Glossary term: 星座

Description: 用现代科学术语来说，星座是天球中划分出的一个多边形。国际天文学联合会将整个天球划分为 88 个区域，即星座。这个划分以古希腊使用的星座为基础，加上最新增加的（特别是南半球新增加的）星座。88 个星座都占据天空的某一部分，因此，从恒星、星系到星云等，每个天体都可以与一个星座联系在一起。黄道十二宫由 13 个星座组成，它们与黄道（太阳每年在天球上划过的轨迹）重叠。这 13 个星座是蛇夫座、射手座、摩羯座、水瓶座、双鱼座、白羊座、金牛座、双子座、巨蟹座、狮子座、室女座、天秤座和天蝎座。

星座包含一组恒星（小行星），从地球上看是一个图案。这些图案被形象地描述为代表人类、动物或其他可识别的物体。

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Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval

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明亮的流星划过夜空，并在水面上映出其轨迹。左上方的大麦哲伦云呈现为一条模糊的光带。

二重天之间

Caption: 2022 年国际天文学联合会教育办公室天体摄影比赛，"天体图案静态图像 "类别荣誉奖。这张照片于 2014 年 4 月拍摄于澳大利亚纳拉布里，展示了大麦哲伦云旁边的一颗流星以及这一切在水中的倒影。麦哲伦星云是以葡萄牙探险家费迪南德-麦哲伦的名字命名的，麦哲伦在16世纪初绘制了南美洲南部的第一批地图，但未能在探险航行中生还。他的船员们以他的名字命名这两个星云，直到 20 世纪，天文学研究才发现它们实际上是与我们相伴的矮星系。这张照片拍摄于 2014 年 4 月，地点位于澳大利亚纳拉布里，画面中一颗流星划过大麦哲伦星云旁，并在水面上形成倒影。麦哲伦星云因葡萄牙探险家费迪南·麦哲伦而得名，他在 16 世纪初首次绘制了南美洲南部的地图，但未能活到完成远航。他的船员们以他的名字命名了这两片星云。直到 20 世纪，天文学研究才发现它们实际上是我们银河系相伴的矮星系。 18 世纪，一位曾在南非生活多年，以绘制天空和陆地地图为目的的法国数学家让-尼古拉·拉卡伊创造了一些新的星座。他测量了一些暗弱恒星的位置，并将它们列入自己的星表中，但并未尝试在星空图案上加上现实世界中的美丽图像，因此他随意命名了这些星座。他的观测基地位于当时的贸易站，即今天的开普敦市。从这里可以看到著名的桌山。他从航海者那里了解到，水手们通过观察桌山周围的云层来判断风向是否适合航行。通常，桌山顶上会有一大片白云。因此，拉卡伊并未将这两个矮星系中较大的一个视为‘麦哲伦云’，而是将其看作桌山上的云。于是，他在这片矮星系旁的一片暗淡星区中创造了“山案座”这一星座，并以桌山命名。
Credit: 法布里齐奥-梅兰德里/国际天文学联合会教育办公室

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons 署名 4.0 国际 (CC BY 4.0) icons

世界各处的星座

Caption: 2022 年国际天文学联合会 OAE 天体摄影比赛第三名，类别：天体的时间流逝。本视频以自然为舞台主角，采用戏剧化结构，呈现冰岛与中国两地夜空的万千气象。序幕由暮色蓝调渐暗展开，陆地云层为幕，壮美地貌为景，揭晓星空舞台。南天银河最摄人心魄的段落——天蝎座（Scorpius）与南十字座（Crux）之间，伴以半人马座α、β星（Alpha/Beta Centauri）这对"指极星"，如王者巡游般庄严划过天际。地面流云轻抚星光，反令恒星的色彩在朦胧中愈发澄明。第一幕演绎人类文化中的星空意象。当昴星团（Pleiades）自山巅升起时，下方人影持电筒匆匆掠过。恰在昴宿跃出山脊的瞬间，电筒光束直射镜头——这精妙设计以幽默笔触，暗合文明史上人类与"昴宿初升"的深刻羁绊。随后镜头转向北天经典星座——大熊座（Ursa Major）及其北斗七星，下方极光如拱门舞动。虽形态流转不息，本质却亘古如初。尽管北极文化常将极光视为先祖魂灵，本剧却未着墨人类信仰，径自将视野南移。新场景始于日出前的星辰初升，双子座/金牛座（Gemini/Taurus）区域黄道光锥显现，地平线渐染晨曦。约1分13秒处，猎户座（Orion）西沉于水面，天光云影共徘徊。流云过境印证着地球实景拍摄，而猎户肩足近乎同步沉没的奇观，暗示拍摄地近赤道——在此纬度，猎户亮星恰似巨蝶展翅：三星腰带为躯，四星四边形化翼。首先，我们看到一些星星在日出前不久升起。黄道十二宫的光锥出现在双子座/金牛座，地平线变得更加明亮。在下一个场景中，大约 1 分 13 秒时，我们看到猎户座落在水面上，因此水面与天体景象相映成趣。一些云层穿过画面，证明这些视频确实是在我们美丽的星球上拍摄的，而且由于猎户座的肩部和脚部几乎同时落下，这组视频一定是在赤道附近拍摄的。在这一区域，猎户座的亮星看起来就像一只巨大的蝴蝶，猎户座腰带构成了蝴蝶的身体，而四颗亮星组成的四边形则被解释为蝴蝶的翅膀。如真实剧院般，极光幕帘为"天宇戏剧"开启新章。此幕聚焦独特文化星象：既有中国星官体系中的苍龙之尾、箕宿、南斗（对应现代天蝎座与人马座区域），亦展现在全球多文明中被尊为星群的北冕座（Corona Borealis）冠冕轮廓。行星、织女（Vega）、天津四（Deneb）及其周边区域、牛郎（Altair）、银河，以及被地球诸多文明视为星群的仙后座（Cassiopeia）W形标志相继登场。终章以两幕宁谧星空作结，天地归于大寂。
Credit: Stephanie Ye Ziyi/IAU OAE

