Caption: Second place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Wide star fields. This panoramic dawn image shows the majestic band of the Milky Way – our home Galaxy – made up of a few hundred billion stars, among other structures, most of which are not detectable by our eyes, or in some cases even directly with telescopes. The appearance of the band is because the Milky Way is a disc-shaped galaxy, and we (Earth/Solar System) are situated within the disc. Diverse cultures and traditions around the world each have their own name and cultural stories for the Milky Way. The dark regions visible in the Milky Way are large, dense, cool nebulae (clouds of dust and gas), which obscure the light from stars in the Milky Way. The Indigenous Australians associate stories with the dark patches of the Milky Way, one of the most prominent being the Emu in the Sky (called Tchingal in Wotjobaluk country). In and around the band of the Milky Way there are a vast range of star clusters, two familiar ones are M6 (Butterfly cluster) and M7 (Ptolemy’s cluster). The bright point just above the horizon is the planet Venus (known to the Boorong people of Indigenous Australia as Chargee Gnowee, elder sister of the Sun). Within the band of the Milky Way the brightest point in the image is the planet Jupiter (called Ginabongbearp, the Sulphur-crested white cockatoo by the Boorong). The planet Saturn is the bright point between Venus and Jupiter (closer to Venus than Jupiter). There are two constellations and one asterism that can be easily discerned in the image: Aquila, Scorpio (Maui’s Hook), and Teapot (asterism in Sagittarius). In this image, the center of the Milky Way at an approximate distance of 26,000 light years from Earth, is located roughly to the top right of the Teapot spout. The bright red-orange point to the right of Jupiter is the red supergiant star Antares and is part of the constellation Scorpio (known as Maui’s Hook in Māori and Polynesian cultures). This variation in the colour of stars is the result of temperature of the stars (lower temperature stars are redder, higher temperatures stars are bluer).
Credit: Amirreza Kamkar/IAU OAE

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 年國際天文學聯合會 OAE 天體攝影競賽 "延時天體圖案 "類別榮譽獎。 這幅延時攝影作品是 2020 年 8 月在斯洛伐克拍攝的。通過在部分畫面中固定天空與地球自轉的相對運動，作為觀眾的我們可以體驗到不同的視角。 銀河系，我們的家園星系，在整段視頻中清晰可見。銀河附近明亮的天體是木星和土星，它們靠得很近，其中木星更亮。 這段視頻還展示了業餘天文學家用望遠鏡對準天空觀測英仙座流星雨的互動過程。天文觀測的一個遺憾是，有時雲層會突然遮住整個天空。雲霧出現的主要原因是雨後溼度較大。 天空中的大部分亮線都是由衛星造成的，但其中有些出現的時間很短，也不是很明顯，它們是流星，因為這段視頻是在英仙座流星雨高峰期前後拍攝的。
Credit: Robert Barsa/IAU OAE

Caption: 2022年國際天文學聯合會（IAU）OAE天文攝影比賽延時天體圖案類別榮譽獎作品。 這幅延時攝影作品拍攝於2020年12月，展示了位於南半球智利的聖佩德羅-德阿塔卡馬的夜空。 在第一幅畫面中，可以看到我們所在的銀河系，以及圍繞銀河系運行的兩個衛星星系——大小麥哲倫雲。在畫面底部，可以看到明亮的恆星南門二和馬腹一（也被稱為半人馬座α星和β星），它們都位於半人馬座。在它們正上方，還可以看到北迴歸線以南可見的南十字座。它對導航非常重要，因為它的長軸指示著南天極的方向。畫面頂端，位於銀河右側的亮白色恆星是位於船底座的老人星，它是夜空中最亮的恆星之一。老人星是全天第二亮的恆星，而南門二則是第三亮的恆星。 在接下來的一些畫面中，獵戶座帶著它明亮的恆星和特有的星群——由三顆排列整齊的亮星組成的腰帶，清晰地出現在畫面中。因為這段視頻是從南半球拍攝的，所以這位來自北半球的希臘英雄似乎正在倒立。 我們還能看到木星和土星緊密相合，甚至可在它們周圍看到正在緩緩沒入地平線的明顯光帶，那就是黃道光。一些畫面中還閃爍著幾顆流星，其中一顆流星的尾跡持續時間很長，並在不斷延伸。一輪明月從安第斯山脈的火山後面升起，產生了壯觀的陰影和曙暮輝光。在最後一幅畫面中，我們看到月亮與相合的木星和土星為伴。
Credit: Robert Barsa/IAU OAE

Caption: First place in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Time lapses of celestial patterns.   This video is a compilation of several recordings taken on various occasions in June 2019, both on Easter Island and in the Atacama Desert in Chile. It starts with an impressive opening of clouds seeming to emerge behind the famous statues on Easter Island and moving directly forwards towards the observer. It evokes the impression of the mighty deities sending clouds to cover the night sky. In the next couple of scenes, we see landscapes with an impressive Milky Way turning overhead, but this quiet scene is continuously interrupted by hasty satellites or — in one of the scenes — even by car lights on the ground. It illustrates both the majesty of the sky and the disturbance of nature by human influence. Then there is another scene of clouds passing by, but now from left to right. The terrestrial clouds pass below the clouds of stars that form the Milky Way. The last scene shows an undisturbed still pattern of stars that looks like a flight over a zoomed-in photograph, and shows how we are not used to experiencing nature’s stillness and silence.
