Caption: 在 2022 年 IAU OAE 天文摄影大赛中荣获荣誉提名，类别：天体图案静态图像 这张照片拍摄于 2022 年 1 月的伊拉克南部，展示了该地区众多古代遗迹之一在晴朗夜空下的景象，该遗迹看起来像一座巴比伦的金字形神塔（Ziggurat）。早在文字发明之前，苏美尔人就已经建造了这些类似山丘的建筑。最早的金字形神塔可追溯至公元前 4000 年左右。它们的外形类似于截顶金字塔，在巴比伦时期，顶部通常建有神庙。在金字形神塔的台阶旁，可以看到黄道带最南端的星座，这些星座也是由巴比伦人定义的。今天，我们称它们为摩羯座（左侧，有一颗行星位于其中）和人马座。人马座中最亮的星星组成了著名的“茶壶”星群。对巴比伦人而言，人马座代表着神祇 Pabilsag，他是 Larak 城的守护神，同时也是农业与战争之神。他还是强大神医女神 Gula 的丈夫。在巴比伦的神话中，Pabilsag 的形象是一种混合生物，具有人的上半身和头部，但下半身是四足的马身，并拥有两只巨大翅膀和两条尾巴——一条马尾和一条蝎子尾巴。这种生物在希腊神话中并不存在，因此希腊人将其简化为他们熟悉的形象——一个持弓的半人马。然而，这个形象在希腊文化中仍然显得不太合理，因为在希腊神话中，半人马通常被认为是野蛮、残暴的生物，不足以使用弓箭。因此，在希腊文化中同时还存在另一个版本的形象：一个双腿末端长着蹄子的人，即萨梯（Satyr）。然而，这一形象在罗马时代逐渐消失了。 摩羯座是黄道十二宫中最稳定的外来生物之一，千百年来一直保持不变。它被描绘成一种混合生物，前半部分是山羊，后半部分是鱼。因此，这个星座被称为“山羊鱼座”（Goat-Fish）。自巴比伦最早的天文学文献以来，这一星座就已被确认。在巴比伦宗教中，摩羯座代表一种性情温和、仁慈的守护神，它保护人类，促进一切治愈过程，并陪伴着智慧与巫术之神。希腊人直接接受了这一形象，并为其创造了神话故事。在罗马时代，摩羯座变得极为著名，因为罗马皇帝奥古斯都将其作为个人象征，并将其铸刻在钱币和其他政治宣传工具上。 在人马座的范围内，还能看到银河系明亮的中央凸起。然而，在这张照片中银河几乎不可见，这是现代文明的影响所致。由于地球上大量的人工光源照亮了夜空，使得人类居住区难以看到银河。
Credit: Ruqayah Mohammed/IAU OAE

Caption: 2022 年国际天文学联合会 OAE 天体摄影比赛静态天体图案类获奖作品。 本影像摄于2021年10月意大利威尼托大区的多洛米蒂自然公园（Parco Naturale Dolomiti），展现拉瓦雷多三峰（Tre Cime di Lavaredo）上空的壮丽星野。 画面左侧明亮光点为木星，此时正位于摩羯座。木星右下方、摩羯座双角星之间可见土星。木星上方延伸至水瓶座（黄道最大星座之一）区域。银河左侧北天区多为暗星，唯左上角泛白的飞马座双星"危宿三"（Enif）较醒目。 银河如天界雾霭自岩峰升腾，其左右分别悬着牛郎星（Altair/河鼓二）与织女星（Vega/织女一）——这对被银河分隔的"星界眷侣"呼应着中国七夕传说。现代天文学将二者与画面顶缘的天津四（Deneb）共组"夏季大三角"，构成北半球经典星象。 牛郎星作为巴比伦鹰座（Aquila）主星，承载着《埃塔纳史诗》中神鹰背负君王凌空瞰地的古老传说。古罗马时期，托勒密将鹰座下方新增的"安提诺乌斯"子星座（Antinous）解读为溺亡尼罗河的哈德良皇帝宠臣之魂。 织女星（银河右侧亮白星体）隶属天琴座，该星座以拥有行星状星云"环状星云"（Ring Nebula）闻名，展现恒星临终时抛射气体形成的瑰丽景象。 画面右缘显著弯曲排列的三星为大熊座北斗杓柄，其指向地平线附近的牧夫座主星大角星（Arcturus）。牧夫座风筝状星群可能源自巴比伦神"恩利尔"（Enlil）的天界投影，后被罗马人重构为驾驭"七牛星"（即北斗七星）的耕夫形象。 织女星正右方可见武仙座广袤星域，其下方与牧夫座左侧交界的半圆星群，则是希腊神话中克里特公主阿里阿德涅的冠冕——北冕座（Corona Borealis）。 画面左下角云层反光为人造光源所致。
Credit: Giorgia Hofer/IAU OAE

Caption: The constellation Sagittarius along with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Sagittarius is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top) Aquila, Scutum, Serpens Cauda, Ophiuchus, Scorpius, Corona Australis, Telescopium, Microscopium and Capricornus. The brighter stars in Sagittarius form a distinctive teapot shape. Sagittarius 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 Sagittarius from mid December to mid January. The other planets of the Solar System can often be found in Sagittarius. Sagittarius lies south of the celestial equator. The famous teapot asterism is visible for all but the most arctic regions of the world but the most southerly parts of the constellation are not visible in northern parts of Asia, Europe and North America. Sagittarius is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere summer and southern hemisphere winter. The supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* which lies at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is sits on the western (here right-hand) edge of Sagittarius. Due to it covering an area at the center of our Galaxy, Sagittarius is home to many star clusters including open clusters (marked here with yellow circles) and globular clusters (marked here with yellow circles with + signs superimposed on them). Three nebulae are also marked here with green squares. 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

Caption: The constellation Capricornus (commonly called Capricorn) including its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Capricornus is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top) Aquarius, Aquila, Sagittarius, Microscopium and Piscis Austrinus. Capricornus 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 Capricornus from mid January to mid February. The other planets of the Solar System can often be found in Capricornus. Capricornus lies just south of the celestial equator and is visible to all observers south of the Arctic Circle. Capricornus is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere autumn and southern hemisphere spring. In the south east (lower left on this diagram) of the constellation one can find the globular cluster M30 (shown here as a yellow circle with a plus sign superimposed on it). 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

Caption: 宝瓶座及其明亮恒星与周边星座示意图。从顶部开始沿顺时针方向，宝瓶座周边的星座依次为：飞马座、小马座、天鹰座、摩羯座、南鱼座、玉夫座、鲸鱼座和双鱼座。宝瓶座位于黄道上。从地球看来，太阳以一年为周期在天球上移动，所经过的路径称为黄道，在图中以蓝色实线标注。太阳在每年二月中旬到三月中旬位于宝瓶座。太阳系中的其他行星也经常出现在宝瓶座。 宝瓶座横跨天赤道，因此在地球上的任何地方，一年中的某些时候都能看到它。在地球南北两极，宝瓶座的某些部分可能不可见。宝瓶座在北半球的秋季和南半球的春季夜晚最适宜观测。 球状星团M2和M72在图中以叠加了十字符号的黄色圆圈标注。行星状星云NGC 7293（螺旋星云）和NGC 7002（土星状星云）在图中以叠加了十字符号的绿色圆圈标注。M73在图中以叉号标注，它是一个偶然形成的恒星群，之前被错误归类为疏散星团。 该图的纵轴为赤纬，横轴为赤经，方向为上北下南左东右西。图中标注的恒星大小对应其视星等——衡量天体视亮度的标准，较大的圆点代表着较亮的恒星。图中的希腊字母标注着星座中最亮的恒星。这些恒星按亮度排序，最亮的一般被标记为α星，第二亮的一般为β星，等等，不过这种字母排序并不总是和实际亮度排序完全一致。图中虚线标注的是国际天文学联合会划定的星座边界，绿色实线则是一种常见的星座形象连线。需要注意的是，在实际观测时，这些边界与连线都不会出现在天空中。
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 Aquila with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Aquila is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Sagitta, Hercules, Ophiuchus, Serpens Cauda, Scutum, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Delphinus. Aquila is most notable for its brightest star Altair. This forms one vertex of the prominent Summer Triangle asterism that is visible in northern hemisphere summer evenings. Aquila spans the celestial equator and thus some part of it is visible from all of the Earth at some point in the year. It is most visible in the evenings in the late northern hemisphere summer and late southern hemisphere winter. 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 in the lower right of the diagram is 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 IAU/Sky & Telescope

Caption: The constellation Microscopium with its brighter stars and surrounding constellations. Microscopium is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Capricornus, Sagittarius, Telescopium, Indus, Grus and Piscis Austrinus. Microscopium is a faint constellation with relatively few bright stars. Microscopium is a southern constellation and thus the whole constellation is visible at some point in the year throughout the southern hemisphere. The whole constellation is also visible in equatorial and some temperate regions of the northern hemisphere with parts of the constellation visible from other northern temperate regions. Microscopium is best viewed in the evening in the northern hemisphere autumn and southern hemisphere spring. 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. The ecliptic is marked with a blue line in the top right.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope

Caption: The constellation Piscis Austrinus with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Piscis Austrinus is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Aquarius, Capricornus, Microscopium, Grus and Sculptor. Piscis Austrinus is a southern constellation and thus the whole constellation is visible at some point in the year throughout the southern hemisphere. The whole constellation is also visible to some equatorial regions of the northern hemisphere with parts of the constellation visible to the remaining equatorial and some temperate northern hemisphere regions. Piscis Austrinus is best viewed in the evening in the northern hemisphere autumn and southern hemisphere spring. 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 in the top right of the diagram marks the ecliptic. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars, nor the ecliptic, appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope