binary with an orbital period of 78.5 days, in which a very hot star of spectral type O and a rare Wolf-Rayet type star are adjacent, having masses of 38 and 20 solar masses, respectively. The less massive of them loses matter from its surface at high speed and in large quantities. Stars of this type were first described in 1867 by French astronomers Charles Wolf (1827–1918) and Georges Rayet (1839–1906). In the spectrum of this system, wide multi-colored lines are visible against a fairly bright continuous background. Astronomers call this star the “spectral pearl of the southern sky.”
The planetary nebula NGC 3132, located on the border with the Pump, is similar to the Ring Nebula in Lyra, but firstly, the nebula itself is noticeably brighter than the Ring Nebula, and secondly, its central star is much brighter, which can be easily seen with a small telescope. However, the glow of the nebula itself is not excited by this star, but by its small satellite with a surface temperature of about 100 thousand K.
This constellation also contains one of the most unusual objects in optical astronomy - the neutron star pulsar Vela, blinking at a frequency of 11 pulses per second. It was the second optical pulsar, discovered in 1977, 10 years after the first optical pulsar in the Crab (constellation Taurus). Both of them are also radio pulsars, of which more than a thousand have already been discovered. Only the youngest pulsars exhibit optical flares. Vela and Crab are very young, they were formed as a result of supernova explosions: the explosion that gave birth to the Crab Nebula was observed in 1054, and about 12 thousand years ago the star in Vela exploded, leaving in its place a rapidly rotating neutron star and scattering in all directions from it gas shell, the diameter of which has already reached 6 degrees. This very beautiful openwork structure lies on the galactic equator, between the stars g and l Velae.
Pegasus.
Autumn constellation located southeast of Cygnus. Together with the star a Andromeda, it forms the Great Square of Pegasus, which is easy to find in the sky. The Babylonians and ancient Greeks called it simply "horse"; the name "Pegasus" first appears in Eratosthenes, but there were no wings yet. They arose later, in connection with the legend of Bellerophon, who received a winged horse from the gods, took off on it and killed the winged monster chimera. In some myths, Pegasus is also associated with Perseus.
Pegasus does not have a star labeled d. But on some old maps there is such a star: it is the upper left one in the Square, the Alferats star, which we now know as a And. Alferats is one of those bright “common” stars that often lie on the boundaries of constellations. The decision to “transfer” it to Andromeda was made during the final division of the constellations in 1928. Together with the disappearance of the star d Peg, the Great Square became the “joint property” of the two constellations.
Pegasus, near the border with the Lesser Horse, is home to one of the richest globular clusters, M 15, as well as the spiral galaxy NGC 7331, an image of which is often used to give an idea of the appearance of our Galaxy. Analyzing the spectrum of the star 51 Peg, Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz in 1995 noticed the presence of an invisible companion next to it - the first planet discovered around a solar-type star.
Perseus.
A beautiful constellation located entirely in the Milky Way northeast of Andromeda. According to myth, Perseus was the son of Zeus and princess Danae; he defeated the gorgon Medusa and saved Andromeda from the sea monster. Each year in mid-August the Perseid meteor shower is observed, caused by particles lost by the periodic comet Swift–Toutle.
The brightest star a Per bears the Arabic name Mirfak, which means “elbow”. This yellow supergiant, 600 light-years away, is the center of a rich group of bright stars known as the Perseus Cluster. The most famous eclipsing variable star is Algol (b Per), which means "demon's head" in Arabic. Its variability was first noticed between 1667 and 1670 by Geminiano Montanari (1633–1687) from Modena (Italy). And in 1782, the English astronomer John Goodrike (1764–1786) discovered the periodicity in the change in its brightness: with a period of 2 days 20 hours 49 minutes, the brightness of the star first decreases from 2.1 to 3.4 magnitude, and after 10 hours returns to its original value . This behavior of Algol prompted Goodreik to believe that the decrease in the brightness of a star occurs as a result of eclipses: in a binary star system, a darker component periodically partially eclipses the brighter one. In 1889, German astronomer Hermann Vogel (1841–1907) confirmed Goodreich's hypothesis by discovering Algol spectral duality. A talented and well-educated young man, deaf and mute since childhood, Goodreich also discovered the variability of two other bright stars - b Lyrae (1784) and d Cephei (1784), which, like Algol, became the prototypes of important classes of variable stars.
Also attracting attention in Perseus: the planetary nebula Little Dumbbell (M 76); the California Nebula (NGC 1499) and the open cluster M 34. Of undoubted interest for observation is the double open cluster h and c Persei (NGC 869 and NGC 884), distant 6500 light years, but having 4 apparent magnitude and visible even to the naked eye .
Bake.
It lies south of Cetus and Eridanus and has no bright stars. Visible in it is the Fornax dwarf galaxy, a member of the Local Group of galaxies, 450 thousand light years away from the Sun. In the same constellation, but much further from us, there is a rather rich cluster of galaxies, also named Fornax.
Bird of paradise.
