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天文摄影比赛延时天体图案类别荣誉奖作品。 这幅延时摄影作品拍摄于2020年12月，展示了位于南半球智利的圣佩德罗-德阿塔卡马的夜空。 在第一幅画面中，可以看到我们所在的银河系，以及围绕银河系运行的两个卫星星系——大小麦哲伦云。在画面底部，可以看到明亮的恒星南门二和马腹一（也被称为半人马座α星和β星），它们都位于半人马座。在它们正上方，还可以看到北回归线以南可见的南十字座。它对导航非常重要，因为它的长轴指示着南天极的方向。画面顶端，位于银河右侧的亮白色恒星是位于船底座的老人星，它是夜空中最亮的恒星之一。老人星是全天第二亮的恒星，而南门二则是第三亮的恒星。 在接下来的一些画面中，猎户座带着它明亮的恒星和特有的星群——由三颗排列整齐的亮星组成的腰带，清晰地出现在画面中。因为这段视频是从南半球拍摄的，所以这位来自北半球的希腊英雄似乎正在倒立。 我们还能看到木星和土星紧密相合，甚至可在它们周围看到正在缓缓没入地平线的明显光带，那就是黄道光。一些画面中还闪烁着几颗流星，其中一颗流星的尾迹持续时间很长，并在不断延伸。一轮明月从安第斯山脉的火山后面升起，产生了壮观的阴影和曙暮辉光。在最后一幅画面中，我们看到月亮与相合的木星和土星为伴。
Credit: Robert Barsa/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。 这张照片拍摄于2021年2月，背景是一幅天文图像，前景是意大利西西里岛著名的埃特纳火山。在猎户座区域，我们可以看到太空中的红色氢云。其中巨大的弓形是巴纳德环，其中心是猎户座大星云和马头星云。马头星云颜色更深，位于猎户座腰带最南端恒星——也就是红色星云上方的一排白色恒星——的下方。猎户座小星云和猎户座大星云——即浅粉色的圆形和梯形结构——之间的分界线也清晰可见。最近的一个恒星形成区就位于这个星云中，它距离我们只有一千多光年。 在照片左中部靠近边缘处有一个红色小结构，它是猴头星云，也位于猎户座。它拥有一个年轻的星团。这团氢云的深红色表明，如果那里的物质再次被压缩，则新的恒星将来有可能在其内部形成。所有这些红色天体在这张照片中都经过了强烈处理，因为它们在肉眼下是看不到的。 不过，这张照片还是提供了一个有趣的特征：红超巨星参宿四位于图像中间，似乎就在埃特纳活火山的正上方。在这座火山的山脚下有一个古老的居民点，即卡塔尼亚城。我们认为参宿四和埃特纳火山都有一定的危险性——但它们谁会先爆发呢？ 我们知道埃特纳火山偶尔会爆发。通常它只是小规模爆发，但每隔几个世纪就会有一次大规模爆发。我们还知道，参宿四作为一颗巨星，将来会成为一颗超新星。天文学家称，潜在超新星所能存在的时间很短，这意味着距离这颗恒星爆炸只有一万年到十万年的时间。这对天文学家来说是“很短”的，意味着地球将会经历二到四个岁差周期（结果是撒哈拉沙漠将变绿并再次干燥二到四次），大陆漂移将把非洲带到更北的地方，并导致阿尔卑斯山增高，美洲的尼亚加拉瀑布将把岩石完全冲走。只有在地球上发生了这一切（以及更多的事情）之后，参宿四才会作为超新星而爆发。埃特纳火山对西西里岛——尤其是卡塔尼亚的人们来说要危险得多，因为距离它爆发的时间更短。
Credit: Dario Giannobile/IAU OAE

Caption: 2022 年国际天文学联合会 OAE 天体摄影比赛第二名，类别：天体图案的时间流逝。 天狼星是夜空中最亮的恒星，它时而升起，时而落下，时而掠过。有时还能看到猎户座、金牛座和昴星团等星座和小行星。在第一个场景中，上述星座被半透明的金色面纱遮住。接下来的场景中，它在深蓝色的夜空中升起。在其中一个场景中，一颗行星明亮地点缀着暗淡的双鱼座。 这些视频是在地球上各种景观和文化遗产的上空拍摄的。其中一些只是简单地展示了沙漠中的古迹，而另一些则展示了挥舞着树叶的棕榈树。 2022年IAU OAE天文摄影大赛天体运动时间序列类别二等奖 天狼星是夜空中最亮的恒星，照片中展现了它的升起、落下及穿越天空的轨迹。有时还能看到星座和星群，包括猎户座、金牛座和昴星团。在第一场景中，这些星座被半透明的金色薄雾笼罩。接下来的场景展示了它在深蓝色夜空中升起的情景。在其中一个场景中，一颗明亮的行星点缀在微弱的双鱼座星群中。 这些视频取景于地球上的多种自然景观和文化遗址。一些画面展示了沙漠中的历史遗迹，而另一些则拍摄了带有摇曳棕榈树的风景。
Credit: 阿米尔雷扎·卡姆卡尔/国际天文学联合会教育办公室

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.   This image, taken in Slovakia in January 2022, shows regions of the Milky Way and a rich variety of constellations. The summer constellations of the northern hemisphere are very low in the sky towards the bottom-right. The bright stars of Cygnus and Lyra shine through the artificial lights at the horizon. The huge array of northern winter and autumn constellations with many bright stars are associated with diverse cultural stories. For the Lakota people in North America the belt of the Orion constellation represents the spine of a bison (“Tayamnicankh”). Orion, the Hunter of Greek mythology, is sometimes described chasing the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades. The Arabs transformed this view by considering the follower of the Pleiades only one star instead of a constellation. Aldebaran, the star in the right eye of Taurus, the Bull, comes from this interpretation, because the name Aldebaran derives from al-dabaran, The Follower. At the bottom-right, on the horizon, we can see the milky lightcone of the Zodiacal light stretching from the constellation Pisces through Aries, almost reaching the Pleiades, indicating the path of the planets and the Moon in this area. The Pleiades and the Hyades together form a gate on this path, where the heavenly bodies occasionally pass before entering the Milky Way. The planets