This page describes an image Monoceros Constellation Map
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Diagram caption:
The constellation Monoceros with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Monoceros is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Gemini, Orion, Lepus, Canis Major, Puppis, Hydra and Canis Minor.
Monoceros spans the celestial equator and thus parts of the constellation are visible everywhere on the Earth at some point in the year. The whole constellation is visible to all but the most arctic and antarctic regions. Monoceros is best viewed in the evening in the northern hemisphere winter and southern hemisphere summer.
The star-forming Rosette Nebula is marked here with a green square. The open cluster of young stars NGC 2244, which is associated with the Rosette Nebula, is marked with a yellow circle just below it. The other open clusters M50 and NGC 2506 are also marked here with yellow circles.
The y-axis of this diagram is in degrees of declination with north as up and the x-axis is in hours of right ascension with east to the left. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labeled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. The blue line at the top left of the diagram marks the ecliptic. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the line marking the ecliptic, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Diagram credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope. Credit Link
Related glossary terms:
Apparent Magnitude
, Celestial Coordinates
, Constellation
, Declination
, Right Ascension (RA)
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
Diagram license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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