Despite its beautiful name, this constellation is unattractive. Its dim stars are located near the celestial pole. Among them, S Bird of Paradise (S Aps) is of greatest interest. It belongs to a very interesting group of R-type stars in the Northern Corona. The brightness of such a star can remain almost unchanged for several years, and then in a short time weakens tens or even hundreds of times. After several weeks, or even a year, the star returns to normal. Temporary dimmings in brightness reduce the brightness of the S Aps star from 10 to 15 magnitude (i.e., 100 times); Moreover, these changes reveal some regularity with a period of about 113 days. Astronomers suspect that the reason for the weakening of the brightness of such stars is the condensation of a substance similar to soot in their atmosphere. This is facilitated by their excess carbon and low atmospheric temperature. From time to time, black clouds fill the skies of these stars, hiding their bright photosphere from us.
Cancer.
The most inconspicuous constellation of the Zodiac: its stars can only be seen on a clear moonless night. However, there are many interesting objects in it.
The Arabic name of the star a Cnc is Akubens, which means “claw”; it is a visual double star of magnitude 4.3; You will find its 12th magnitude companion at a distance of 11І from the main star. It is curious that the main one itself is also double: its two identical companions are separated by a distance of only 0.1І. This is not available for an amateur telescope.
The star z Cnc is one of the most interesting multiple systems: its two stars form a binary system with an orbital period of 59.6 years, and the third component orbits this pair with a period of approx. 1150 years.
Cancer is home to two famous open clusters. One of them is the Manger (Praesepe, M 44), which is sometimes also called the Beehive. It is visible to the eye as a foggy speck slightly to the west of the line connecting the stars g and d Cancer. Galileo was the first to resolve this cluster into stars; With a modern telescope, about 350 stars are observed in it in the brightness range from 6.3 to 14 magnitudes, and about 200 of them are members of the cluster, and the rest are closer or more distant stars, accidentally observed in the projection onto the cluster. Manger is one of the closest star clusters to us: the distance to it is 520 light years; therefore, its visible size in the sky is very large - three times larger than the lunar disk.
The M 67 cluster, located 1.8 degrees west of the star a Cnc, is 2,600 light-years away and contains about 500 stars ranging from magnitude 10 to 16. This is one of the oldest open clusters, its age is more than 3 billion years. For comparison: Manger is a middle-aged cluster, only 660 million years old. Most open clusters move in the plane of the Milky Way, but M 67 is significantly removed from it, and this is no coincidence: far from the dense galactic disk, the cluster is less destroyed and lives longer.
It should be noted that the geographical concepts of “Tropic of Cancer” and “Tropic of Capricorn” arose several thousand years ago, when the summer solstice point was located in the constellation Cancer, and the winter solstice point, respectively, in Capricorn. The precession of the earth's axis disrupted this picture. Now geographers call these lines on the globe, 23.5 degrees away from the equator, the Tropic of the North and the Tropic of the South.
Cutter.
This "engraver's tool" is a small, almost empty area southwest of the Hare. This is one of the most inexpressive constellations.
Fish.
A large zodiac constellation, which is conventionally divided into Northern Pisces (under Andromeda) and Western Pisces (between Pegasus and Aquarius). In our era, it is in the constellation Pisces that the point of the vernal equinox lies, which, according to tradition, is sometimes called the First Point of Aries. However, it lay in Aries 2000 years ago, and after 600 years it will enter the constellation Aquarius.
The Crown asterism represents the ring of seven stars in the head of Western Pisces. Alrisha (a Psc), which means "string" in Arabic, is located in the southeast corner of the constellation and is an interesting visual double; its components with magnitudes 4.2 and 5.2 are separated by a distance of 2.5I. 2 degrees south of the star d Psc is Van Maanen's Star, probably our closest white dwarf, 14 light-years away. Also interesting is the spiral galaxy M 74, the largest of those observed flat (magnitude 9.4 mag., angular diameter 10º).
Lynx.
A fairly large northern constellation of very faint stars; it takes truly lynx eyes to see them! Among them there are many doubles and multiples. Particularly interesting is the physical binary 10 UMa, whose 4th and 6th magnitude components are separated by a distance of about 0.5I and orbit with a period of about 22 years. This star moved to Lynx from Ursa Major when the boundaries of the constellations were clarified, but retained its traditional designation. And we will find the star 41 Lynx in the territory of Ursa Major. These examples clearly indicate the relative movement of stars and the conventionality of the boundaries of the constellations.
Astronomy lovers will be attracted by the Intergalactic Wanderer (NGC 2419), one of the most distant globular clusters in the Galaxy (275 thousand light years from the Sun). Why is it called "intergalactic"? Yes, because some galaxies, for example, the Magellanic Clouds, are located much closer to us. This cluster is not easy to observe: with a diameter of 4º, it has a brightness of approx. Magnitude 10.
Northern Crown.
The constellation is located between Bootes and Hercules; many consider it the most beautiful of the small constellations. Gemma, or Alphecca, is the brightest star of the Northern Crown (a CrB); This is an Algol-type eclipsing binary that changes its brightness slightly around 2.2 magnitude with a period of 17.36 days. But Gemma is more complex than Algol: a second system of lines is visible in its spectrum, which demonstrates oscillations with a period of 2.8 days. Perhaps this is the third component.
The irregular variable star R CrB almost always has a magnitude of approx. 6th magnitude, but sometimes suddenly dims, dropping to 9th or even 14th magnitude, and remains in this state from several months to ten years.