were considered sheep in ancient Babylon and the modern constellation Orion was considered the “True Shepherd” of the Sky, with his shepherd’s tool reaching the ecliptic. In Roman tradition, the bright white star above the Pleiades and the Milky Way is called Capella, the Goat, which can be traced back to an Egyptian constellation in this area. Above the treetop in the middle-right part of the image, we see the autumn square, the Andromeda Galaxy and the W-shaped pattern of Cassiopeia. To the left of this group, in the central part of the visible Milky Way, is the constellation Perseus, with Cepheus in the dark area above Cassiopeia completing the celestial family. The Andromeda saga is a Greek story from the area that is now called Israel, and is rooted in Syrian traditions. The location of Andromeda was considered by the ancient Babylonians as the location of the goddess of sexual love, and by the Syrians as the location of the goddess of fertility. According to the saga, Andromeda was chained to a rock at the coast of Jaffa (Tel Aviv) in order to protect her land from a sea monster. The name of the hero who rescued her is Perseus, probably meaning “from Persia” (today’s Iran). Noticeable in the valley are the lights from towns. The yellow light above the horizon indicates larger cities there, which are given away by their light pollution.
Credit: Robert Barsa/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   This black and white image taken in February 2017 in Uyuni Salt Flat of southwest Bolivia, the biggest salt flat in the world, shows one of the most recognisable constellations, Orion the hunter, and the open star cluster of the Hyades directly above the clouds at the horizon. Various cultures have different stories associated with Orion. The Aymara in this area of the world (Bolivia and Northern Chile) consider Orion’s Belt to be a Sky Bridge (chacka cilitu) or a Stairway made out of dough. This stairway is rather obvious in this picture. It appears as if the stars in the sky are scattered like grains of salt on the ground — an amazing composition. For the Aymara, who were Christianised by the Spanish conquistadores, Orion and the Stairway are connected to the November festivals of the dead ancestors and the souls. In contrast to the original Christian culture, for these people in the southern hemisphere these festivals mark the beginning of summer, not the beginning of winter. While in the north, the “ghosts” of the ancestors are represented by the foggy weather in November, the Aymara greet the ancestors with flowers. This photograph in the dry salt flat, in contrast, seems to show the unlivable loneliness where the photographer meets the souls of the deceased. The Yolnu people of Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory have a rich culturally significant story associated with Orion that carries a lesson. It tells of the three brothers of the Kingfish clan and their canoe Djulpan. Owing to their lack of patience, the brothers ate the sacred Kingfish, angering the Sun woman Walu who created a waterspout that sent them into the sky. Looking at the constellation Orion, the three stars in Orion’s belt represent the three brothers, Orion’s sword is the fishing line, and the two dimmer stars Bellatrix and Saiph form the two ends of the canoe Djulpan.