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons 署名 4.0 国际 (CC BY 4.0) icons

智利的夜空

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

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猎户座在埃特纳火山上空升起

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

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老人星上中天

Caption: 2022 年国际天文学联合会 OAE 天体摄影竞赛 "天体图案的时间流逝 "类别荣誉奖。这段延时视频于 2018 年 1 月在美国约书亚树国家公园拍摄，沿着老人星的轨迹，它是夜空中第二亮的星，从左到右移动，几乎触及地平线。月亮照亮了整个景观。老人星与古老的南船座（Argo）的船舵有关，如今，南船座已拆分为三个现代星座：船帆座（Vela）、船尾座（Puppis）和船底座（Carina），老人星位于船底座。由于它的亮度，在历史上，老人星吸引了世界各地文化的关注。例如，北美洲的纳瓦霍人将这颗恒星命名为 "郊狼"，并说郊狼参与了宇宙的创造。巴西的卡拉帕洛人将老人星与鸭子联系在一起，其他明亮的星星构成了鸭子的身体部位。老人星出现在天空预示着雨季的到来。
Credit: Fabrizio Melandri/IAU OAE

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The bright stars in Andromeda form a Y-shape. Pegasus to the lower right. In the center is M31, marked with a red ellipse.

Andromeda Constellation Map

Caption: The constellation Andromeda showing the bright stars and surrounding constellations. Andromeda is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top) Cassiopeia, Lacerta, Pegasus, Pisces, Aries, Triangulum and Perseus. The brightest star in Andromeda (Alpheratz) is in the lower part of the constellation. Together with three stars in Pegasus it forms the asterism known as the "Great Square of Pegasus". The next two bright stars in the constellation (Mirach and Almach) form a line extending north-east from Alpheratz. Andromeda is a northern constellation and is most visible in the evenings in the Northern Hemisphere autumn. It is visible from all of the Northern Hemisphere and most temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere but is not visible from Antarctic and Subantarctic regions. The most famous object in Andromeda, the Andromeda Galaxy is marked here with a red ellipse and its Messier catalog number M31. The yellow circle on the left marks the position of the open cluster NGC 752 and the green circle on the right marks NGC 7662 (the blue snowball nebula), a planetary nebula. 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

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The four bright stars of Crux form a kite shape with the long axis pointing vertically

Crux Constellation Map

Caption: The constellation Crux (commonly known as the Southern Cross or Crux Australis) showing its bright stars and surrounding constellations. The Southern Cross is surrounding by (going clockwise from the top) Centaurus, Carina and Musca. The brightest star is alpha Crucis which appears at the bottom of the constellation's famous kite shape. The Southern Cross is visible from southern and equatorial regions of the world. In more southerly parts of the world it is circumpolar so is always above the horizon. In other parts of the southern hemisphere and in equatorial regions it is most visible in the evenings in the southern hemisphere autumn. The yellow circles show the locations of two open clusters, NGC 4755 (known as the Jewel Box) and NGC 4609. The line joining gamma and alpha Crucis (the third and first brightest stars in the Southern Cross) points in the approximate direction of the South Celestial Pole. This has led to the Southern Cross playing an important role in celestial navigation, allowing navigators from different astronomical traditions to find their bearings. 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.

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猎户座星图

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

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Libra appears as a triangle pointing north (up) with two lines hanging down. It is bisected by the ecliptic running ESE-WNW

Libra Constellation Map

Caption: The constellation Libra along with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Libra is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top) Serpens Caput, Virgo, Hydra, Centaurus, Lupus, Scorpius and Ophiuchus. Libra 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 Libra from late October to late November. The other planets of the Solar System can often be found in Libra. Libra lies just south of the celestial equator and is thus visible at some time in all but the most arctic regions. Libra is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere late spring/early summer and southern hemisphere late autumn/early 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. 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

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Scorpius appears as a letter T joined to a letter J. The ecliptic runs ESE to WNW and clips one arm of the T

Scorpius Constellation Map

Caption: The constellation Scorpius (often commonly called Scorpio) along with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Scorpius is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top) Ophiuchus, Serpens Caput, Libra, Lupus, Norma, Ara, Corona Australis and Sagittarius. Scorpius’s brightest star Antares appears in the heart of the constellation with the famous tail of Scoprius in the south-east (lower left). Scorpius 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 only spends a short amount of time in late November in Scorpius. The other planets of the Solar System can often be found in Scorpius. Scorpius lies south of the celestial equator. The whole constellation is not visible from the most arctic regions of the world with parts of Scorpius obscured for observers in northern parts of Asia, Europe and North America. Scorpius is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere summer and southern hemisphere winter. The yellow circles mark the positions of the open clusters M6, M7 & NGC 6231 while the yellow circles with plus signs superimposed on them mark the globular clusters M4 and M80. 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 Antares 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. The blue line marks the ecliptic, the path the Sun appears to travel across the sky over the course of one year. 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

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