Caption: Third place in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Time lapses of celestial patterns.   This video tries to cover a huge variety of phenomena in the night sky from different locations — Iceland and China — and is designed like a theatre play, starring mother nature herself. It starts with a blue twilight sky that dims and unveils the starry night sky on the stage with terrestrial clouds on a beautiful landscape. The impressive parts of the southern Milky Way between Scorpius and Crux, with the pointer stars Alpha and Beta Centaurus, are shown passing by majestically. The terrestrial clouds blur the stars and allow us to recognise their colours even more clearly. The first act presents the starry sky in human culture. One scene shows the Pleiades rising over the top of a hill, while a human moves hastily with a flashlight below. At the very moment that the Pleiades rises behind the hill, the beam of the flashlight hits the camera. There is some humour in this remarkable scene referencing the human relationship to the rise of the Pleiades in cultural history. The next scene shows The Big Dipper, Ursa Major, as a typical northern constellation, with an arch of aurora below it. The aurora evolves and moves but does not change much fundamentally. In northern human cultures, aurorae were often interpreted as the ghosts of ancestors, but this play does not spend any time on human beliefs, instead moving the view southwards in the subsequent scenes. First we see some stars rising shortly before sunrise. The lightcone of Zodiacal light appears in Gemini/Taurus and the horizon gets brighter. In the next scene, at about 1 minute and 13 seconds, we see Orion setting over water, so that the water surface mirrors the celestial scene. Some clouds crossing the image prove that the videos were really taken on our beautiful planet, and, since Orion’s shoulder and foot are seen to set almost simultaneously, this sequence must have been captured almost at the equator. In this area, the bright stars of Orion look like a huge butterfly, with Orion’s Belt forming the body, and the quadrilateral of four bright stars interpreted as the wings. As in a real theatre, we now see a curtain before the next act of the heavenly play, an aurora curtain. The next act presents several bright stars in original scenes: the Chinese asterisms of The Tail (of the Azure Dragon), the Winnowing Basket and the Southern Dipper, which are seen in the modern constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius. The striking shape of Corona Borealis that has been recognised as an asterism in many cultures all over the globe, is also shown, as are some planets, the stars Vega and Deneb with adjacent areas, Altair, the Milky Way, and the characteristic W shape of Cassiopeia that has also been an asterism for many cultures on Earth. The outro presents two more scenes with a smooth and silent night sky.
Credit: Stephanie Ye Ziyi/IAU OAE

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2021年5月拍摄于印度乌杜皮，显示了大熊座中最亮的七颗星。这个星群被古巴比伦人视为一驾马车，这很可能启发了古希腊诗人阿拉托斯在训诲诗中将其视为战车。而古希腊人通常将这七颗星与更广阔的天区中许多更暗的恒星一起构成一个星座，视为一只大母熊。 在古埃及，这七颗星组成的图案被视作公牛前腿或公牛大腿，被认为是塞特神腿的一部分。塞特神被认为是两兄弟中邪恶的一个，他谋杀了自己的哥哥奥西里斯神（有时被认为是埃及第一位国王）。他们深爱的妹妹把散落的尸体碎片拼凑在一起，使奥西里斯复活。为了防止塞特继续作恶，这条腿被一根销子钉在了天上。 这七颗明亮的恒星被中国古代贵族称为“北斗”，行使着审判的职责。它在法语和荷兰语中被称为“汤锅”，在德语中被称为“战车”，在英国英语中被称为“犁”，在美国英语中被称为“大勺子”。在北美纳瓦霍人的传说中，北斗七星有着男性形象，被认为是所有星辰和人类的父亲，据说他是仙后座对应的母神的丈夫。同样，在北欧神话中，它被称为“男人之车”，和小熊座中的“女人之车”并列。在其他一些北方文化，例如因纽特人和西伯利亚人的传说中，这个星群被解释为驼鹿，而萨米人在这里看到的是法夫德纳的弓和箭。相比之下，在南半球，并非所有文化都将其命名，因为它总是要么靠近地平线，要么看不见。例如，巴西的图卡诺人称它为“蛇的大肛门”；而在萨摩亚，它是“祖传战棍”的一部分。 夏威夷人也将其用于航海，并称之为“七星”，而马其顿传统则将其解释为“七贼”。在意大利的星象传说中，它在罗马被称为“七牛”，在撒丁岛被称为“七兄弟”。同样，蒙古的传统说法是“七佛”，而印度人则称之为“七圣”。
Credit: Arya Anthony/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   This spectacular image shows a range of prominent constellations visible in the night sky over the desert of inner Mongolia, taken in August 2019. The yellowish star in the bottom left side is Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, and the brightest in the constellation Boötes. The handle of the Big Dipper points towards this bright star and the Dipper is also visible above Boötes. The Northern Dipper (Bei Dou) is a traditional Chinese constellation. It is considered a chariot in which the Judges for Nobility are sitting. Arcturus is considered a single-star asterism, named the Horn, which forms part of the Chinese super-constellation for the spring, the Azure Dragon of the East. The front of the Northern Dipper points towards the star at the top of the photograph which is now called