At the southern border of the constellation, next to e CrB, on May 12, 1866, a new star flared up, designated T CrB. Its brightness reached magnitude 2 and was visible to the naked eye for a week, but after two months its brightness dropped to magnitude 9. And on February 9, 1946 it flared up again, reaching magnitude 3. Such stars are called “repeated novae.” It is also visible in the intervals between flashes (11 mag.).
Sextant.
This inconspicuous constellation is located south of Leo and contains no stars brighter than magnitude 4.5. The most interesting object is the bright (10 mag.) highly elongated elliptical galaxy Spindle (NGC 3115). The dwarf spheroidal galaxy Sextans, located only 280 thousand light years away, is also visible in the same constellation.
Net.
In introducing this small southern constellation, Lacaille had in mind a scale printed on a transparent material or made in the form of a grid of gossamer threads, which is used in optical measuring instruments - the “diamond grid”. Its brightest stars actually form a diamond.
For observation through binoculars, the z Ret system, which lies on the border with the constellation Hours, is of interest. These are two 5th magnitude stars separated by an angle of 5¢; both of them are like two peas in a pod similar to our Sun (spectral class G2 V).
Scorpion.
Zodiacal constellation, but its border with the neighboring Ophiuchus is such that the Sun at the end of November passes through Scorpio in less than a week, and then moves through the non-zodiacal constellation Ophiuchus for almost three weeks. Scorpio lies entirely in the Milky Way. Many bright stars outline the "head, body and tail of the scorpion." According to Aratus, Orion quarreled with Artemis; Angry, she sent a scorpion that killed the young man. Aratus adds an astronomical part to this myth: “When Scorpio rises in the east, Orion hastens to hide in the west.”
The brightest star Antares (a Sco), which in Greek means “rival of Ares (Mars),” is located in the “heart of Scorpio.” This is a red supergiant with insignificant brightness variability (from 0.9 to 1.2 mag); In terms of brightness and color, this star is really very similar to Mars, and it lies near the ecliptic, so it’s not surprising to confuse them. The diameter of Antares is approximately 700 times greater than that of the Sun, and its luminosity is 9000 times greater than that of the Sun. This is a beautiful visual double: its brighter component is blood red, and its less bright neighbor (5 stars), only 3I away, is bluish-white, but in contrast with its companion it looks green - a very beautiful combination.
The Greeks called the star Akrab (b Sco) Raphias, which means “crab”; This is a bright binary (magnitude 2.6 and 4.9), which can be resolved with a modest telescope. At the tip of the “scorpion’s tail” there is Shaula (l Sco), translated from Arabic as sting. The most powerful X-ray source in the starry sky, Sco X-1, is located in Scorpius, identified with a hot blue variable star; Astronomers believe that this is a close binary system, where a neutron star is paired with a normal one. Open clusters M 6, M 7 and NGC 6231 are visible in Scorpius, as well as globular clusters M 4, 62 and 80.
Sculptor.
Introduced by Lacaille under the name of the Sculptor's Workshop, this southern constellation does not contain bright stars, since it is furthest from the Milky Way - it contains one of the poles of the Galaxy. Therefore, the constellation is mainly interesting for its extragalactic objects. The large 8th magnitude galaxy NGC 55 is visible almost edge-on; it is one of the closest star systems (approx. 4.2 million light years) outside the Local Group. It belongs to the Sculptor group of galaxies, which also includes the spiral systems NGC 253, 300 and 7793 (all in Sculptor), as well as NGC 247 and possibly NGC 45 (both in Ceti). The Sculptor Group of galaxies, like the M 81 group in Ursa Major, are the closest neighbors of the Local Group of galaxies.
Table Mountain.
Lacaille named this constellation after Table Mountain, located south of Cape Town, at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, where Lacaille made his observations. The constellation lies near the south pole of the world. It contains no stars brighter than magnitude 5 (no wonder John Herschel called it a “desert”!), but it does contain part of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Arrow.
A small graceful constellation between the Chanterelle and the Eagle. Eratosthenes believed that this was the arrow of Apollo, which he used to take revenge on the one-eyed Cyclops giants who gave Zeus the lightning with which he killed Asclepius, the son of Apollo. Interesting objects include the globular cluster M 71, the eclipsing variable U Sge, the irregular variable V Sge and the repeat nova WZ Sge (flares in 1913, 1946 and 1978).
Sagittarius.
Greek myth associates this zodiac constellation with the centaur Krotos, an excellent hunter. In the direction of Sagittarius is the center of the Galaxy, 27 thousand light years away from us and hidden behind clouds of interstellar dust. Sagittarius is home to the most beautiful part of the Milky Way, many globular clusters, as well as dark and light nebulae. For example, the Lagoon nebula (M 8), Omega (M 17; other names are Swan, Horseshoe), Triple (or Trifid, M 20), open clusters M 18, 21, 23, 25 and NGC 6603; globular clusters M 22, 28, 54, 55, 69, 70 and 75. Many thousands of variable stars have been discovered in this region of the sky. In a word, here we admire the very core of our Galaxy. True, only radio, infrared and X-ray telescopes can reach its core, and the optical beam is hopelessly stuck in interstellar dust. However, this also happens in any other direction along the Milky Way, where the gaze of an optical telescope cannot penetrate into the intergalactic distances. It is all the more surprising that in 1884 the American astronomer E. Barnard managed to discover in the northeastern part of the constellation, very close to the strip of the Milky Way, the dwarf galaxy NGC 6822, 1.6 million light years away.