Credit: Stephanie Ye Ziyi/IAU OAE

Caption: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   Taken in December 2016, this image shows a clear and starry sky over the Masaya Volcano National Park in Nicaragua. The constellation Orion is the most prominent pattern in this image. Orion is associated with a great hunter according to Greek culture, and is seen here right in the middle. The reddish star in the centre is Betelgeuse, the second-brightest in this constellation and one of the brightest in the night sky. Above and to the right of Betelgeuse we find Bellatrix, another bright star, forming the right shoulder of the hunter. Extending a line from Bellatrix to the right, we find a crookedly aligned group of faint stars comprising Orion’s bow. We can also easily see a group of three aligned bright stars forming the belt of the hunter, an asterism recognised by many different cultures. Just below his belt we can see the silverish glittering that was interpreted as the metal of Orion’s sword or knife by the Greco-Roman tradition. It was alternatively interpreted as a fish roasted on a campfire by some cultures in Australia. In its centre, with binoculars we can see the Small and the Great Orion Nebula, together forming a giant cloud of dust and gas where new stars are being formed. To the lower-left of the silverish compound of tiny stars and nebulae, there is a bright star called Saiph, the Arabic term for “Sword” or “Sabre” because it was considered the tip of a huge knife with a curved upper part. To the right of this, there is the bright bluish star Rigel, an Arabic term which designates it as The Foot of Orion. Orion’s Belt points up towards Aldebaran at the edge of the photograph and down towards Sirius among the branches of the trees; it is the brightest star in the night sky and is located in the constellation Canis Major. Earth’s atmosphere makes the bright Sirius twinkle in all colours. Seen from space it is pure white, but as its light travels through the air, it is scattered and distorted by the molecules. Therefore, the star appears to change colour like a diamond. A line connecting the two shoulders of Orion points to another bright star in the lower-left corner of the photograph. This is Procyon, located in the constellation Canis Minor. Procyon has been used by the ancient Babylonians to indicate the heliacal rise of Cancer (whose stars are faint, and invisible in twilight) and to predict the rising of Sirius. Thus, for a very long time in ancient history Procyon was considered a single-star asterism. Perhaps only in Roman times were more stars used to create a constellation in this area of the sky, although this constellation has never been clearly recognisable.
Credit: René Antonio Urroz Álvarez/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: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   This image, taken in April 2022, shows the sky over a plantation field around a century-old watchtower guarding a village in the province of Guangdong, China. Throughout the ages, the sky has been used as a tool for navigation and also as a calendar. By watching the apparent movement of the stars, it is possible to follow the passing of time, thereby understanding the change of the seasons which in turn helps to plan out the best timings of agricultural work. The most prominent constellations in this image are Orion and Canis Major, the Great Dog. Commonly associated with a giant hunter in Greek mythology, Orion is followed by his hound in the shape of the constellation Canis Major. In China, the seven bright stars of the constellation Orion are paradoxically called Three Stars (Shen) and this is one of the 28 Lunar Mansions. The Babylonian pre-zodiac, the so-called “Path of the Moon”, had 17 constellations and included Orion (therein named “True Shepherd of the Heavens”). This is not really surprising because, even in the system of the 88 modern constellations, the Moon sometimes stands in the constellation Orion. The modern constellation boundaries were defined in the 1920s in such a way that the area of Orion ends a half degree south of the ecliptic, in order to avoid the Sun entering it. Still, the Moon and the planets do occasionally. Therefore, Orion is part of the Zodiac (a stripe 5 to 10 degrees around the ecliptic), part of the path of the Moon and, of course, also used by many cultural calendars all over the world. Sirius, the bright star in the left half of the photograph, is the brightest star in the night sky, and has been used by many indigenous cultures to determine their calendars; the Egyptians awaited the Nile flood with Sirius’s heliacal rise, while the Romans connected its reappearance after its invisibility in daylight with the hottest summer time. In Old China, Sirius was considered a single-star asterism called The Wolf. The adjacent area was called The Market for Soldiers and the area in the southern part of Canis Major was imagined as the Bow with an Arrow. The reddish bright star in the top right corner is Betelgeuse, a red supergiant and one of the largest stars that can be seen with the naked eye. Orion’s Great Nebula below Orion’s Belt should be mentioned, but also the fainter huge red arc that is called Barnard’s Loop is clearly shown in this photograph. This galactic nebula and the circular red nebula around Orion’s not-so-bright head are both parts of star-forming regions, while the red nebula to the upper left of Orion is the Rosette Nebula in the unrecognisable constellation of Monoceros.
Credit: Likai Lin/IAU OAE

Caption: 2022 年国际天文学联合会 OAE 天体摄影比赛“天体图案静态图像”类获奖作品。 这张拍摄于2021年12月的照片，来自埃及开罗的科塔米亚天文台（Kottamia Astronomical Observatory），展示了北非最大望远镜上方的北半球冬季星空和其中的一些著名星座。 照片展示了猎户座（位于照片中间的显眼位置），其腰带向上指向金牛座的毕宿五（Aldebaran），向下指向大犬座的天狼星（Sirius）。毕宿五是一颗略微发红的恒星，我们可以看到它位于疏散星团毕星团（照片右上角）的前方，这是金牛座（公牛）脸部的象征。而那颗明亮的白色恒星是天狼星，夜空中最亮的恒星。它的希腊名字（Seirios）的意思是 "燃烧者"，可以理解为 "最亮的"。 猎户座在世界各地不同的文化中都有象征意义。在古埃及宗教中，猎户座也与一位男性神祇相关联，即奥西里斯（Osiris）。相传，奥西里斯被他妒忌的兄弟赛特（Seth）杀害，赛特肢解了尸体，将碎片散布各地。幸运的是，奥西里斯的姐妹兼妻子阿塞特（Aset，希腊语名：Isis）是最强大的女巫和守护母神。她收集了这些身体碎片，将它们重新组合在一起，为奥西里斯重新注入了生命。从照片底部明亮的天狼星周围的星座图案中可以看到阿塞特。天狼星（及邻近区域）在埃及语中被称为“Sopdet”（希腊语：Sothis）。天狼星在夏季的晨昏升起预示着埃及的新年。 向北看，我们可以发现一颗淡蓝色的恒星。这是井宿三（Alhena），它是黄道十二宫双子座脚下的恒星之一，而双子座那两颗明亮的“头部”星星则位于照片左上方的边缘之外。在照片的中上部，我们可以看到御夫座中的五车五（Elnath）。这颗星与希腊神话中的英雄厄里克托尼俄斯（Erichthonius）有关，据说他是四马战车的发明者。这颗星也被认为是金牛座（Taurus）公牛“上角”的末端。在希腊神话中，金牛座与众神之王宙斯（Zeus）有关，宙斯曾派他去抢劫一位公主。众所周知，这个希腊神话故事是为了将巴比伦星座纳入希腊神话体系而编织的。在美索不达米亚的《吉尔伽美什史诗》（我们所知的最古老的文学作品之一，可追溯到公元三千年）中，金牛座是“天之公牛”，是一位嫉妒的女神派来的，被乌鲁克国王打败，拯救了他的人民。在天空中，金牛座包含了许多有趣的天体。
Credit: Mohamed Aboushelib/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns. This image, taken in January 2022, pictures a landscape from Navarra, a province in the north of Spain with ruins from old civilizations in the foreground. Above that, we see a partially cloudy and starry sky with the most prominent stars belonging to the star pattern Orion. Composed of many bright stars with several interesting deep sky objects within its boundaries, Orion is one of the 88 officially recognised IAU constellations. It originates from Greek mythology where the hero Orion is the son of the sea god Poseidon. Orion is characterised as a giant hunter lurking just before he attacks an animal (it is unclear which animal he attacks, but, in the original Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh saga, it is the Bull of Heaven depicted as the constellation Taurus). The modern planetarium interpretation depicts him as a Roman warrior raising up his shield, but the two accompanying dogs, represented by the constellations of Canis Major and Canis Minor, are reminiscent of the Greek hunter. Located at the celestial equator, the star pattern is visible all over the world and is interpreted differently in various mythologies, for example as three fishermen at a campfire in parts of Australia, as a butterfly in some parts of Africa, and as a stairway for the souls of ancestors in parts of South America. As Spain belonged to the Roman empire, the original constellations from earlier times are not known. There are some cave paintings on the Iberian peninsula that could possibly have astronomical references. However, there is uncertainty as to whether these painted figures on rocks depict star patterns. Orion is best visible from November to January. Its most recognisable feature is the “belt”, an asterism composed of three bright, aligned stars (Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka), also recognised by different cultures. Just below this belt is the Orion Nebula, a famous and widely studied star-forming region located about 1500 light-years from Earth. The constellation's brightest stars are Rigel — a blue supergiant which is one of the brightest stars in the sky — and Betelgeuse — a massive red supergiant. The former serves as the left foot, and the latter as the right shoulder of the hunter. While Rigel is in the middle of its life, Betelgeuse is expected to explode within the next few tens of thousands of years. The Orionids, a meteor shower with typical rates of dozens of meteors per hour, whose parent body is Halley’s Comet, can be seen every year in the area of Orion, next to the border with the constellation of Gemini during the month of October.
Credit: Carlos Zudaire/IAU OAE

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 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