Credit: Jianfeng Dai/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   This image was taken in February 2020 in the Coquimbo Region along the northern coast of Chile. It is one of the best places on Earth for astronomical observations, thanks to its clear skies, lack of light pollution and lack of precipitation, as it is close to the Atacama desert, one of the driest places on our planet. It is no coincidence that many of the most modern professional observatories are located here. The picture shows prominent patterns visible in the southern latitudes, containing rich cultural significance for various Indigenous groups of the southern world. In the bottom of the image towards the right, the Southern Cross is prominent. The orange star at the top of the Southern Cross is called Gacrux (gamma crux). The people in Chile celebrate the beginning of winter at the beginning of May when the constellation Crux is high up in the sky; for them it is a symbol of the start of the cold season. For the festival of the Cruz de Mayo (the Great Cross), they put candles next to crosses in their villages when the constellation Crux is high. As in Christianity, the four endpoints (stars) of the cross symbolise the cardinal virtues. For some indigenous Chileans, they represent the fundamental cultural principles: force, reciprocity, wisdom, and spirituality. Unlike modern constellations that are arrangements of several stars, Indigenous peoples sometimes associate stories with individual stars. In the case of the Southern Cross for example, the Boorong, Djab Wurrung and Jardwadjali peoples of Australia refer to the star Gacrux as Bunya (the ring-tailed possum). From the Southern Cross to the left of the image are two bright stars, these are called the pointer stars (as they point to the Southern Cross). The Djab Wurrung and Jardwadjali people refer to the pointer stars as the Bram-bram-bult brothers, who hunted and killed the giant Emu Tchingal. Alpha Centauri, which is the brighter and whiter of the two pointer stars, is the closest star to the Sun that we can see with our eyes, located just over four light-years away. To the bottom left of the Southern Cross is a dark nebula, which the Indigenous Australians see as the head of the Emu Tchnigal (the Coalsack Nebula). The pointers are located on the neck of the Emu. The image also shows two other IAU constellations, Centaurus (The Centaur) and Lupus (The Wolf), and HII regions of the Eta Carina Nebula (seen in pink).
Credit: Uwe Reichert/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   This image, taken from the Avenue of Baobabs, Morondava, Madagascar, in July 2017, shows the majestic band of the Milky Way, our home galaxy, together with a rich collection of constellations and asterisms: Crux, Centaurus, Scorpius, Sagittarius and the Teapot asterism. Towards the bottom left of the image we can see the Southern Cross and the pointer stars Alpha (the brighter of the two) and Beta Centauri, which help to distinguish it from similar-looking configurations. Some cultures in Africa associate the Southern Cross with a giraffe, while others associate the constellations with a pride of lions or even with the Tree of Life. Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, is the orange-red star straight up from the middle baobab tree. To the Pokomo people from southwestern Kenya, Africa, the Milky Way is associated with the smoke emanating from a campfire lit by ancient people. The various people in South Africa, in contrast, have different star tales; the Khoikhoi from the region around Cape Town explained the colours of the red and white stars as red and white roots that were roasted on a fire and thrown towards the sky together with the ashes of the fire. The Xhosa from further east consider the Milky Way the raised bristle of a huge angry dog, while the Zulu from near Johannesburg interpret it as a stream of spears of their strongest warriors. Polynesian people, who were adept seafarers and navigators, see the constellation Scorpius as a fish hook, and refer to it as the demigod Maui’s Fish Hook. For the Djab Wurrung and the Jardwadjali people, the Southern Cross is part of a Dreamtime Story involving Tchingal, the Bram-bram-bult brothers (the pointer stars), their mother Druk (Delta Crux), and Bunya, the hunter who gets changed into a possum (Gacrux, red star at the top of the Southern Cross). In this image, the planets Saturn (the bright point above Antares) and Jupiter (the bright point at the bottom-right of the image close to the trunk of the baobab tree) are visible. Indigenous cultures have various stories associated with the planets, for example Kamilaroi and Wailan people associate Saturn with wunygal, a small bird. The Boorong people of Western Victoria associate Jupiter with Ginabongbearp, the chief of the old spirits (Nurrumbunguttias), who takes the totemic form of the sulphur-crested white cockatoo.
Credit: Amirreza Kamkar/IAU OAE

Caption: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   This image shows the Milky Way crossing the sky above the historical Bixby Bridge in Big Sur, a mountainous region in California, USA, in May 2021. The star directly above the shore is Antares, a red supergiant in the heart of the Scorpion. To its left, the clouds of the Milky Way seem to emerge from the same point of the horizon as the rocky landmass. Above the land, below the Milky Way in the left quarter of the image, is another bright star, Altair, the bright star in Aquila, the Eagle. The scorpion is considered a dangerous animal, so scorpion-men (human-scorpion hybrids) guarded the gate to the Netherworld in ancient Babylonian stories, as reported in the Gilgamesh saga. The Eagle, in contrast, appears in the Babylonian saga of King Etana who was taken to the sky by an Eagle and describes the world that he sees below him with increasing distance. Both heroes, Gilgamesh and Etana, are searching for the “herb of life” but one of them by going down, the other by travelling upwards. Gilgamesh aims to get back his dead friend Enkidu and to become immortal himself, while Etana is seeking the herb to help his wife become pregnant. The scorpion and the eagle are the animals supporting these heroes in their search, that ultimately remained unsuccessful. Gilgamesh finally learned that humans can only become immortal by their good deeds for humanity. The Eagle was also recognised in Greek culture, but it was only in Roman times that it became a messenger of a dead soul, carrying it towards the eternal stars. This was when Ptolemy created a constellation to represent the soul of Antinuous below the classical Eagle. This young friend and consultant of the Roman emperor Hadrian drowned in the Nile only seven years before the completion of the Almagest, and the whole Roman empire observed a state of national mourning. The Milky Way is seen as a “pathway of souls” by many cultures, but in the Babylonian culture, this is not the case. Still, in Greco-Roman philosophy, the bright white parts of it between Antares and Altair, at the intersection of the Milky Way and the Zodiac do have a meaning: Plato, Macrobius and other philosophers refer to it as “the X in the sky”, and the second Celestial Gate was probably considered to be here (the first one being the gate formed by the Hyades and Pleiades). These celestial pathways and gates, depicted above a gigantic bridge in the landscape and a site where the realms of land and ocean meet, make for an incredibly charged photograph. Additionally, the dark clouds in the Milky Way directly above the land form one of the two large dark constellations of the crocodiles, as interpreted by some people in southern Australia.