Telescope.
Truly, without a telescope you will see little in this southern constellation. Its boundaries seem to be specially drawn to avoid bright stars. But with a good telescope you can explore a lot here. A very curious star is RR Tel, whose 387-day brightness variability continued even during the period of a nova-like flare, which began in 1944 and lasted an unusually long time - 6 years! This may be a binary system in which a large red star exhibits regular brightness variability and a compact, hot star is responsible for the nova outbursts. Such systems are called “symbiotic stars.”
Calf.
A beautiful winter constellation lying at the intersection of the Zodiac with the Milky Way, northwest of Orion. According to myth, this is the white bull on which Europe swam across the sea and came to Zeus in Crete.
Taurus has two of the most famous star clusters - the Pleiades and the Hyades. The Pleiades (M 45) are often called the Seven Sisters - this is an amazing open cluster, one of the closest to us (400 light years); it contains about 500 stars, shrouded in a faint nebula. The nine brightest stars, located on a field with a diameter of just over 1 degree, are named after the titan Atlas, the oceanid Pleione and their seven daughters (Alcyone, Asterope, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, Celeno, Electra). A keen eye distinguishes 6–7 stars in the Pleiades; together they look like a small ladle. Observing the Pleiades through binoculars is a great pleasure. IN oldest list of the 48 constellations compiled by Eudoxus (IV century BC) and given in the poem of Aratus, the Pleiades are highlighted as a separate constellation.
Even closer to us (150 light years) is the open cluster Hyades, containing 132 stars brighter than 9th magnitude and another 260 fainter possible members. The stars of the Hyades are scattered over a much larger area than those of the compact Pleiades, and therefore make less of an impression. But for astronomical research, the Hyades, due to their proximity, are much more important. According to myth, the Hyades are the daughters of Atlas and Ephra; they are half-sisters to the Pleiades.
At the eastern edge of the Hyades lies a bright orange star, Aldebaran (a Tau), which is not related to them, translated from Arabic as “coming after”; nowadays it is often called Ox-Eye. Its brightness varies from 0.75 to 0.95 magnitude; together with its companion, a 13th magnitude red dwarf, it is 65 light years away, i.e. twice closer to us than the Hyades.
The second brightest star in Taurus (b Tau) belongs to the group of “common” stars, since it lies on the border with the neighboring constellation – Auriga. In catalogs published before the beginning of the twentieth century, this bright star, which the Arabs called Nat, was often designated as g Auriga. But in 1928, when drawing the boundaries of the constellations, it was “given” to Taurus. However, even today on some maps of the starry sky Nat is included not only in the drawing of Taurus, but also in the drawing of Auriga.
A truly famous astrophysical object in Taurus is the remnant of the 1054 supernova explosion, the Crab Nebula (M 1), located at the edge of the Milky Way, about 1 degree northwest of the star z Tau. The apparent brightness of the nebula is 8.4 magnitude. It is 6300 light years away from us; its linear diameter is about 6 light years and increases daily by 80 million km. This is a powerful source of radio and x-ray radiation. At the center of the Crab Nebula is a tiny but very hot blue star of magnitude 16; This is the famous Crab pulsar - a neutron star that sends strictly periodic pulses of electromagnetic radiation.
Triangle.
A small constellation southeast of Andromeda. At its western border one can see the spiral galaxy M 33, or the Triangulum Nebula (5.7 mag.), turned almost flat towards us. Its English nickname Pinwheel translates as “pinwheel” - a type of gear wheel with rods instead of teeth; it quite accurately conveys the visible shape of the galaxy. It, like the Andromeda Nebula (M 31), is a member of the Local Group of galaxies. Both of them are located symmetrically relative to the star Mirach (b Andromeda), which greatly facilitates the search for the fainter M 33. Both galaxies are located at approximately the same distance from us, but the Triangulum Nebula is a little further, at a distance of 2.6 million light years.
Toucan.
Southern circumpolar constellation. There are no bright stars in it, but in its southernmost part one can see the amazing globular cluster 47 Tucanae (NGC 104), which has a 4th magnitude and is 13 thousand light years away. A neighboring galaxy is visible next to it - the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a member of the Local Group and, like the LMC, a satellite of our star system, 190 thousand light years away.
Phoenix.
This “fireproof bird” is located south of the Sculptor, between Eridanus and the Crane. 6.5 degrees west of the star a Phe is the star SX Phe, the most famous among dwarf Cepheids, demonstrating extremely rapid fluctuations in brightness (7.2–7.8 mag.) with a period of only 79 minutes 10 seconds.
Chameleon.
A distant southern constellation, not interesting for amateur observations.
Cepheus.
The mythical Ethiopian king Cepheus (or Cepheus) was the husband of Cassiopeia and the father of Andromeda. The constellation is not very expressive, but its five brightest stars, located between Cassiopeia and Dragon's Head, can be easily found. Due to precession, the north pole of the world moves towards Cepheus. The star Alrai (g Cep) will be “polar” from 3100 to 5100, Alfirk (b Cep) will be closer to the pole from 5100 to 6500, and from 6500 to 8300 the role of polar will pass to the star Alderamin (a Cep), almost as bright, like the current Polar.