Polaris, the northern Pole Star. In ancient China, there was no bright star at the pole, so the stars in the nearest vicinity of the pole were considered to belong to the emperor and his family in the constellation the Purple Forbidden Palace. At least as early as mediaeval times, Polaris was considered part of the constellation of the Great Emperor of Heaven. Corona Borealis is also visible in the top right corner of this image, although not in its completeness. It is called the Coiled Thong in China. With its characteristic semi-circular shape, this is one of the smaller constellations of the 88 modern ones, but also can be traced back at least three or four millennia through the Roman “Crown”, the Greek wedding “Wreath”, and the Babylonian “Asterism of Dignity”. The modern name literally means “Northern Crown” in Latin. At the upper-right edge of the image, we find the part of the modern constellation Cassiopeia that is considered the Flying Corridor and an Auxiliary Road in ancient China. The W-shape of Cassiopeia is cut off by the edge of the photograph but the constellations to its south and southeast, Andromeda and Perseus, are clearly recognisable. Prominently we see the Andromeda galaxy, the most distant object that is visible to the unaided eye. It is located at the outermost outliers of the band of the Milky Way, which could explain why it has not been mentioned explicitly in ancient star catalogues, as it was mistakenly thought to be part of the Milky Way. The photograph also shows clearly reddish parts of the Milky Way that don’t appear bright to the naked eye, and also open clusters that are formed from the same molecular cloud, i.e., groups of stars with similar ages. This region is part of many big and small asterisms in traditional Chinese uranology.
Credit: Likai Lin/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   As Earth moves around the Sun, the positions of the stars in the night sky appear to change over the course of the year. This is well exemplified in this mosaic, with images taken in all four seasons throughout 2020 in the region of Veneto, Italy, showing the apparent motion of the Ursa Minor and Ursa Major constellations. Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, is a constellation of the northern hemisphere, and it contains the northern celestial pole, in our current epoch marked by a bright star called Polaris or the Pole Star. For centuries Polaris has been used for navigation in the northern hemisphere, as it has been almost at the exact pole position for roughly 200 years. In the Middle Ages and antiquity, there was no pole star; the celestial north pole lay in a dark region and the Greeks considered the “Little She-Bear” as a companion of the “Great She-Bear”, which is more easily recognizable. The brightest stars of these constellations were alternatively also considered as chariots by the Greeks, as written in Aratus’s famous didactic poem from the 3rd century before the common era. The most famous asterism in Ursa Major, composed of seven stars, has different names across the (northern) world. While considered as a chariot by the Greeks, it is “The Northern Dipper” in China, and “The Seven Oxen” for the ancient Romans. It was also the navigational purpose that led to the name The Great She-Bear, Ursa Major; for the Greeks, travelling towards the direction of the horizon above which Ursa Major appears meant moving towards the land of the bears (northern Europe). An animal is clearly recognizable when taking into account all the fainter stars in the vicinity of the seven bright ones. They considered it a female bear because Greek mythology connects this animal with the nymph Callisto, whose story describes the initiation rituals for women. In the top left, we see an image taken on a spring evening, while the image below shows the same portion of the sky on a summer evening. Going counterclockwise, we see the sky during autumn in the bottom right image, while the top right finally shows this portion of the sky in the winter. Note that the relative positions of Ursa Minor and the Big Dipper don’t change, but all stars appear to be moved in a circle around Polaris. This star pointing due north lies at the point where Earth’s rotational axis intersects the celestial sphere. The shift of constellations throughout the year is therefore a globe-clock or a globe-calendar, used by ancient civilizations to measure the year, and to predict the changes of seasons. It helps to establish, for instance, the best time for sowing and sailing as winds change with the seasons.
