The Star Atlas Companion: What you need to know about the Constellations (Springer Praxis Books)

Paperback , pages. Published April 19th by Springer first published March 31st To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Star Atlas Companion , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Star Atlas Companion.

Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Sep 04, Matimate rated it really liked it Shelves: Good for home preparation before going out for some observation. Again this was the most delightful gift I got this year. Fernanda rated it really liked it Oct 29, Toprak Oyun marked it as to-read Feb 16, During November, the Taurid meteor shower appears to radiate from the general direction of this constellation. The Beta Taurid meteor shower occurs during the months of June and July in the daytime, and is normally observed using radio techniques.

This outline is created by prominent members of the Hyades , [17] the nearest distinct open star cluster after the Ursa Major Moving Group. In the northeastern quadrant of the Taurus constellation lie the Pleiades M45 , one of the best known open clusters, easily visible to the naked eye. The seven most prominent stars in this cluster are at least visual magnitude six, and so the cluster is also named the "Seven Sisters".

However, many more stars are visible with even a modest telescope. However, they vary considerably in type. The Pleiades themselves are represented by large, bright stars; also many small brown dwarfs and white dwarfs exist. The cluster is estimated to dissipate in another million years. In the northern part of the constellation to the northwest of the Pleiades lies the Crystal Ball Nebula, known by its catalogue designation of NGC This planetary nebula is of historical interest following its discovery by German-born English astronomer William Herschel in Prior to that time, astronomers had assumed that nebulae were simply unresolved groups of stars.

However, Herschel could clearly resolve a star at the center of the nebula that was surrounded by a nebulous cloud of some type. In , English astronomer William Huggins used the spectrum of this nebula to deduce that the nebula is a luminous gas, rather than stars. Beta is a white, spectral class B7 III giant star known as El Nath , which comes from the Arabic phrase "the butting", as in butting by the horns of the bull. As a result, it also bears the designation Gamma Aurigae. Zeta Tauri the proper name is Tianguan [21] is an eclipsing binary star that completes an orbit every days.

This expanding nebula was created by a Type II supernova explosion, which was seen from Earth on July 4, It was bright enough to be observed during the day and is mentioned in Chinese historical texts.

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However, the remnant itself was not discovered until , when John Bevis found it. This system consists of a spectral class B3 star being orbited by a less massive class A4 star. The plane of their orbit lies almost along the line of sight to the Earth. The two stars are separated by only 0. This results in a variation of their net magnitude throughout each orbit.

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This star undergoes erratic changes in luminosity, varying between magnitude 9 to 13 over a period of weeks or months. The pair have a separation of just 5.

This constellation includes part of the Taurus-Auriga complex, or Taurus dark clouds, a star-forming region containing sparse, filamentary clouds of gas and dust. The identification of the constellation of Taurus with a bull is very old, certainly dating to the Chalcolithic , and perhaps even to the Upper Paleolithic. This suggests that the name may have a common ancient origin.

Taurus marked the point of vernal spring equinox in the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age , from about BC to BC, after which it moved into the neighboring constellation Aries. In Babylonian astronomy , the constellation was listed in the MUL.

NA , "The Bull of Heaven ". Some locate Gilgamesh as the neighboring constellation of Orion , facing Taurus as if in combat, [46] while others identify him with the sun whose rising on the equinox vanquishes the constellation. In early Mesopotamian art, the Bull of Heaven was closely associated with Inanna , the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare.

One of the oldest depictions shows the bull standing before the goddess' standard; since it has 3 stars depicted on its back the cuneiform sign for "star-constellation" , there is good reason to regard this as the constellation later known as Taurus. The same iconic representation of the Heavenly Bull was depicted in the Dendera zodiac , an Egyptian bas-relief carving in a ceiling that depicted the celestial hemisphere using a planisphere.

In these ancient cultures, the orientation of the horns was portrayed as upward or backward.

This differed from the later Greek depiction where the horns pointed forward. When the spring equinox entered Taurus, the constellation would become covered by the Sun in the western sky as spring began. This "sacrifice" led to the renewal of the land. Searching for Water in the Universe.

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