The bright component of the pretty visual binary star d Cep serves as a prototype for pulsating Cepheid variable stars, varying in magnitude from magnitude 3.7 to magnitude 4.5 with a period of 5.37 days. The star m Cep was called Erakis in ancient times, and William Herschel called it the Garnet Star, since it is the reddest among the stars of the northern hemisphere visible to the naked eye.
The star VV Cephei is an eclipsing binary with a period of 20.34 years; its main component is a red giant with a diameter 1,200 times the diameter of the Sun - perhaps the largest star known to us. And the star cluster NGC 188 is one of the oldest (5 billion years) among the open clusters of the Galaxy.
Compass.
A small southern constellation, on the border of which lies a Centaur. And the magnificent visual binary a Cir (3.2 + 8.6 mag, distance 16І) demonstrates rapid small fluctuations in brightness and rare elements in the atmosphere - chromium, strontium and europium.
Watch.
A narrow long strip south of Eridanus, devoid of bright stars. The 4th magnitude star R Hor is of interest: it is a Mira with a period of about 408 days, which at minimum brightness weakens to 14th magnitude (i.e., the light flux from it decreases by 10 thousand times!).
Bowl.
An inconspicuous constellation west of Raven.
Shield.
A small constellation introduced by Hevelius under the name Shield of Sobieski in honor of the famous commander, Polish king John Sobieski. Lies in the eastern branch of the Milky Way, north of Sagittarius. There are no bright stars in it. An example of short-period pulsating variables is the star d Sct (5 stars, period 4.7 hours). The unusual semi-regular pulsating variable R Sct is similar to both Cepheids and long-period red variables - the Miras. The open cluster Wild Duck (M 11) can be observed with a small telescope 2 degrees southeast of the star b Sct; it contains 500 stars brighter than magnitude 14 and is an amazing sight.
Eridanus.
This “heavenly river” was identified by various peoples with the Euphrates, Nile and Po. In the sky it begins with the star Kursa (b Eri), which lies just west of Rigel in Orion, and “flows” to the west, and then to the south and southwest to the blue giant Achernar (a Eri), which in Arabic is exactly means "end of the river". An apparent magnitude of 0.5 makes Achernar the ninth brightest star.
10.5 light years distant from us, e Eri is the closest single solar-type star; but it is slightly less massive and not as hot as the Sun, and its age is only about 1 billion years. However, in the 1960s, it was e Eridani and t Ceti that were considered the most attractive for searching for extraterrestrial civilizations near them. And these hopes are already beginning to be justified: recently, astronomers discovered that a giant planet with a mass slightly less than that of Jupiter orbits e Eri with a period of about 7 years. It is likely that over time, Earth-like planets will be discovered in this system.
The remarkable triple system o 2 Eri consists of a 4th magnitude orange dwarf, a 9th magnitude white dwarf (the only one visible in a small telescope), and an 11th magnitude red dwarf. Among distant objects, the most perfect example of a crossed spiral is noteworthy: the galaxy NGC 1300.
South Hydra.
The southern circumpolar constellation of the “water serpent” is not particularly remarkable. The yellow dwarf b Hyi is similar to the Sun and is only 25 light years away.
Southern Crown.
Located between the southern parts of Sagittarius and Scorpio, this small constellation lies entirely in the Milky Way. Of interest in it is the region where bright and dark nebulae are mixed: NGC 6726, 6727 and 6729. Also interesting is the g CrA system, consisting of two twin stars, very similar to the Sun, separated by an angle of 2I and orbiting with a period of 120 years.
Southern Fish.
A small constellation south of Aquarius and Capricorn. Apart from the bright Fomalhaut (which means “mouth of a fish” in Arabic), all the other stars in it are very faint.
South Cross.
The smallest of all constellations. Isolated by Bayer from the constellation Centaur in 1603, although the first mention of this figure, useful for navigators, is contained in a letter to Amerigo Vespucci dated 1503. The cross lies in the southern part of the Milky Way and ranks first in the number of stars visible to the naked eye per unit area of the constellation. The figure of the Cross is formed by four bright stars: a, b, g and d, with the line from g to a pointing to the south celestial pole.
The amazing double star Acrux (a Cru) contains two components (1.4 and 1.8 mag.) at a distance of 4.4I. To the east of it, a dark “hole” is visible in the background of the Milky Way - this is the Coalsack, one of the closest dark nebulae at a distance of just over 500 light years. The size of this gas and dust cloud is 70 - 60 light years, and in the sky it occupies an area of 7 - 5 degrees. Next to it is Jewel Box (NGC 4755), a beautiful open cluster named by John Herschel because it contains many brightly colored blue and red supergiant stars.
Southern Triangle.
This characteristic group of stars was first mentioned in 1503 by Amerigo Vespucci, and only a century later it was described by Peter Keyser and Frederic de Houtman. It lies almost entirely in the Milky Way, but does not contain anything remarkable.
Lizard.