Credit: Marcin Zajac/IAU OAE

Caption: 2022年國際天文學聯合會（IAU）OAE天文攝影比賽靜態天體圖案類別獲獎作品。 這張照片2016年7月拍攝於肯尼亞安博塞利國家公園，該公園位於赤道附近。 在北非的埃及神話中，銀河被看作神靈所航行的河流。南非的祖魯人將這種由明暗星雲組成的圖案解釋為一種皮膚黑白相間的動物，而南非的科伊科伊人和桑人則認為它是“星路”。在南非的一些文化中，銀河的拱門是一位母神創造的通往天堂的道路——這是19世紀的早期人類學研究所采納的一個南非創世神話，但這一神話如今已經消失。 在照片的右中部，我們可以看到現代天蠍座中明亮的紅色恆星心宿二。照片左上角邊緣是白色的織女星，開普敦附近的人認為它是雄性的駿馬。 澳大利亞原住民對銀河有很多稱呼。澳大利亞北領地阿納姆地區的約爾努（Yolnu）人稱呼銀河為“Milnguya”，意為“天河”。這張照片中的一個突出圖案與銀河的明暗區域對比有關。 這些暗區是由星際塵埃和氣體組成的低溫緻密雲團，阻擋了其背後恆星發出的光線。其中一個突出的圖案被澳大利亞南部幾個土著民族稱為“Tchingal”，意為“天上的鸸鹋”。鸸鹋的頭部和嘴部（即煤袋星雲）位於南十字座（照片右下角）的左下方，身體和腿部則從南十字座向左延伸。其他原住民群體則將暗區與洞穴或水道聯繫在一起。鸸鹋一年四季的朝向提供了重要的線索，表明什麼時候應該採集鸸鹋蛋，什麼時候鸸鹋蛋開始孵化。在某些月份，當這些銀河暗雲靠近地平線時，人們則認為它們不是鸸鹋，而是兩條匍匐前進的鱷魚。 在銀河系中心的上方，可以清楚地看到黑暗的菸斗星雲的現代形象。銀河上方那顆橙紅色的恆星是天蠍座的心宿二，而菸斗的煙霧可以到達心宿二旁邊色彩斑斕的蛇夫座ρ區域。波隆人把心宿二稱為“Djuit”，意為“紅腰鸚鵡”；而西部沙漠的科卡塔人則把心宿二稱為“Kogolongo”，意為“紅尾黑鳳頭鸚鵡”。 此外，照片中還可以看到一些著名的星座：天鵝座、天鷹座、天琴座、天蠍座、人馬座、南十字座和半人馬座。在南非的一些傳統中，指針星——半人馬座α星（南門二）和β星（馬腹一）偶爾被視為野獸的眼睛。
Credit: Amirreza Kamkar/IAU OAE

Caption: 2022年國際天文學聯合會（IAU）OAE天文攝影比賽靜態天體圖案類別榮譽獎作品。 這張照片於2016年3 月在印度尼西亞爪哇島的婆羅摩騰格塞梅魯國家公園拍攝，展現了銀河形成的拱橋和許多突出的星座，包括了夜空中最顯著的亮星。 在照片左下角，我們可以看到南門二和馬腹一，前者較低，後者較高，都位於的巨大的半人馬座中。可由它們的指引找到南十字座，南十字座的長軸指向南天極，而南天極大致位於地平線上，這是因為爪哇島幾乎位於赤道上。南十字座幾乎完全被雲層遮擋，照片中只能看到四顆明亮的星星。而南船座中的恆星組成的贗十字星群，在稍遠處的銀河上方也明顯可見，容易使人混淆。 真正的南十字座和贗十字星群之間的粉紅色斑點是船底座星雲，距離地球約8500光年，位於船底座，肉眼看不到。在船底座，我們還可以看到夜空中第二亮的恆星——老人星，它就在銀河和地面道路之間。 更亮的是天狼星，夜空中最亮的恆星。天狼星位於大犬座，大犬座是獵戶座的兩隻獵犬之一。獵戶座在照片的右半部分，地平線附近雲層的上方。獵戶座的腰帶上有三顆明亮的恆星，其連線左上指向天狼星，右下指向堪堪露出地平線的畢宿五。 獵戶座包含了天空中最亮的幾顆恆星，是色彩最豐富的星座，因為它擁有參宿七——銀河下方靠右的一顆藍色亮星，以及參宿四——參宿七右上方較高位置的一顆紅色亮星。在它們之間，三顆恆星組成了著名的星群——獵戶座腰帶。獵戶座大星雲就在獵戶座腰帶旁邊，這是一個恆星形成區，其明亮的中心即便用肉眼看也清晰可見，在這張照片中也是如此清晰。 在參宿四的上方，銀河的另一側，可以看到明亮的南河三，其英文名稱Procyon的字面意思是”在狗之前“。在希臘神話中，它被看作由單顆恆星組成的星群，是與獵戶座相伴的小獵犬，後來演變成了現代的小犬座。 在照片右上角，巨蟹座的蜂巢星團很容易辨認。在其下方，可以看到雙子座的北河二和北河三，它們在這張照片中並不顯眼。與之形成鮮明對比的是，御夫座的明亮白色恆星五車二，在照片右邊緣中部的雲層中閃閃發光。 在地面道路周圍可以看到一些光汙染。
Credit: Giorgia Hofer/IAU OAE

Caption: 2022年國際天文學聯合會（IAU）OAE天文攝影比賽靜態天體圖案類別獲獎作品。 這幅全天圖像展示的是2019年5月在日本長野看到的銀河系越過天頂的景象。這種全天空圖像可以用魚眼鏡頭拍攝，也可以用地面上的凸面鏡拍攝，後者也可以顯示出拍攝者。 在這幅圖像中可以看到夜空中最亮的幾顆恆星，以及太陽系中的兩顆巨行星——木星和土星。木星是本圖底部最亮的一點，而土星則是銀河系另一側的另一個亮點，位於底部，緊挨著地平線。 在銀河的正右方、木星的下方，我們可以看到一顆明亮的紅色恆星——心宿二，它是日本星宿“心宿”的主星。日本星宿源於中國古代的星宿，只做了很小的改動，甚至沒有改動。在這一傳統中，“心宿”是“四象”之一“蒼龍”的心臟，代表著春天。在巴比倫和希臘羅馬的傳統中，這個區域被認為是天蠍的心臟。在巴比倫宗教中，這顆星與母神的孩子李斯有關，但在希臘神話中，由於它的顏色，它與火星有關。紅色也使這顆恆星在中國被稱為“大火星”。我們知道，這種顏色是由它相對較低的溫度造成的。 從心宿二向右移動，我們會看到天空中更靠北的部分。圖像右下方靠近地平線的亮星是位於現代的牧夫座的大角星。心宿二及其周圍天區被認為是蒼龍的心臟，而大角星和角宿一（位於地平線之下）則是兩個僅含有單星的星群，構成了蒼龍的巨角。在圖像右側的地平線邊緣，從上方向它指去的，是北斗七星的柄，它是大熊座的一部分。 銀河右側、圖像中間上方的亮點是織女星，位於現代的天琴座。向銀河的另一側連一條線，在圖像的下方一點，我們可以看到牛郎星，位於天鷹座。從那裡我們可以再將一條線連到天鵝座最亮的恆星——牛郎星，這顆星在圖像中的位置也稍高一些，完全被銀河淹沒了。這三顆明亮的恆星組成了北半球被稱為“夏季大三角”的星群。
Credit: Ohnishi Kouji/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: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   Taken in May 2022 in Teide National Park in Tenerife, Spain, this image shows the arc of the Milky Way galaxy crossing the sky, accompanied by prominent constellations over the professional telescopes located on the mountains of that island. While the telescopes and the people working with them may  ignore the constellations, the photographer managed to catch the Milky Way in such a way that it almost matches the shape of the mountain. The bright star in the top-left side of the image is Vega, one of the brightest stars in the night sky and located in the small constellation Lyra. Being a white star, it is the standard star astrophysicists use to define the colour scale. As it is also a relatively close star, only about 25 light-years away, with a relatively simple name, it frequently appears in modern science fiction, for example in Carl Sagan’s famous novel “Contact”, which was filmed in 1997 with Jodie Foster starring as a radio astronomer. The bright star seen below the galaxy and on the left half of the image is Altair, also one of the brightest stars in the night sky and located in the constellation Aquila. Together with Deneb — a star in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan) that is not visible in this image — Altair and Vega form the Summer Triangle, a characteristic asterism of popular astronomy in the northern hemisphere, where these telescopes are located. On the right side of the image we can see the constellation Scorpius. This is easily identified by its brightest star, Antares, the reddish star in the Scorpion’s heart. Below it, the whole body and tail of the Scorpion can be found and above it the celestial Scorpion's head is represented by three bright bluish stars. Below the tail and above the horizon, the constellation of Ara, the Altar, is half-visible, but like all the stars of Sagittarius in the Milky Way and the much fainter ones in Hercules and Ophiuchus above it, these constellations are more difficult to pinpoint in this photograph full of stars. The head of Ophiuchus is the relatively bright star in the middle between Vega and Antares. In addition to the huge size of this constellation, it is also important because it is the thirteenth one of the Zodiac, and the Sun spends roughly three weeks in Ophiuchus, after only five days in Scorpius. Furthermore, Ophiuchus represents the model for the mythological best doctor in the world, called Asklepios in Greek mythology, and Aesculab in Latin. His constellation praises all people working in medical professions, including nurses, pharmacists and doctors.
Credit: Curd-Christian Tengeler/IAU OAE

Caption: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns:.   This image features the Milky Way, our home galaxy, over Oregon, USA, as seen in July 2021. It is obviously a composite because the stars are not reflected in the water. Still, it is nicely composed to suggest a similarity between the stream of water on Earth and the (mirrored) stream of stars in the sky. The Milky Way clearly dominates the sky in this image. As a prominent feature in the sky, the Milky Way has been associated with the religions and mythologies of many cultures. The best-known association from Greek folklore “explains” it as a stream of divine milk from the mighty mother goddess Hera, whose husband god Zeus frequently misbehaved (as he did in this case, causing this accident). Greek mythology, on the other hand, considered it to be the path of the souls, while ancient Greek science suggested several scientific explanations, all of which turned out to be false. The Ojibwe in North America, who live to the east of Oregon where this photograph was taken, also consider the Milky Way a Path for Spirits and a River of Souls. Looking at the foreground of the picture, this belief is even more understandable; it looks as if the rivers of Earth and heaven merge at the horizon. The prominent feature in the middle of the image is the dark region called the Pipe Nebula in the Milky Way. The smoke of this pipe goes to the right and ends almost at a treetop, where we find the orange star Antares in the heart of the Scorpion. In the middle of the image, below the Pipe, there is a huge dark area in the Milky Way with two prominent red spots. These spots are hydrogen clouds called the Cat’s Paw and the Lagoon, but in this image they look like the red eyes of great Manitou, the Great Spirit of the Iroquois Native Americans. The constellation of Sagittarius in this area is not recognisable because the image of the Milky Way is highly processed in order to display these dark features that are invisible to the naked eye.
Credit: Marcin Zajac/IAU OAE

Caption: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns: Equatorial Milky Way   Taken in Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park, Java Island, Indonesia, in March 2016, this image captures regions of the southern Milky Way and, at its left edge, the two planets Mars and Saturn. Mars appears orange and is similar in colour to the star Antares, whose Greek name — anti Ares — references this. Saturn is a little bit fainter than Mars, but clearly visible among the stars of Ophiuchus, above the Pipe Nebula and forming an isosceles triangle with Mars and Antares. Mars is on the top and Saturn is vertically below. Visible to the naked eye, both planets have significance in many cultures around the world. In Roman mythology Mars is the god of war and fertility, and Saturn the god of sowing and agriculture. Its Greek equivalent, the god Kronos, is also considered the regent of completion. Indigenous Australians, including the Kamilaroi and Wailan people, associate Saturn with “wunygal”, a small bird. Mars is called Iherm-penh (something burnt in flames) by the Anmatyerre people of the Central Desert, while the Kokatha people of the Western Desert associate Mars and the star Anatres with the red-tailed black cockatoo (Kogolongo). In the middle of this photograph, the most famous southern constellations are clearly recognisable: the Southern Cross (Crux), the pointer stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri, the dark Coalsack Nebula and the red Eta Carina Nebula, which is not visible to the unaided eye but is prominent in modern photographs. In the 19th century, the star eta Carinae had been the second-brightest star in the sky for some time, but since it varies irregularly, it has hardly been recognisable in recent decades, and its future visibility is unpredictable. Triangulum Australe is visible between the pointer stars and the Scorpion, and in the constellation of Centaurus, the bright globular star cluster Omega Centauri is clearly displayed. It was considered a “nebulous star” since antiquity and, thus, was listed in star catalogues for at least 2000 years. Only within the last century did astronomers discover that globular star clusters are in the halo of our galaxy and that this one consists of roughly 10 million stars. The dark regions in the Milky Way, which are cool, dense clouds of dust and gas, form the head and body of the Celestial Emu Tchingal. Together with the Southern Cross and the pointer stars, they appear in the Dreamtime stories of many Indigenous Australians. One story associated with the Djab Wurrung and the Jardwadjali people is part of a Dreamtime Story involving Tchingal, the Bram-bram-bult brothers (the pointer stars), their mother Druk (Delta Crux), and Bunya the hunter, who gets transformed into a possum (Gacrux, the red star at the top of the Southern Cross).
Credit: Giorgia Hofer/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   This image, which shows the majestic band of the Milky Way and a range of culturally significant patterns, was taken in May 2022 at a very high altitude from the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, from which one can see the clouds below. Some prominent star patterns include Scorpius, Sagittarius, Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila, the Summer Triangle asterism, and the Teapot asterism. As the Canary Islands used to be a starting point for European sailors to explore the world, we use this place to point to the many indigenous cultures they encountered. Most notably it is the dark patterns within the band of the Milky Way that hold significance for many Indigenous cultures around the world. The dark patterns are in fact dense, cool clouds of gas and dust that block the light from stars. Indigenous people see caves, waterways and various patterns associated with the dark regions of the Milky Way. The constellations and patterns hold different cultural significance and interpretations for different people. For example, the constellation Scorpius is referred to by Polynesian people as the demigod Maui’s Fishhook. The Yolnu people of Arnhem Land associate Scorpius with a crocodile called Ingalpir. Some Indigenous Australian groups associate stories with individual stars within Scorpius, most notably Antares, the orange-red star in the top right of the image above the band of the Milky Way. Next to the Scorpion and above the bright centre of the Milky Way, there is a prominent dark cloud that is called the Pipe Nebula by modern astrophotographers. The smoke of this pipe goes up to rho Ophiuchi. This and all the other dark clouds in the Milky Way together form the backbone of heaven for some tribes, and an animal with black-and-white skin for South African Zulu people. The nomenclature of bright stars also has cross-cultural roots. For example, Vega (the bright blue star towards the top of the image) comes from the Arabic waqi, from al-nasr al-waqi, the Eagle who throws himself down (in order to hunt). This contrasts with the Flying Eagle, Altair, also derived from Arabic. Antares is a Greek word meaning “the one similar to Mars”, referring to its colour. The star name Shaula in the stinger of the Scorpion is a modern version of the Babylonian or even Sumerian star name.
Credit: Amirreza Kamkar/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   Taken in April 2021 from the top of the Laojun Mountain in China, this image shows a panoramic view of the Milky Way over the Golden Hall called “Yuhuangding” as a symbol of wealth. In China, the Milky Way is considered a huge stream like one of the big rivers. It separates the Cowherd (Altair) and his beloved Weaving Girl (Vega) and it has a Celestial Ford in the northern dark cloud in the modern constellation Cygnus. The Milky Way appears as a whitish arch as we cannot distinguish all the individual stars, but instead see the accumulation of light from them. It is a disc-shaped galaxy and the Solar System is located within one of its spiral arms, so we see it from inside, which gives it the shape of a band in our sky. It is associated with the religions and mythologies of several cultures. The modern term Milky Way derives from Greek folklore as the milk spread in the sky by the mother goddess Hera, when she unwillingly breastfed young Heracles. This son of Zeus and a mortal woman was put next to her while she was asleep but from his strong sucking she woke up and realised she was feeding an unknown child, and immediately pushed the child away. Greek philosophers like Plato considered the glittering band in the sky to be the traces of a former path of the Sun. Alternatively, for the Tupi-Guarani indigenous mythology from South America, the Milky Way represents the “path of tapir”. For some Australian native peoples, its dark clouds formed the shape of an emu if high in the sky, and of crocodiles if low on the horizon. For many southern African, South American and Australian cultures, it was considered a pathway to or from heaven. At the right edge of the image, we can recognise the modern constellation Scorpius with its most prominent star, Antares, the reddish star just above the Milky Way. The brightest point seen in the centre bottom of the image is the rising Moon with Jupiter next to it. A few constellations can be distinguished in this image, including Corona Australis, a faint arc-shaped constellation located to the bottom right. Just above the Southern Crown, we can see the Teapot asterism as part of the Sagittarius constellation. Since Sagittarius lies next to the centre of the Milky Way, many structures such as star-forming regions, globular clusters and planetary nebulae can be found within its boundaries. In Sagittarius, we also find a supermassive black hole four million times as massive as our Sun. At the left side of the band, we can identify the bright star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus, The Swan, through which the Milky Way runs, meaning that a variety of star clusters are found in this constellation.
Credit: Likai Lin/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   The Milky Way and several astronomical objects are seen in this image taken from the southern hemisphere, in Anglers Reach, Australia, in April 2022. On the bottom-left side we can identify the constellation Scorpius with its brightest star, Antares, the reddish spot just above the arc. Some prominent but small southern constellations can also be seen: the dominating bright stars in the middle-left of the image in the Milky Way are the four bright stars of Crux (the Southern Cross) and to its left the two pointer stars, alpha and beta Centauri. Crux points towards the southern celestial pole, which is not marked by a bright star, and The pointer stars point towards Crux, distinguishing it from the asterism of the False Cross in the constellation Argo. Crux features on the national flags of Australia, Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and New Zealand. As Crux lies in the brightest parts of the Milky Way, the dark cloud of the famous Coalsack Nebula is prominent next to the bright stars. It forms one of the dark constellations in South American, South African and Australian indigenous cultures. The huge Australian dark constellation of the Emu is almost completely above the horizon in this image, stretching from its head in the Coal Sack to the horizon. In Greek antiquity, the stars of Crux also belonged to the constellation Centaurus, a hybrid creature with a human torso and head attached to a horse body with four legs. The Greek centaur represents Chiron, the wise teacher of all Greek heroes. Its brightest star is Rigil Kentaurus (Alpha Centauri), the front hoof of the centaur. Just below it, we find the small constellation Triangulum Australe. The triple star system of Alpha Centauri is our Sun’s nearest stellar neighbour. Along the Milky Way in the middle-right of the picture we find the huge constellation Argo, the Ship. The smaller ancient constellation Argo was extended by Dutch navigators around 1600, and the number of stars in this constellation was then so big that the 18th-century French mathematician Lacaille needed to introduce subtitles for Argo in his star catalogue. In doing so, he invented the constellations Puppis, Carina and Vela. In Carina, the Keel of the ship, this reddish photograph clearly displays the Carina Nebula. At the right edge of the image we can spot the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, while the second brightest star, Canopus, the rudder of Argo, the Ship, dominates the area under the arch of the Milky Way. Also below the Milky Way arc, we can see the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud, which are small satellite galaxies of our own Galaxy.
Credit: Lucy Yunxi Hu/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   Taken near Lake Misurina in the Veneto region of Italy in February 2019, this image shows a clear and starry sky over a winter landscape. We can see part of the Milky Way arc. From the left side, towards the south-east, we see Sirius, "The Burner" in Greek, the brightest star in the night sky. It is part of the constellation Canis Major, The Great Dog, one of the dogs of Orion, the great hunter, in Greek mythology. Orion’s other dog, Canis Minor, the Small Dog, is represented by the bright star Procyon and its fainter neighbours. The Greek star name means “The One [rising] before The Dog” and the star is seen at the top left side of the image just above the arc of the Galaxy. Orion lies to the right of Canis Major. We can spot its characteristic “belt”, an asterism composed of three bright stars aligned in a straight line.  Above the treetops to the right of Orion, the open star clusters of the Hyades and the Pleiades in the constellation Taurus, the Bull, are visible. According to ancient lore, these two clusters form a Celestial Gate directly next to the intersection of the great circles of the ecliptic and the Milky Way. In Greco-Roman mythology, Taurus is associated with the god Zeus who is said to have used a bull to seduce the Phoenician princess Europa. Above the constellation Taurus, we can see a bright star just above the arc of the Galaxy. This is Capella, the brightest star of the constellation Auriga, The Charioteer. This is one of the 88 modern constellations and is associated with the Greek hero Erichthonius of Athens. Hindu astronomy considers Capella as the heart of Brahma, one of the three major gods. The indigenous people of Bororo in Brazil have a constellation representing a cayman, comprising some of the stars of Auriga and some stars from neighbouring constellations. To the right of Taurus, we find the modern constellation Perseus with the bright double star cluster h+chi Perseii, which represents the metal of Perseus’s sabre in Greek mythology. Perseus is the hero who was sent out to prove himself, and happened to rescue Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus as the Roman poet Ovid wrote. We can also see the constellation Cassiopeia, associated with the queen and mother of Andromeda in Greek mythology. It is composed of five bright stars in the shape of a W, which was considered the asterism of The Key by the Greeks according to the poet Aratus. The recognisable shape is also associated with other mythologies: for instance, it represents the princess Sharmishtha in Hindu astronomy, a bat in Thailand, and a camel in native Arabic astronomy. In the gap between the trees, the Andromeda Galaxy is visible.
Credit: Giorgia Hofer/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   This image shows the night sky over Tre Cime di Lavaredo, (Dolomites Natural Park), in the region of Veneto, Italy, in October 2021. The bright spot on the left-hand side is the planet Jupiter, appearing in the constellation Capricorn. To the right of Jupiter and below the two horn stars of Capricorn is the planet Saturn. Just above Jupiter we can see parts of Aquarius, one of the largest constellations and also part of the Zodiac. North of these constellations, left of the Milky Way, there are mostly faint stars. The brighter whitish one in the top left corner is Enif, a binary star in the constellation Pegasus. The Milky Way seems to emerge from a rock like celestial vapour. Roughly centred in the image are two bright stars left and right of the Milky Way: Altair and Vega, respectively. They seem to be separated by the galactic stream, as told in a popular Chinese folk story where they represent a loving couple. Today, in popular astronomy, the fairly bright star at the upper edge of the photograph is added to form a huge triangle with them, the Summer Triangle in the northern hemisphere. Altair is the brightest star of the Babylonian constellation Aquila, the Eagle. In ancient Babylon, it was said that the Eagle was carrying king Etana up in the air so that he could see Earth from above. Next to the Babylonian Eagle was the constellation of the Corpse, that returned only in Roman times when Ptolemy put it below the Eagle as the new sub-constellation “Antinous”. It is seen as the corpse (or soul) of the Roman emperor Hadrian’s favourite who had just died in the Nile. Vega is the bright white star to the right of the Milky Way. It forms part of the small constellation Lyra, famous for hosting the Ring Nebula, which is an impressive planetary nebula — a dying star blowing its gas into space. At the right edge of the image, three stars in a bent row appear rather prominently. This is the handle of the Big Dipper pointing downwards to a bright star close to the horizon: Arcturus, the bright star of the constellation Bootes (Greek: the Ploughman). This kite-like constellation is probably a pagan interpretation of the Babylonian god “Enlil” whose constellation also occupied that place in the sky. The Romans re-interpreted this figure as The Ox-Driver who controlled the Seven Oxen seen in the bright stars of Ursa Major. Directly right of Vega, there is the huge constellation Hercules and below it, directly to the left of Bootes, we find a half-circle of stars comprising the small constellation Corona Borealis, associated with Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete in Greek culture. The lights seen in the bottom left side of the image are due to the reflection of artificial lights in the clouds.
Credit: Giorgia Hofer/IAU OAE

Caption: Winner in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   Taken in the early hours of 24 April 2022, this image captures the sky of Yunnan Province, China, with a reflection on Lake Nian. The Milky Way is visible on the left side, while whitish Earth clouds are visible on the right. A Lyrid meteor crosses the sky along the Milky Way, its tail pointing back toward the shower's radiant in the constellation Lyra, which lies outside the image above the upper edge. The natural colours of the meteor are impressively clear. A few constellations are also visible. In the top left corner we can recognise the small constellation of the Dolphin, in which five brightest stars comprise the asterism. This asterism forms the head-part of the larger Greek constellation of the Dolphin and was considered the Dolphin since Roman times, when Ptolemy formed the new constellation of Equuleus in the southern part of the original figure. In mediaeval China, this asterism was considered the Good and the Rotten Gourd, the good one being formed by the brighter rhombus on the top and the rotten one made of faint stars in the tail of the Roman dolphin. The bright star to the right of the Dolphin and at the top of the image is Altair, the brightest star in the constellation Aquila. In Chinese uranology, Altair, together with some adjacent areas, forms the constellation of the Drum at the River. However, in Chinese folklore, the bright star stands for a boy in love with a girl, who is represented by the bright star Vega (in Lyra) on the other side of a huge celestial stream, the Milky Way. Vega is not visible in this image but the Lyrid meteor is like a teardrop of the unlucky girl who cannot reach her lover. In the upper right of the image, the constellation Scorpius shines with its bright reddish star Antares. With some of its neighbouring stars, it was regarded in China as the asterism of The Heart, which was also one of the Lunar Mansions. It was considered the heart of the Azure Dragon, the super-constellation of spring, in ancient China. Scorpius and Sagittarius, in the middle of the image, contain the brightest clouds of the Milky Way, the Galactic Centre, which also has clearly visible dark clouds in front of the bright ones. There is no classical Greco-Roman constellation between Aquila and Scorpius, but in the 17th century, two Polish astronomers, the couple Jan and Elizabeta Hevelius, named this area of bright clouds in the Milky Way Scutum, the Shield, in memory of a Polish king. In China, however, this area directly outside the super-constellation (or heavenly enclosure) of the Celestial Market Place was seen as depicting Market Officers.
Credit: Jianfeng Dai/IAU OAE

Caption: 這張令人歎為觀止的照片於2023年6月17日，在納米比亞基特曼斯胡普附近用智能手機拍攝的。夜空中，銀河的雄偉弧線如同一座橫貫蒼穹的天橋。照片中捕捉到了許多著名的天體：位於畫面下方的大小麥哲倫星雲，呈現出模糊的雲狀；畫面左上方的心宿二；以及位於大麥哲倫星雲正上方的煤袋星雲（不同的原住民文化對其有多種稱呼）。在這片星空背景下的剪影是樹木——實際上是原產於南部非洲的蘆薈科多肉植物。這些植物歷史上被稱為“箭袋樹”，因為當地的原住民曾用它們中空的枝幹來製作箭袋。寧靜的納米比亞景色與南半球璀璨的星空交相輝映，讓人一窺宇宙的壯美與地球的獨特魅力。
Credit: 戴建峰/國際天文學聯合會教育辦公室 (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 2023 年 6 月，在納米比亞，H.E.S.S 天文臺的天空一片漆黑，組成銀河系的恆星似乎數不勝數，讓人難以在這張用智能手機拍攝的照片上分辨星座。在照片左下方的塔附近，可見半人馬座阿爾法星和貝塔星。在照片左側的 H.E.S.S 望遠鏡右上方，可見一顆橙色恆星——心宿二，位於天蠍座心臟的一顆紅巨星。
Credit: Jianfeng Dai/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 在寧靜的瀘沽湖畔，寧靜的夜空呈現出一幅迷人的天體全景圖，倒映在平靜的湖水中。這張照片是 2023 年 3 月在中國雲南用智能手機拍攝的，銀河系壯麗的景色令人歎為觀止，巍峨的銀河橫跨天際。銀河系是由恆星、塵埃和天體奇觀組成的錯呲復雜的織錦，在夜空的畫布上編織著一個個故事。這幅陸地與天空和諧融合的作品捕捉到了耐心觀星中的寧靜時刻，幸運的是，雲層沒有遮擋，讓這迷人的景象得以展現。
Credit: Liu Yang/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 這張寧靜的照片於2022年7月在意大利西西里島內布羅迪公園的黑暗夜空下拍攝。在阿吉穆斯科高原的天然巨石上方，壯麗的銀河橫跨天際，宛如一座西西裡的“巨石陣”。這幅星空畫卷展現了眾多天文奇觀：人馬座（位於圖片左下方）和天蠍座（部分被巨石遮擋）、礁湖星雲（巨石左上方的粉紅色區域）以及小人馬座雲（礁湖星雲左上方的模糊區域）。值得注意的是的是，這張照片是用智能手機拍攝的，它向我們展示了隱藏於夜空中的奇蹟，那些敢於遠離城市刺眼燈光，投身於未受汙染的寧靜黑暗懷抱的人能捕捉到這片令人歎為觀止的星空。
Credit: 比亞焦·梅利/國際天文學聯合會教育辦公室 (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 2020 年 5 月，在中國四川高海拔的貢嘎山山頂上，一位孤獨的觀星者站在涼爽的夜風中。他們抬頭仰望，看到了銀河系橫跨天空的壯麗弧線，這張照片是用智能手機的全景模式拍攝的，它在海拔 4200 米處遠離城市燈光的地方拍攝，靜謐的群山突顯了地球與浩瀚宇宙之間的聯繫。我們可以在銀河系中央隆起處看到木星，而地平線上淡淡的綠色氣輝為這一場景增添了一抹迷人的色彩。
Credit: Jianfeng Dai/IAU OAE (CC BY 4.0)

Caption: 在這張於2022年4月用智能手機拍攝的黑白照片，一葉孤舟停靠在澳大利亞尤坎本湖畔，被銀河系的璀璨星空所襯托。銀心的耀眼光芒在夜空中格外醒目，其星雲與恆星交織的復雜圖案形成了鮮明的對比。每一顆閃耀的光點都是一顆遙遠的恆星，或許周圍還環繞著未被探索的行星，突顯了我們廣袤而復雜的銀河家園的浩瀚。
Credit: 胡韻曦（音譯）/國際天文學聯合會教育辦公室 (CC BY 4.0)

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 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 Cygnus with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Cygnus is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Cepheus, Draco, Lyra, Vulpecula, Pegasus and Lacerta. Cygnus is notable for its brightest star Deneb. This forms one vertex of the prominent Summer Triangle asterism that is visible in northern hemisphere summer evenings. Cygnus is a northern constellation and thus the whole of the constellation is visible at some point in the year in the whole northern hemisphere. The whole constellation is also visible from equatorial regions of the southern hemisphere with parts of the constellation visible from temperate southern regions. The plane of the Milky Way runs through Cygnus and thus the constellation is rich in nebulae and star clusters. These include the North America Nebula (NGC 7000) and the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888). The Veil Nebula is a huge supernova remnant, parts of which are marked here as NGC 6960 and NGC 6992/5. All of the previously-mentioned nebulae are marked with green squares. The planetary nebula NGC 6826 is marked here with a green circle superimposed on a plus sign. The open star clusters M29 and M39 are marked here with yellow circles. 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