Credit: Giorgia Hofer/IAU OAE

Caption: 这段延时摄影记录了2020年7月拍摄的三帧画面中标志性的北斗七星的轨迹。影像在意大利的三个地点拍摄：拉瓦雷多三峰（Tre Cime di Lavaredo）奥隆佐迪卡多雷、里特山（Monte Rite）奇比亚纳迪卡多雷，以及拉佐牧场（Casera Razzo）维戈迪卡多雷。这场视觉奥德赛展示了北斗七星的迷人轨迹，并在夜空中绘制出天体画卷。它不仅描绘了这个著名星群的轨迹，还捕捉到2020年7月照亮天空的罕见新智彗星 C/2020 F3 这一非凡的天文事件，为我们的夜空增添了光彩。
Credit: 乔尔贾·霍弗/国际天文学联合会教育办公室 (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 走进冰岛北部天空的宇宙剧场，在这段时间延时视频中北斗七星引人瞩目，它几乎绕北极星转了一圈，这是在中纬度地区无法看到的奇妙景象。这段延时摄影通过鱼眼镜头拍摄，展现了北斗七星永恒的舞姿，生动地描绘了它的天体华尔兹。在这场视觉盛宴中，北极之夜展现了它的壮丽，描绘出一幅全景画卷，不仅展示了这一标志性星座的天体旅程，还呈现了北极光的空灵之舞。在这幅令人叹为观止的画卷中，北斗七星在冰岛夜景的衬托下显得格外耀眼，北极光的绚丽色彩点缀其间。
Credit: Stephanie Ziyi Ye/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 这段延时摄影捕捉了来自国家天体物理研究所 (INAF) 的 64 米撒丁岛射电望远镜 (SRT) 周围的恒星运动，特别是在天球背景下著名的北斗七星。随着飞机飞过和射电望远镜旋转，著名的北斗七星在天空中下沉，镜头也随之移动。恒星的轨迹与射电望远镜的巨大天线之间的和谐互动，为 2019 年 9 月拍摄的宇宙芭蕾谱写了一曲令人着迷的视觉颂歌。
Credit: Antonio Finazzi/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 北斗七星优雅地移动于加利福尼亚州莫诺湖超凡脱俗的凝灰岩层之上。延时摄影捕捉了北斗七星穿过北方地平线直至下合的过程。在莫诺湖的纬度（+38°）上，北斗七星的星星几乎都是环极星，除了阿尔凯德（Alkaid）。北极星位于地平线之上38°的位置，正好在视野的右上角之外。月光将大地笼罩在柔和的光晕中，随着月亮落下，光晕逐渐变暗，整个场景陷入黑暗之中。
Credit: Fabrizio Melandri/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 这段延时摄影视频捕捉到了来自世界不同角落的两个标志性星座，一段跨越了多个大陆的宇宙之旅正在展开。从中国开始，北斗七星在夜空中熠熠生辉，作为文化叙事中的坚定向导，它的光芒标志着这场漫长的天体征途的开始。北斗七星的勺口二星指向北极星，随着星空的旋转，北极星似乎保持静止不动。在尼泊尔的崇山峻岭中，北斗七星的熟悉感依然存在，在随着地球的自转而不断变化的全景中，它是一个可靠的锚点。来到智利，南十字星点缀着苍穹，象征着南半球的星空。来自智利的画面展现了银河系映衬下的南十字星。在纳米比亚，H.E.S.S.天文台的望远镜出现在视频中。随后，在遮天蔽日的大树下，北斗七星继续在天体中熠熠生辉，与满天繁星交相辉映。利用不同的技术——鱼眼镜头、静态相机和地球运动跟踪，每一帧画面都展现了南十字星在各种不同地景映衬下的壮丽景象。这些以星轨和地球自转为标志的序列，突出了北斗七星和南十字星的永恒存在，架起了跨越南北两个半球的桥梁，沟通了世界文化，连通了天体之美。
Credit: Jianfeng Dai/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: The zodiac constellation Virgo and its surrounding constellations. Starting from the top of the diagram and going clockwise, these are Coma Berenices, Leo, Crater, Corvus, Libra, and Bootes. The brightest star in Virgo, Spica, lies just below the ecliptic (shown here as a blue line) in the middle of the map. One way of locating this star in the night sky is to follow the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus in Bootes and go along a line straight down to Spica (“arc to Arcturus and spike to Spica”). This star lies just below the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the path the Sun appears to take across the sky over the course of a year. The Sun is in Virgo from mid September to late October. The other planets of the Solar System can often be found in Virgo. Virgo spans the celestial equator and is thus part of it is visible at some time in the year from all of planet Earth with some of the constellation obscured for the most arctic and antarctic regions of the world. Virgo