Located between Cygnus and Andromeda; It has no bright stars, although its northern part lies in the Milky Way. A very unusual object was found in this constellation in 1929 by the German astronomer Cuno Hoffmeister (1892–1968), founder of the Sonneberg Observatory, who personally discovered about 10 thousand variable stars! At first, he took this object as a variable star and designated it as BL Lac. But it turned out that this is a very distant galaxy, with the activity of its core reminiscent of quasars, but unlike them, it does not have lines in the spectrum and demonstrates very strong (up to 100 times) brightness variability. Later, other objects of this kind were discovered; some of them (RW Tau, AP Lib, etc.) were also initially considered variable stars. Astronomers suspect that these are the active nuclei of very large elliptical galaxies. Now objects of this type are called lacertids.
Vladimir Surdin
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On a clear night, it always seems to us that all celestial bodies are equally distant from us, as if they are located on the inner surface of some sphere in the center of which the observer’s eye is located. The apparent celestial sphere is actually an illusion, and the reason for this illusion is the inability of the human eye to distinguish between the vast actual distances of various celestial bodies.
For thousands of years, the prevailing view was that the celestial sphere actually existed and was the boundary within which the Universe extended. But in 1837-1839, when the annual years of some stars were first measured, it was proven that the stars are at enormous distances from us, and the celestial sphere is essentially the result of an optical illusion, since these distances are different. Nevertheless, the concept of the celestial sphere has been preserved in astronomy, since it is convenient to use when determining the positions of celestial bodies (using spherical coordinates).
On the visible celestial sphere, projections of stars and celestial bodies are actually visible, that is, those points at which visual rays pierce the sphere. Due to the fact that the projections of any two stars are located close to each other on the celestial sphere, it seems to us that the stars are close to each other, whereas in space they can be separated by colossal distances. Both stars and other celestial bodies, located in space at enormous distances from each other and having nothing in common with each other, on the celestial sphere may appear to be located very close. In this regard, the exceptions are physical stars, multiple stars, star clusters, stellar associations, etc. Individual stars in these formations are not only apparently close, but the actual distances between them are not so great (on an astronomical scale).
Turning our gaze to the starry sky, we see countless stars randomly scattered in space. In reality, only about 6 thousand stars on the celestial sphere can be seen with the naked eye, and from any point earth's surface at any given moment, only half of them.
With longer regular observations, one can notice that the figures formed by the brighter stars remain “unchanged” and that in general the appearance of the starry sky “does not change” over time. It is possible that the “immutability” of the figures that the stars form on the celestial sphere is the first discovery made by man at the dawn of his conscious life. (In fact, due to the appearance of the starry sky, it changes over a period of about 25,800 years. Due to the stars’ own movement, the contours of the constellations also change. But these changes occur so slowly that they become perceptible only after thousands of years and cannot be noted during one lifetime life, if you do not use astronomical observation methods.)
Even several thousand years before our era, those areas of the starry sky where brighter stars form characteristic figures were delimited into separate constellations. First of all, apparently, the constellations were demarcated, which with their bright stars and the configurations they formed most strongly attracted attention. People were also impressed by the appearance of the same constellations in the starry sky in spring, summer, autumn and winter. The appearance of some of these constellations was associated (in time) with human economic activity, and therefore they received appropriate names.
According to the information that has reached us, the delimitation of the zodiacal constellations and most of the constellations of the northern celestial hemisphere occurred in Egypt around 2500 BC. e. But we do not know the Egyptian names of the constellations. The ancient Greeks adopted the Egyptian delimitation of the constellations, but gave them new names. Nobody can say when this happened. Note that when describing the famous shield of Achilles in the Iliad, Homer calls the constellations Ursa Major, Bootes, Orion, depicted on the shield by the god Hephaestus, and the clusters of stars in the constellation Taurus - the Pleiades, Hyades, the same as they are called now.
The International Astronomical Union (MAC) has decided that the number of constellations in the entire celestial sphere is 88, of which 47 were named approximately 4,500 years ago. Most of the names are taken from Greek mythology.
The total number of constellations indicated so far is 83. The remaining five constellations are Carina, Puppis, Sails, Serpens and Angle. Previously, three of them - Keel, Stern and Sails - formed one large constellation Ship, in which the ancient Greeks personified the mythical ship of the Argonauts, under the leadership of Jason, who undertook a campaign to distant Colchis for the Golden Fleece.
The constellation Serpens is the only one located in two separate areas of the sky. In essence, it is divided into two parts by the constellation Ophiuchus, and thus an interesting combination of two constellations is obtained. In ancient star atlases, these constellations were depicted in the form of a man (Ophiuchus) holding a huge snake in his hands.
For the first time, Bayer introduced the designation of stars in Greek letters in his star atlas. The brightest star in any constellation was designated by the letter ‘ a’ (alpha), following it in decreasing brightness - the letter ‘ b’ (beta), hereinafter - with the letter ‘ y’ (gamma), etc. Only in a few constellations do these designations do not correspond to the decrease in the brightness of the stars.
About 300 of the brightest stars also have their own names, most of which were given by the Arabs. Interestingly, the Arabs gave names to the star depending on its position in the allegorical or mythological depiction of the constellation. For example, a Taurus received the name Aldebaran ("Eye of the Taurus"), a Orion is called Betelgeuse ("Giant's Shoulder") b Leo - Denebola ("Lion's Tail"), etc. The Greeks gave names to some stars based on other characteristics, for example, the star Sirius was named so because of its strong shine (from the Greek "sirios" - brilliant).
