Caption: 2022年国际天文学联合会（IAU）OAE天文摄影比赛静态天体图案类别荣誉奖作品。 这张照片于2016年3 月在印度尼西亚爪哇岛的婆罗摩腾格塞梅鲁国家公园拍摄，展现了银河形成的拱桥和许多突出的星座，包括了夜空中最显著的亮星。 在照片左下角，我们可以看到南门二和马腹一，前者较低，后者较高，都位于的巨大的半人马座中。可由它们的指引找到南十字座，南十字座的长轴指向南天极，而南天极大致位于地平线上，这是因为爪哇岛几乎位于赤道上。南十字座几乎完全被云层遮挡，照片中只能看到四颗明亮的星星。而南船座中的恒星组成的赝十字星群，在稍远处的银河上方也明显可见，容易使人混淆。 真正的南十字座和赝十字星群之间的粉红色斑点是船底座星云，距离地球约8500光年，位于船底座，肉眼看不到。在船底座，我们还可以看到夜空中第二亮的恒星——老人星，它就在银河和地面道路之间。 更亮的是天狼星，夜空中最亮的恒星。天狼星位于大犬座，大犬座是猎户座的两只猎犬之一。猎户座在照片的右半部分，地平线附近云层的上方。猎户座的腰带上有三颗明亮的恒星，其连线左上指向天狼星，右下指向堪堪露出地平线的毕宿五。 猎户座包含了天空中最亮的几颗恒星，是色彩最丰富的星座，因为它拥有参宿七——银河下方靠右的一颗蓝色亮星，以及参宿四——参宿七右上方较高位置的一颗红色亮星。在它们之间，三颗恒星组成了著名的星群——猎户座腰带。猎户座大星云就在猎户座腰带旁边，这是一个恒星形成区，其明亮的中心即便用肉眼看也清晰可见，在这张照片中也是如此清晰。 在参宿四的上方，银河的另一侧，可以看到明亮的南河三，其英文名称Procyon的字面意思是”在狗之前“。在希腊神话中，它被看作由单颗恒星组成的星群，是与猎户座相伴的小猎犬，后来演变成了现代的小犬座。 在照片右上角，巨蟹座的蜂巢星团很容易辨认。在其下方，可以看到双子座的北河二和北河三，它们在这张照片中并不显眼。与之形成鲜明对比的是，御夫座的明亮白色恒星五车二，在照片右边缘中部的云层中闪闪发光。 在地面道路周围可以看到一些光污染。
Credit: Giorgia Hofer/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   Taken in Romania in August 2012, this image shows two of the most recognisable constellations in the sky, Orion and Taurus. Orion, the Hunter, is found near the horizon. The most prominent star visible in this image is Betelgeuse, while the asterism of Orion’s belt is formed by three aligned bright stars. Just above Orion we can find Taurus, one of the constellations of the Zodiac. As the Zodiac is inherited from Babylon, The Bull of Heaven represents a mighty but dangerous creature that was defeated by King Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu. They cut the Bull in half and sacrificed the animal to the gods in order to protect their people. Taurus is also home to the star cluster Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters. Two planets are visible: Venus, the bright spot near the fence, and Jupiter, the bright spot at the top, next to the Bull’s face. Different cultures have included the stars of these constellations in their own mythology. The Romanians, for instance, after Christianisation identified four other constellations using some of the stars of Orion and others surrounding it. One such constellation is called Trisfetitele (the Three Saints), which is associated with the three stars comprising Orion's Belt, representing the Three Hierarchs Basil, Gregory and John. This same asterism is also called Three Wise Men, Kings from the East or just Three Kings — all of these names being rooted in the Christian religion. The agricultural calendar, in contrast, led farmers to define two other constellations, the Little Plough and the Sickle. Both are seen in the southern half of the Orion rectangle; the Little Plough is drawn by connecting the southern quadrilateral with Orion’s left shoulder, and the Sickle is formed by connecting Orion’s left foot (Rigel) with the belt stars, forming an arch and completing the form of a hoe. In the cultural calendar, these constellations were used to announce the harvest of wheat/grain. Finally, the fourth Romanian constellation is the Great Auger, where Orion’s belt represents the handle of the auger, and Betelgeuse is the tip, facing towards Pollux in Gemini. This constellation is associated with treasure, as Romanian peasants believe that the Auger points to the treasure when they approach the end of the world. Most of the official star names in Orion are Arabic; Mintaka (meaning “belt”) is at the waist; Alnitak (meaning “girdle”) and Alnilam (meaning “string”) are at the belt; and Rigel (meaning foot) is at the left foot. The star on the left shoulder is named Bellatrix, the Latin term for a female warrior. The star at the right leg is called Saiph, for the sword or sabre of the Arabic Orion.
Credit: Alex Conu/IAU OAE