is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere spring and southern hemisphere autumn. The constellation Virgo appears as a person lying with their back roughly against the ecliptic, arms outstretched, and feet pointed east. Several deep-sky objects are visible in Virgo, including NGC4697, M49, M87, M86, M84, and M60, all of which are labelled as red ellipses on the map. These are all spiral and elliptical galaxies located several millions of lightyears from Earth. Most notably, M87 is host to the supermassive black hole (Pōwehi) that was imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019. All of these galaxies are members of the Virgo Cluster, the nearest cluster of galaxies to the Milky Way. 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 Ursa Major along with its bright stars and its surrounding constellations. Ursa Major is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Draco, Camelopardalis, Lynx, Leo Minor, Leo, Coma Berenices, Canes Venatici and Boötes. Ursa Major is famous for the prominent asterism often known in English as the Big Dipper or the Plough. This prominent northern asterism has a wide variety of names from cultures across the world. While most constellations and asterisms are made up of unrelated stars that randomly appear close together on the sky, five of the stars in the Big Dipper are part of the Ursa Major Moving Group, a group of stars moving through space together that likely formed in the same location 300 million years ago. The two stars on the right-hand end of the Big Dipper on this diagram form a pair of pointer stars that can be used to locate Polaris, the northern pole star which lies in the constellation of Ursa Minor. Ursa Major is a northern constellation and is visible from northern and equatorial regions. Parts of the constellation are visible from all but the most antarctic parts of the southern hemisphere but not all temperate regions of the southern hemisphere can see all of the Big Dipper. Conversely the Big Dipper and much of the rest of the constellation are circumpolar in arctic and many temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Ursa Major is most visible in the evening in the northern hemisphere spring and southern hemisphere autumn. Two prominent galaxies appear in the northern part of this constellation, the spiral galaxy M81 and M82, a possible spiral galaxy whose structure is difficult to observe from the Earth as it appears edge-on. Both are shown here as red ellipses. The planetary nebula M97 (the Owl Nebula) lies in the middle of the constellation and is marked by a green circle superimposed on a plus symbol. 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