Some churchmen made repeated attempts to replace the “ungodly pagan” names of the constellations with Christian names. It was proposed, for example, to call the constellation Aries the Apostle Peter, Perseus - Saint Paul, Andromeda - the Holy Sepulcher, Cassiopeia - Mary Magdalene, Cepheus - King Solomon, Pisces - the Apostle Matthew, etc. These proposals were unanimously rejected by astronomers.
As a result of increased international cooperation in the field of astronomy, it became necessary to more accurately determine the boundaries of constellations, because in different atlases the same stars were assigned to different constellations. Back in 1801, Bode outlined the boundaries of the constellations, assigning the fainter stars of the “emptiness”, which had not previously been included in any of the constellations, to one or another neighboring constellation. Thanks to this, no “voids” were left, and at the same time the boundaries of the constellations on the celestial sphere were determined. The fact that the boundaries between the constellations were broken lines forced the International Astronomical Union to specifically consider this issue at a congress in 1922. It was decided to exclude 27 constellations with inappropriate names in order to preserve the names of the ancient constellations and the constellations added by Bayer, Hevelius and Lacaille, drawing the boundaries of the constellations along celestial parallels and. It was recommended that the new constellation boundaries should, as far as possible, follow the old ones and not deviate significantly from them.
There are now 88 constellations in the entire celestial sphere. Their boundaries follow celestial parallels and declination circles and are determined in relation to the main coordinate systems (equatorial and ecliptic) for 1875. Due to precession, the boundaries of the constellations slowly change over time. After the completion of one precessional period (25,800 years) from 1875, the boundaries of the constellations will be restored approximately to the form they were in 1875. But on the celestial sphere, the boundaries of the constellations are strictly fixed and unchanging; Using the coordinates of a star, you can determine its position in the corresponding constellation.
At the same time, the International Astronomical Union expanded the concept of “constellation”. Nowadays, a constellation is understood not as a configuration created by brighter stars, but as one of 88 sections of the celestial sphere, within which there are figures formed by the brightest stars characteristic of this constellation. Consequently, one constellation, in addition to stars that are bright and generally visible to the naked eye, also includes all space objects that can be observed by all observational means. That is why for variable stars, after their designation, the constellation in which they are located is always indicated. This rule applies to new and flares up within about ten days. Then its shine begins to slowly decrease. At its maximum brightness, it shines like several billion stars similar to the Sun! In addition to the expanding shell of gas ejected during the explosion, a rapidly rotating neutron star, or pulsar, also remains in place of the supernova.")">supernovae- the constellation in which they can be observed is always indicated. For each comet, it is certainly indicated in which constellation it is currently located, so that it is easier to detect and observe it.
Meteor showers are usually identified by the constellation in which they are located. Even for more visible galaxies, the constellation in which they are located is indicated. For example, the closest galaxy known to us is in the constellation Andromeda. All this requires a good knowledge of the constellations. They are indispensable reference points for anyone interested in astronomical phenomena and problems of astronomy.
Even ancient people united the stars in our sky into constellations. In ancient times, when the true nature of the celestial bodies was unknown, residents assigned the characteristic “patterns” of stars to the outlines of some animals or objects. Subsequently, the stars and constellations became overgrown with legends and myths.
Star maps
Today there are 88 constellations. Many of them are quite remarkable (Orion, Cassiopeia, Ursa Ursa) and contain many interesting objects accessible not only to professional and amateur astronomers, but also ordinary people. On the pages of this section we will tell you about the most interesting objects in the constellations, their location, and provide many photographs and entertaining video recordings.
List of sky constellations in alphabetical order
| Russian name | Latin name | Reduction | Square (square degrees) | Number of stars brighter 6.0m |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andromeda | And | 722 | 100 | |
| Gemini | Gem | 514 | 70 | |
| Ursa Major | UMa | 1280 | 125 | |
| Canis Major | CMa | 380 | 80 | |
| Libra | Lib | 538 | 50 | |
| Aquarius | Aqr | 980 | 90 | |
| Auriga | Aur | 657 | 90 | |
| Lupus | Lup | 334 | 70 | |
| Boots | Boo | 907 | 90 | |
| Coma Berenices | Com | 386 | 50 | |
| Corvus | Crv | 184 | 15 | |
| Hercules | Her | 1225 | 140 | |
| Hydra | Hya | 1303 | 130 | |
| Columba | Col | 270 | 40 | |
| Canes Venatici | CVn | 465 | 30 | |
| Virgo | Vir | 1294 | 95 | |
| Delphinus | Del | 189 | 30 | |
| Draco | Dra | 1083 | 80 | |