Caption: 这张照片于2022年12月13日用智能手机拍摄，记录下了云南蓝月谷上空一颗双子座流星划过夜空的瞬间，以玉龙雪山的宁静景致为背景，呈现出令人屏息的美景。双子座流星雨因其耀眼的亮度和鲜艳的色彩而闻名，是最壮观的流星雨之一，其起源于小行星3200法厄同。每年，当地球穿越法厄同的碎片轨迹时，尘埃和岩石碎片在大气层中气化，形成了这一壮丽的双子座流星雨。在这幅令人惊叹的夜空影像中，双子座的双星（北河二和北河三）被左侧树木的剪影遮挡。静谧湖面映照出猎户座的群星，猎户座星座从画面中央下方逐渐升起，而红色的火星依然明亮，成为画面中最耀眼的天体灯塔。这一切发生在月出之前，为这一幕增添了更多的神秘和壮丽。
Credit: 戴建峰/国际天文学联合会教育办公室 (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 猎户座及其明亮的恒星和周围的星座。猎户座被金牛座、波江座、天兔座、麒麟座和双子座环绕（从上往下顺时针依次排列）。猎户座最亮的恒星参宿四和参宿七分别位于星座的北端（图中上部）和南端（图中下部），中间是著名的三星 "腰带"。 猎户座横跨天赤道，因此在一年中的某些时候，从地球上的任何地方都能看到它。在世界上最北极或最南极地区，可能看不到猎户座的某些部分。猎户座在北半球冬季和南半球夏季的晚上最为明显。猎户座上方的蓝线标志着黄道，即太阳在一年中划过天空的轨迹。太阳从不经过猎户座，但人们偶尔会在猎户座发现太阳系的其他行星和月球。 在猎户座腰带的正南方，有两个梅西叶天体M42（猎户座星云）和M43，用绿色方框标出。这些星云和M78（腰带左边的绿色方框）是巨大的猎户座分子云团的一部分。它覆盖了猎户座的大部分区域，包括这些分子云正在坍缩形成新星的区域。 该图的 y 轴表示赤纬，单位为度数，以北为上，x 轴表示赤经，单位为小时，以东为左。这里标注的恒星大小与恒星的视星等有关，视星等是衡量恒星视亮度的标准。较大的点代表较亮的恒星。希腊字母表示星座中的亮星。这些恒星按亮度排序，最亮的恒星被标记为α星，第二亮的为β星，等等，不过并不总是完全遵循这种排序。围绕着参宿四的圆圈表示它是一颗变星。虚线是国际天文学联合会划定的星座边界，绿色实线是表示星座的常用形式之一。星座边界和连接恒星的线条都不会出现在实际天空中。
Credit: 由国际天文学联合会天文教育办公室根据国际天文学联合会/《天空与望远镜》的原文改编

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 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

Caption: The zodiac constellation Cancer and its surrounding constellations. Starting from the top of the diagram and going clockwise, these are Lynx, Gemini, Canis Minor, Hydra, Leo and Leo Minor. The ecliptic (shown here as a blue line) passes almost exactly through the middle of the constellation, this is the path the Sun appears to take across the sky over the course of a year. The Sun is in Cancer from late July to mid August. The other planets of the Solar System can often be found in Cancer. Cancer 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. Cancer is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere spring and southern hemisphere autumn. Two star clusters are visible in Cancer: M44, an open cluster often called the Beehive Cluster, and M46, a denser open cluster with about four times more stars than M44. These clusters are indicated by yellow circles with a dotted border on the map. 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 labelled 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 IAU/Sky & Telescope

Caption: The zodiac constellation Gemini and its surrounding constellations. Starting from the top of the diagram and going clockwise, these are Auriga, Taurus, Lynx, Orion, Monoceros, Canis Minor and Cancer. The brightest stars in Gemini, Castor and Pollux appear in the upper lefthand corner (north-east) of the diagram. In Greek mythology, the stars in this constellation are thought to resemble twins with their arms wrapped around each other, with Castor and Pollux indicating their heads. Gemini 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 Gemini from late June to late July. The other planets of the Solar System can often be found in Gemini. Gemini lies north of the celestial equator and is visible in all but the antarctic regions of the world. Gemini is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere winter and southern hemisphere summer. Just to the right of the foot of the Castor twin is an open cluster of stars (labelled as a yellow circle with a dotted line border), Messier 35, also known as the Shoe-Buckle Cluster. This cluster is spread out over an area roughly the size of the full moon. In addition to this cluster of stars, there is a planetary nebula (labelled as a green circle with four radial spikes) – NGC 2392 – near the celestial equator and just to the left of the Pollux twin. Two variable stars (Mekbuda and Propus; labelled as two concentric circles) can be found in the “legs” of each twin, but are so faint that an observer would need dark skies to see them. 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 labelled 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 IAU/Sky & Telescope

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. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky. The blue line at the bottom of the diagram marks the ecliptic.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope