Caption: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   Taken in November 2019 from the Doi Inthanon National Park, Chiang Mai, Thailand, this image captures the notable northern constellation Cassiopeia, in the shape of the letter M. Although the official constellation name is the Latinised version of the name of queen “Kasseipeia” from Greek mythology, these five bright stars were considered a constellation in many cultures around the world and they are associated with diverse stories. In Thailand, for example, the constellation represents a Bat, while in Hawaiian culture it is called 'Iwa Keli'i, the chief frigate bird. For the Navajo in North America, the bright stars are the central part of the celestial mother (of all stars and humans) revolving around the celestial pole together with her husband, the celestial father (of all stars and humans) seen in the constellation of Ursa Major. For the Maya it was part of the huge constellation of the Hole-Backed Caiman, and for the Inuit a Lamp Stand and a Blubber Container. In ancient China, the bottom-left star was associated with the mythological general Wangliang who drove four horses, represented by the two bright and two fainter stars of the M’s next stroke (from upper-left to lower-middle). The remaining two bright stars and a couple of the other fainter ones are considered a Flying Corridor, a sort of highway, next to the Emperor’s Forbidden Palace that is located at the northern polar region. On the island of Tonga in the South Pacific, this asterism is considered the Wing of Tafahi and it is not clear if this refers to the shape of the island of Tafahi, or if it is based on an error and originally referred to a wing of the Polynesian hero Tafaki. The various colours of the stars indicate their temperatures, with redder stars being relatively cooler on their surface than blue and white stars.
Credit: Thanakrit Santikunaporn/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: 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: 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: 2022 年國際天文學聯合會 OAE 天體攝影比賽“天體圖案靜態圖像”類獲獎作品。 這張拍攝於2021年12月的照片，來自埃及開羅的科塔米亞天文臺（Kottamia Astronomical Observatory），展示了北非最大望遠鏡上方的北半球冬季星空和其中的一些著名星座。 照片展示了獵戶座（位於照片中間的顯眼位置），其腰帶向上指向金牛座的畢宿五（Aldebaran），向下指向大犬座的天狼星（Sirius）。畢宿五是一顆略微發紅的恆星，我們可以看到它位於疏散星團畢星團（照片右上角）的前方，這是金牛座（公牛）臉部的象徵。而那顆明亮的白色恆星是天狼星，夜空中最亮的恆星。它的希臘名字（Seirios）的意思是 "燃燒者"，可以理解為 "最亮的"。 獵戶座在世界各地不同的文化中都有象徵意義。在古埃及宗教中，獵戶座也與一位男性神秖相關聯，即奧西里斯（Osiris）。相傳，奧西里斯被他妒忌的兄弟賽特（Seth）殺害，賽特肢解了屍體，將碎片散布各地。幸運的是，奧西里斯的姐妹兼妻子阿塞特（Aset，希臘語名：Isis）是最強大的女巫和守護母神。她收集了這些身體碎片，將它們重新組合在一起，為奧西里斯重新注入了生命。從照片底部明亮的天狼星週圍的星座圖案中可以看到阿塞特。天狼星（及鄰近區域）在埃及語中被稱為“Sopdet”（希臘語：Sothis）。天狼星在夏季的晨昏升起預示著埃及的新年。 向北看，我們可以發現一顆淡藍色的恆星。這是井宿三（Alhena），它是黃道十二宮雙子座腳下的恆星之一，而雙子座那兩顆明亮的“頭部”星星則位於照片左上方的邊緣之外。在照片的中上部，我們可以看到御夫座中的五車五（Elnath）。這顆星與希臘神話中的英雄厄里克托尼俄斯（Erichthonius）有關，據說他是四馬戰車的發明者。這顆星也被認為是金牛座（Taurus）公牛“上角”的末端。在希臘神話中，金牛座與眾神之王宙斯（Zeus）有關，宙斯曾派他去搶劫一位公主。眾所周知，這個希臘神話故事是為了將巴比倫星座納入希臘神話體系而編織的。在美索不達米亞的《吉爾伽美什史詩》（我們所知的最古老的文學作品之一，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來的，被烏魯克國王打敗，拯救了他的人民。在天空中，金牛座包含了許多有趣的天體。
Credit: Mohamed Aboushelib/IAU OAE

Caption: 這張圖展示了不同恆星溫度和亮度。每個點的大小代表恆星的半徑，顏色代表人眼所看到的顏色。恆星的顏色從淡藍色到淡橙紅色不等，沒有恆星具有像紅、綠或藍這樣的純顏色，因為恆星的光譜包含了許多不同顏色的光。然而，最紅的恆星通常被稱為紅恆星，最藍的恆星被稱為藍恆星。為了展示不同類型的恆星，製作這個圖表的恆星樣本選擇上並沒有反映出每種類型恆星的實際數量比例。 從左上到右下是一條長長的恆星帶，這些恆星在其核心燃燒氫氣，這被稱為主序。在這條線上，我們可以看到參宿三（Mintaka）、波江座α星（Achernar）、天狼星A（Sirius A）、太陽和比鄰星（Proxima Centauri）等恆星。在主序線右下方的比鄰星週圍的天體被稱為紅矮星。在紅矮星的右下方是Teide 1和Kelu-1 A。這兩個天體是褐矮星，它們的質量太低，核心沒有足夠的熱量來持續地進行氫融合。由於它們不燃燒氫，褐矮星不被認為是主序星。"褐矮星"這個名字與它們的顏色無關。 在主序星的上方，我們發現次巨星、巨星和超巨星。這些是已經完成了核心的氫燃燒並演化成更大天體的恆星。恆星的亮度取決於其溫度和大小，因此巨星比具有較小半徑但相同溫度的恆星更亮。隨著時間的推移，這些天體將走向生命的盡頭，經歷行星狀星雲階段或變成超新星。以行星狀星雲階段結束生命的恆星會形成一種叫做白矮星的恆星殘骸。這種天體比相同溫度的恆星小得多，因此更暗淡，並且位於主序星帶的顯著下方。以超新星結束生命的恆星會成為黑洞或中子星。這些在這個圖表上沒有顯示。
Credit: IAU OAE/Niall Deacon