| Monoceros | Mon | 482 | 85 | |
| Ara | Ara | 237 | 30 | |
| Pictor | Pic | 247 | 30 | |
| Camelopardalis | Cam | 757 | 50 | |
| Grus | Gru | 366 | 30 | |
| Lepus | Lep | 290 | 40 | |
| Ophiuchus | Oph | 948 | 100 | |
| Serpens | Ser | 637 | 60 | |
| Dorado | Dor | 179 | 20 | |
| Indus | Ind | 294 | 20 | |
| Cassiopeia | Cas | 598 | 90 | |
| Carina | Car | 494 | 110 | |
| Cetus | Set | 1231 | 100 | |
| Capricornus | Cap | 414 | 50 | |
| Pyxis | Pyx | 221 | 25 | |
| Puppis | Pup | 673 | 140 | |
| Cygnus | Cyg | 804 | 150 | |
| Leo | Leo | 947 | 70 | |
| Volans | Vol | 141 | 20 | |
| Lyra | Lyr | 286 | 45 | |
| Vulpecula | Vul | 268 | 45 | |
| Ursa Minor | UMi | 256 | 20 | |
| Equuleus | Equ | 72 | 10 | |
| Leo Minor | LMi | 232 | 20 | |
| Canis Minor | CMi | 183 | 20 | |
| Microscopium | Mic | 210 | 20 | |
| Musca | Mus | 138 | 30 | |
| Antlia | Ant | 239 | 20 | |
| Norma | Nor | 165 | 20 | |
| Aries | Ari | 441 | 50 | |
| Octans | Oct | 291 | 35 | |
| Aquila | Aql | 652 | 70 | |
| Orion | Ori | 594 | 120 | |
| Pavo | Pav | 378 | 45 | |
| Vela | Vel | 500 | 110 | |
| Pegasus | Peg | 1121 | 100 | |
| Perseus | Per | 615 | 90 | |
| Fornax | For | 398 | 35 | |
| Apus | Aps | 206 | 20 | |
| Cancer | Cnc | 506 | 60 | |
| Caelum | Cae | 125 | 10 | |
| Pisces | Psc | 889 | 75 | |
| Lynx | Lyn | 545 | 60 | |
| Corona Borealis | CrB | 179 | 20 | |
| Sextans | Sex | 314 | 25 | |
| Reticulum | Ret | 114 | 15 | |
| Scorpius | Sco | 497 | 100 | |
| Sculptor | Scl | 475 | 30 | |
| Mensa | Men | 153 | 15 | |
| Sagitta | Sge | 80 | 20 | |
| Sagittarius | Sgr | 867 | 115 | |
| Telescopium | Tel | 252 | 30 | |
| Taurus | Tau | 797 | 125 | |
| Triangulum | Tri | 132 | 15 | |
| Tucana | Tuc | 295 | 25 | |
| Phoenix | Phe | 469 | 40 | |
| Chamaeleon | Cha | 132 | 20 | |
| Centaurus | Cen | 1060 | 150 | |
| Cepheus | Cep | 588 | 60 | |
| Circinus | Cir | 93 | 20 | |
| Horologium | Hor | 249 | 20 | |
| Crater | Crt | 282 | 20 | |
| Scutum | Sct | 109 | 20 | |
| Eridanus | Eri | 1138 | 100 | |
Thanks to observations by astronomers, it turned out that the location of stars gradually changes over time. Accurate measurements of these changes require many hundreds and thousands of years. The night sky creates the appearance of countless heavenly bodies, randomly located in relation to each other, which often outline constellations in the sky. More than 3 thousand stars are visible in the visible part of the sky, and 6000 in the entire sky. Visible location Constellation Cygnus from Johann Bayer's atlas "Uranometria" 1603 The location of dim stars can be determined by finding bright ones, and thus the necessary constellation can be found. Since ancient times, in order to make it easier to find constellations, bright stars have been grouped together. These constellations received the names of animals (Scorpio, Ursa Major, etc.), were named after the heroes of Greek myths (Perseus, Andromeda, etc.), or simple names of objects (Libra, Arrow, Northern Crown, etc.). Since the 18th century, some of the bright stars of each constellation began to be named by letters of the Greek alphabet. In addition, about 130 brightly shining stars were named after them. After some time, astronomers designated them with the numbers that are used today for stars of low brightness. Since 1922, some large constellations were divided into small ones, and instead of groups of constellations, they began to be considered sections of the starry sky. There are currently 88 separate areas in the sky called constellations. ObservationOver the course of several hours of observing the night sky, you can see how the celestial sphere, which includes the luminaries, as one whole, smoothly rotates around an invisible axis. This movement was called diurnal. The movement of the luminaries occurs from left to right. The Moon and the Sun, as well as the stars, rise in the east, rise to their maximum height in the southern part, and set on the western horizon. Observing the rising and setting of these luminaries, it is discovered that, unlike the stars, corresponding to different days of the year, they rise at different points in the east and set at different points in the west. In December, the Sun rises in the southeast and sets in the southwest. Over time, the points of west and sunrise shift to the northern horizon. Accordingly, the Sun rises higher above the horizon at noon every day, the length of the day becomes longer, and the length of the night decreases.  Movement of celestial objects along the constellationsFrom the observations made, it is clear that the Moon is not always in the same constellation, but moves from one to another, moving from west to east by 13 degrees per day. The moon makes a full circle in the sky in 27.32 days, passing through 12 constellations. The Sun makes a similar journey as the Moon, however, the speed of the Sun's movement is 1 degree per day and the entire journey takes place in a year. Zodiac constellationsThe names of the constellations through which the Sun and Moon pass were given the names of the zodiacs (Pisces, Capricorn, Virgo, Libra, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Aries). The Sun passes through the first three constellations in the spring, the next three in the summer, and the subsequent ones in the same way. Only six months later those constellations in which the Sun is now located become visible. Popular science film "Secrets of the Universe - Constellations" |