Documents & Resources - Search Results
Search results
Taurus Constellation Map
image
Caption: The constellation Taurus along with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Taurus is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top) Perseus, Aries, Cetus, Eridanus, Orion, Gemini and Auriga. Taurus’s brightest star Aldebaran appears in the middle of the constellation. Taurus lies on the ecliptic (shown here as a blue line), this is the path the Sun appears to take across the sky over the course of a year. The Sun is in Taurus from mid May to late June. The other planets of the Solar System can often be found in Taurus.
Taurus lies mostly north of the celestial equator with a small part in the celestial southern hemisphere. The whole constellation is visible at some point in the year to whole planet except for the Antarctic and a small region around the North Pole. Taurus is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere winter and southern hemisphere summer.
In the eastern part of Taurus we can find the supernova remnant M1 (commonly known as the Crab Nebula), marked here with a green square. In Taurus’s north-east find one of the sky’s most famous open stars clusters M45 (the Pleiades), marked here with a yellow circle. Many of the stars near Aldebaran (but not) Aldebaran are members of another star cluster, the Hyades. However this cluster is close to the solar system so is too dispersed on the sky to have a Messier object designation like the Pleiades has.
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. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the line marking the ecliptic, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by IAU/Sky & Telescope
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Apparent Magnitude , Aries , Celestial Coordinates , Constellation , Declination , Ecliptic , Gemini , Right Ascension (RA) , Taurus , Zodiac , Open Cluster , Orion , Pleiades , Supernova Remnant
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
File
( image
110.14 kB)
PDF File
(PDF file
196.52 kB)
Eridanus Constellation Map
image
Caption: The constellation Eridanus with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Eridanus is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Taurus, Cetus, Fornax, Phoenix, Tucana, Hydrus, Horologium, Caelum, Lepus and Orion.
Eridanus is a large constellation that spans a wide range in declination. A small portion of the constellation is in the northern hemisphere with the southern-most point lying at a declination of almost -60°. As it spans the celestial equator, parts of the constellation are visible to the whole Earth at some point in the year. The whole constellation can be observed from northern and southern equatorial regions, southern temperate regions and most of Antarctica. Eridanus is best viewed in the evening in the northern hemisphere winter and southern hemisphere summer.
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. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Apparent Magnitude , Celestial Coordinates , Constellation , Declination , Right Ascension (RA) , Taurus , Orion
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
File
( image
148.42 kB)
PDF File
(PDF file
243.47 kB)
Aries Constellation Map
image
Caption: The constellation Aries along with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Aries is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top) Triangulum, Pisces, Cetus, Taurus and Perseus. Aries lies on the ecliptic (shown here as a blue line), this is the path the Sun appears to take across the sky over the course of a year. The Sun is in Aries from mid April to mid May. The other planets of the Solar System can often be found in Aries.
Aries lies just north of the celestial equator and is thus visible at some time in the year from all of planet Earth except for the most antarctic regions of the world. Aries is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere winter and southern hemisphere summer.
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. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the line marking the ecliptic, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by IAU/Sky & Telescope
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Apparent Magnitude , Aries , Celestial Coordinates , Constellation , Declination , Ecliptic , Pisces , Right Ascension (RA) , Taurus , Zodiac
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
File
( image
96.59 kB)
PDF File
(PDF file
178.36 kB)
Auriga Constellation Map
image
Caption: The constellation Auriga with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Auriga is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Camelopardalis, Perseus, Taurus, Gemini and Lynx. Capella, the brightest star in Auriga, is the sixth brightest star in the night sky.
As a northern constellation, Auriga is visible from the whole of the northern hemisphere at some point in the year. The whole of the constellation is visible to equatorial regions of the southern hemisphere with parts of it visible to temperate southern regions. The whole constellation is circumpolar from arctic regions. The constellation is best viewed in the evening in the late northern hemisphere winter and late southern hemisphere summer.
Auriga lies in the plane of the Milky Way and thus hosts a number of open clusters. Of these M36, M37 and M38 are marked on this diagram with yellow circles. IC 405, also known as the flaming star nebula, is marked here with a green square.
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 bottom 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.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Apparent Magnitude , Celestial Coordinates , Circumpolar Stars , Constellation , Declination , Ecliptic , Gemini , Nebula , Right Ascension (RA) , Taurus , Open Cluster
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
File
( image
115.11 kB)
PDF File
(PDF file
189.84 kB)
Orion Constellation Map
image
Caption: The constellation Orion along with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Orion is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top) Taurus, Eridanus, Lepus, Monoceros and Gemini. Orion’s brightest stars Betelgeuse and Rigel appear at the northern (upper on this diagram) and southern (lower) end of the constellation respectively with the famous three star “belt” in the middle.
Orion spans the celestial equator and is thus visible at some time in the year from all of planet Earth. In the most arctic or antarctic regions of the world, some parts of the constellation may not be visible. Orion is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere winter and southern hemisphere summer. The blue line above Orion marks the ecliptic, the path the Sun appears to travel across the sky over the course of a year. The Sun never passes through Orion, but one can occasionally find the other planets of the Solar System and the Moon in Orion.
Just south of Orion’s belt lie two Messier objects M42 (the Orion nebula) and M43, marked by green squares. These nebulae along with M78 (here the green square to the left of the belt) are part of the huge Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. This covers most of the constellation and includes regions where these molecular clouds are collapsing to form young starts.
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 circle around Betelgeuse indicates that it is a variable star. 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. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the line marking the ecliptic, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by IAU/Sky & Telescope
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Apparent Magnitude , Celestial Coordinates , Constellation , Declination , Ecliptic , Gemini , Right Ascension (RA) , Taurus , Orion , Variable Star
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
File
( image
147.68 kB)
PDF File
(PDF file
220.54 kB)
