Crab Nebula Location on the sky: The Crab Nebula is a winter object. Look towards the south in January at about 9 pm and find the constellation Taurus. Taurus can be identified by two large star clusters: The Pleiades and The Hyades. The Hyades form a ï¿½Vï¿½ shape. Located at one end of the ï¿½Vï¿½ is the bright red giant star Aldeberan. Follow the leg of the ï¿½Vï¿½ through Aldebaran to the Crab Nebula indicated by a star symbol in the figure to the left. Images shown below, at different wavelengths, cover a 0.5 degree x 0.5 degree area of the sky centered on the nebula. The images are taken from the SKYVIEW Virtual Observatory maintained under NASA ADP Grant NAS5-32068 with P.I. Thomas A. McGlynn under the auspices of the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) at the GSFC Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. SKYVIEW contains catalogs and surveys from x-ray to radio observations.

The site is located at Chandra :: Photo Album :: Constellation Taurus Location: Zodiac constellation, visible in both Hemispheres Coordinates: Declination: +15º Source: Bull legends from various ancient civilizations, also Greek mythology, Egyptian, Arab, other The story behind the name: The constellations that are included in the Zodiac - the 12 constellations recognized by Babylonian astronomers through which our Sun, moon, and planets appeared to travel during the course of a year - are considered to be among the oldest sky patterns recognized by human civilizations. They were thought to have more significance because they were touched by the Sun. Taurus is among the very oldest. At the time that the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East civilizations were at their heights, the Sun would have entered Taurus in the spring. For many of these herding and agricultural civilizations, the spring season - planting and births of animals - signaled the start of a new year. The bull figured as a symbol of strength and fertility in many of these ancient cultures, and is prominent in the mythology of almost all early civilizations.

Not only is Taurus associated with myths from Egypt (Apis), Greece (the Minotaur, and several involving Zeus in disguise), and the Druids, but many of the celestial objects in Taurus that are visible to the naked eye were also given significance. Among them are the star clusters Hyades and Pleiades. Johannes Hevelius' Taurus from Uranographia (1690) The rising of the Hyades was associated with rain from ancient Greece to ancient China. The Pleiades were said to be visible in good weather, a sign that the ancient seamen could undertake a sea voyage. The Pleiades are also associated with a myth about Orion , and a Polynesian myth. Some Arab names for the stars in Taurus refer to the bull's horns and the bull's eye. Transit Date of principal star: 30 November Is Taurus attacking Orion, the Hunter, or are the Horns of the Bull the real story? The horn was a symbol of fertility and bountiful riches in many cultures for thousands of years, and it is probably the case here, for the constellation would have announced the Vernal Equinox at around 4000 BC.

The constellation Taurus may also allude to the Greek story of Europa and the Bull. Europa was daughter of King Agenor. One fine spring day, accompanied by her hand maidens, Princess Europa went to the seashore to gather flowers. Zeus, who had fallen in love with Europa, seized the opportunity. Zeus transformed himself into a magnificent white bull, and as such he joined King Agenor's grazing herd. Europa noticed the wonderful white beast, who gazed at them all with such a mild manner that they were not frightened. Europa wove wreathes of flowers for the beast, and wrapped them around his horns. She led him around the meadow, and he was as docile as a lamb. Then, as he trotted down to the seashore, she jumped onto his shoulders. Suddenly, to her surprise and fright, he plunged into the sea and carried the princess to Crete. As they reached the Cretan shore, Zeus then turned into an eagle and ravaged Europa. She bore three sons, the first of which was Minos. Minos is said to have introduced the bull cult to the Cretans.

He had Daedalus build a labyrinth in the depths of his palace at Knossus, which became the home of the Minotaur (offspring of Mino's wife Pasiphae, and a bull). Seven young men and seven maidens were ritually sacrificed to the Minotaur until Theseus killed it. Minos, in fact, was the title of the ancient rulers of Crete, and the story probably tells of their mythic origin. The constellation shows mainly the horns, and exceedingly long horns they are. The left (southern) horn starts from the group of stars known as The Hyades, of which Aldebaran seems (erroneously) to be a member. It extends from Aldebaran to zeta Tauri, near the eastern edge of the constellation. The right horn lifts up just west of the Hyades, from delta Tauri through tau Tauri and finally to its tip at beta Tauri (El Nath: remember this star as part of Auriga?) The rest of the bull is rather disappointing; a slight body and two spindly legs. It may be that the bull is half-emerged in water, as it carries Europa across to Crete.

The stars of Taurus: Taurus' eye is bright and piercing. This is Aldebaran (alpha Tauri), an orange giant about 40 times the size of the Sun. Aldebaran is an old star. For billions of years it has burned its supply of hydrogen until there is little left. Its future won't be as a spectacular explosion of a supernova but rather a gradual dimming into a white dwarf. Following the lower horn out to its tip we find zeta Tauri. This is a shell star. Shell stars are main-sequence stars which rotate rapidly, causing a loss of matter to an ever-expanding shell. Most of the interesting features of Taurus are found in the centre of the constellation and toward the west. Around Aldebaran are a number of stars which go by the collective name of The Hyades (see below). Aldebaran is not a member of this group. Not only is it closer to us, but its proper motion is at a different angle. Aldebaran is moving at an angle of 161 degrees, the stars of the Hyades at around 102-109 degrees.

Double stars in Taurus [NOTE: See the Binocular Section link, at the bottom of this page, for updated values.] Taurus has an abundant selection of binary stars, including many Struve binaries that we haven't mentioned. Below is a very small selection of some of the easier doubles to resolve. Theta2 and theta1 form a fixed binary of wide separation, theta2 just below and to the east. Note that theta2 is the primary: 3.4, 3.8; PA 346� and separation 337". Kappa1 and kappa1 form an easily resolved binary: 4.2, 5.3; PA 328�, separation 5.3". Sigma2 and sigma1 is another wide fixed binary. And again, sigma2 is the primary: 4.8, 5.2; PA 193� and separation 431". 80 Tauri is a difficult visual binary with an orbit of 189.5 years: 5.5, 8.0; current PA 17� and separation of 1.8" (very nearly its maximum separation).

Struve 422 is a wide visual binary with an orbit of over 2000 years: 5.9, 8.8; PA 269�, 6.7". It's located at 9� SW of nu Tauri, just north of the brighter 10 Tauri. Variable Stars in Taurus: Many of the more notable variable stars in Taurus are of a type not noticed by casual observation, such as alpha Taurus, which is classified as an Lb type variable. These are irregular giants whose variation can only be detected by means of photoelectric photometry. Alpha Taurus only changes in visual magnitude by 0.2, from 0.75 to 0.95, and the period is irregular. BU Tauri (Pleione) is a gammaCas type variable, from 4.77 to 5.50. GammaCas variables are also characterised by an irregular period, which may sometimes be very rapid. These are B stars, quite young, and rotate very rapidly. This rotation results in the throwing off of material, which then forms a shell around the star. The cause of its variation is still not understood.

Zeta Tauri is also a gammaCas type variable, with a variation from 2.88 down to 3.17 roughly every 133 days. Lambda Tauri, in the Hyades cluster, is a good example of an eclipsing variable. The variability is caused by the partial eclipse of the primary by its companion, dimming the 3.3 visual magnitude down to 3.8 every 3.95 days. R Tauri is a Mira-type variable with a 320.9 day period. Usually at 7.6, it drops to a very dim 15.8 once a year. In 2000 the maximum should occur in the first week of May. Deep Sky Objects in Taurus: Taurus contains two well known Messier objects: the Crab Nebula and the Pleiades. Besides these two there is the `other' cluster, known as The Hyades, and the curious "Hind's Variable Nebula". Just northwest of zeta Tauri is the first of Messier's objects: M1, the Crab Nebula.

Early observers thought the object to be a star cluster, something like a dimmer version of the Great Orion Nebula. Messier was so intrigued by it, on the night of 12 September, 1758, that he began his catalogue - the purpose of which was to keep observers from mistaking such objects for comets. It takes a rather large telescope to see any of the filamentary features of the nebula; most viewers come away disappointed. The Crab Nebula is a remnant of a supernova, whose explosion occurred (or rather, was visibly recorded) in July of 1054. Chinese and Japanese astronomers witnessed the event. In fact, it would have been difficult not to notice, for the night sky would have been lit up by a star with the visual magnitude of about -5, bright enough to be seen even in the daytime for nearly a month. The star that exploded, producing the nebula, is now an optical pulsar. Even now, nearly a thousand years later, the nebula is hurtling through space at roughly a thousand kilometers per second.

And it continues to grow; the nebula is now over thirteen light years in diameter (four parsecs) according to the Facts On File Dictionary of Astronomy. Pleiades Star Cluster: Messier 45 | Constellation Guide by admin The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters or Messier 45 , is a famous open star cluster located in Taurus constellation . The brightest stars in the cluster represent the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters in Greek mythology, and their parents, the nymph Pleione and the Titan Atlas. Messier 45 is one of the nearest star clusters to Earth. Its brightest stars lie at a distance between 390 and 460 light years. The cluster is mostly composed of hot, blue, highly luminous stars belonging to the spectral class B with an estimated age under 100 million years. The Pleiades (pronunciation: /ˈplaɪ.ədiːz/ or /ˈpliːədiːz/) star cluster is about 110 arcminutes in size and has an apparent magnitude of 1.6.

It is the easiest star cluster to find in the sky, mainly because of its brightness and size, and it is well known in many different cultures and mythologies. The earliest images of the Pleiades cluster date all the way back to the Bronze Age. PLEIADES STAR CLUSTER FACTS AND LOCATION The Pleiades (Messier 45). Image: Rawastrodata The Pleiades cluster contains more than 1,000 stars, not including unresolved spectroscopic binary stars. Up to 14 stars in the cluster are visible to the naked eye in good viewing conditions. The estimated mass of the cluster is equal to 800 solar masses. M45 also contains a significant number of brown dwarfs; they are believed to constitute up to 25 percent of all the stars in the cluster, but as they generally have less than 8 percent of the Sun’s mass, the brown dwarfs in M45 contribute less than 2 percent to the total mass of the cluster. The cluster has a tidal radius of approximately 43 light years, and the core radius is about 8 light years.

The brightest stars in the Pleiades cluster are surrounded by a faint reflection nebula, sometimes known as the Maia Nebula (NGC 1432), after one of the Seven Sisters. The nebula is a cloud of dust illuminated by the hot, luminous stars in the cluster, which are currently passing through the nebulosity. The estimated age of the cluster is between 75 and 150 million years. The stars are gravitationally bound and are moving in the direction of Orion ’s feet. Messier 45 will exist for another 250 million years or so, after which the stars will disperse as a result of interaction with other stars, molecular clouds, and the spiral arms of the Milky Way Galaxy. The cluster appears prominently in the sky in winter in the northern hemisphere and in summer in southern latitudes. It is located to the west-northwest of Aldebaran , the brightest star in Taurus , and pretty easy to find on a clear night. The Seven Sisters are most prominent between October and April. In early November, the cluster rises in the east after sunset. In February it lies overhead in the evening. In May, it sets at sunset, before Orion .

As the cluster lies near the ecliptic (the Sun’s path across the sky), it can’t be seen in May and June, because it is located too close to the Sun. When M45 is directly overhead, it can be found by following the line from Orion’s Belt. Merope Nebula The Pleiades cluster also contains the Merope Nebula (NGC 1435), a diffuse reflection nebula 30’ in size, suspected to be a supernova remnant. The nebula is also known as Tempel’s Nebula, after Wilhelm Tempel, the German astronomer who discovered it on October 19, 1859. The Merope Nebula surrounds the star Merope and has a visual magnitude of 13. Reflection nebula IC 349 near Merope in the Pleiades. Image: NASA The Merope Nebula contains IC 349, a small bright knot , 0.5’ in diameter, which is an extension of the larger NGC 1435.

IC 349 is sometimes also known as Barnard’s Merope Nebula because it was discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard in November 1890. It is located 36 arcseconds (0.06 light years) to the southwest of the star Merope. M45 has been known since ancient times in cultures across the globe, including the Chinese, the Japanese, the Persians, the Māori , the Maya, the Cherokee, the Aztec, the Sioux, and the Aboriginal Australians. The Japanese mentioned it as Mutsuraboshi, which means “six stars,” in documents dating back to the 8th century. They also know it as Subaru, meaning “coming together” or “cluster.” (An image of the cluster is used in the car company’s logo.) The cluster is mentioned in the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible and the Quran among other texts. It was called MUL.MUL, meaning “the star of stars,” in Babylonian star catalogues. The earliest depiction of the cluster appears on the Nebra sky disk, an artefact dating back to 1600 BC, the Bronze Age.

In Hindu mythology, the cluster is associated with Murugan, the war god, who was raised by six sisters and developed six faces, one of each of his mothers. The Aztecs based their calendar on the cluster; the Pleiades’ rising in the east before dawn marked the beginning of their year. The heliacal rising of the cluster in June also marked the beginning of the year for the Māori of New Zealand. Pleiades (Messier 45) Coordinates: 03h47m24s (right ascension), +24°07’ (declination) Distance: 390 – 460 light years Apparent dimensions: 110 arcminutes Other designations: Messier 45 (M45), Melotte 22 STARS Hubble’s look through the Pleiades (M45).

Image: NASA, ESA and AURA, Caltech The brightest stars in the Pleiades cluster are Alcyone (Eta Tauri or 25 Tauri), Atlas (27 Tauri), Electra (17 Tauri), Maia (20 Tauri), Merope (23 Tauri), Taygeta (19 Tauri), Pleione (28 Tauri or BU Tauri), Celaeno (16 Tauri), Sterope (21 and 22 Tauri), and 18 Tauri. Alcyone Alcyone (pronunciation: /ælˈsaɪ.əniː/) has a visual magnitude of 2.873 and belongs to the stellar class B7IIIe. The star is about 370 light years distant from Earth. It is the brightest of the Seven Sisters and the third brightest star in Taurus constellation , after Aldebaran , Alpha Tauri, and Elnath, Beta Tauri. Alcyone is classified as an eclipsing binary star.

The primary component is a blue-white giant star (B7IIIe) 2,400 times more luminous than the Sun and with ten times the solar radius. The star has a projected rotational velocity of 215 km/s, which makes it a very fast spinner, and as a result it is surrounded by a gas disk at the equator. The binary companion is separated by 0.031 arcseconds. The eclipsing binary system has three companions: two 8th magnitude white main sequence stars belonging to the spectral class A, one of which is classified as a Delta Scuti variable, and a yellow-white, class F dwarf. Atlas Atlas, named after the Seven Sisters’ father, is the second brightest star in the cluster. It is a triple star system with the stellar classification of B8III. It has a visual magnitude of 3.62 and is approximately 381 light years distant from Earth. The Atlas system contains a spectroscopic binary star, with individual components too close to be resolved. The stars have apparent magnitudes of 4.1 and 5.6 and orbit each other with a period of 1,250 days.

The binary star has another companion, a faint star with a visual magnitude of 6.8, separated by 0.4 seconds of arc. Electra Electra is another blue-white giant star in the Pleiades cluster. It belongs to the stellar class B6 IIIe. With an apparent magnitude of 3.705, it is the third brightest star in M45. It is about 600 light years distant from Earth. Electra is another fast spinner. It has a projected rotational velocity of 181 km/s. As a consequence, it is stretched at the equator and flattened at the poles, and because of the mass loss caused by its rapid spinning, the star is surrounded by a disk of gas and emits excess infrared radiation. Maia Maia is also a blue-white giant star. It has the stellar classification of B8III. It has an apparent magnitude of 3.871 and is about 360 light years distant from Earth. It is one of the stars surrounded by the emission/reflection nebula NGC 1432, also known as the Maia Nebula.

Maia has a mass four times that of the Sun, 5.5 times the solar radius, and is about 660 times more luminous than the Sun. It is classified as a mercury-manganese star. Merope Merope (pronunciation: /ˈmɛrəpiː/) is a blue-white subgiant with the stellar classification of B6IVev. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 4.113 and is approximately 360 light years distant from Earth. Star Merope (23 Tau) in Pleiades (M45). Image: Henryk Kowalewski The star is 4.5 times more massive than the Sun and about 630 times more luminous. It has a radius four times that of the Sun. Merope is a Beta Cephei type variable. Its brightness varies by 0.01 magnitudes. It is the central star in the Merope Nebula , a nebula through which the Pleiades cluster is currently passing. The nebula looks brightest around Merope, which is why it was named after the star.

Taygeta Taygeta (pronunciation: /teɪˈɪdʒɨtə/) is a triple star in the cluster. It has the stellar classification of B6V, matching a blue-white main sequence dwarf. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 4.29 and is about 440 light years distant from Earth. The primary component in the system is a spectroscopic binary star whose components have visual magnitudes of 4.6 and 6.1. The two stars are separated by 0.012 arcseconds and have an orbital period of 1,313 days. The binary star has an 8th magnitude companion which is separated by 69 seconds of arc. Pleione Pleione (pronunciation: /ˈplaɪ.əniː/) is a double star belonging to the stellar class B8IVpe. It has a visual magnitude of 5.048 and is about 392 light years distant from Earth. The star is not easy to see without binoculars because it lies close to Atlas, which is 3.7 times brighter. The two stars are separated by less than 5 minutes of arc.

Pleione is a hot blue star with a mass 3.4 times that of the Sun and a radius 3.2 times solar. It is significantly smaller than the other bright stars in the cluster. It is about 190 times more luminous than the Sun and it spins close to its breakup velocity, at 329 km/s. The star is classified as a Gamma Cassiopeiae variable and has the variable designation BU Tauri. Its brightness varies from magnitude 4.8 to 5.5. Gamma Cassiopeiae variables, also known as shell stars, are fast spinning stars surrounded by a disk of gas at the equator. They exhibit irregular changes in luminosity as a result of the outflow of matter. Pleione is known to be a spectroscopic binary star, with components that cannot be resolved because they are separated by only 0.2 seconds of arc. The two stars in the system have an orbital period of 218 days. Celaeno Celaeno (pronunciation: /sɨˈliːnoʊ/) is sometimes known as the Lost Pleiad because it often cannot be seen without binoculars.

In less than ideal observing conditions, stargazers can only see six of the Seven Sisters and Celaeno is missing. The star is a blue-white subgiant belonging to the stellar class B7IV. It has a visual magnitude of 5.45 and is about 430 light years distant from Earth. It has about 9-10 solar masses and a radius 4.4 times that of the Sun. It is another fast spinner in the cluster, with a projected rotational velocity of 185 km/s. Pleiades stars. Image: Ville Koistinen at fi.wikipedia Sterope (Asterope) Sterope, or Asterope (pronunciation: /ˈstɛrɵpiː/, or /əˈstɛrɵpiː/), is a name shared by two stars, designated 21 and 22 Tauri, separated by 0.04° in the sky. 21 Tauri has the stellar classification of B8V, which makes it a blue main sequence dwarf. It has a visual magnitude of 5.76 and is about 440 light years distant from Earth.

22 Tauri belongs to the stellar class A0Vn. It is a white main sequence dwarf, also about 440 light years distant. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 6.43. 18 Tauri 18 Tauri, not associated with a mythical figure or given a proper name, is a blue-white main sequence dwarf belonging to the stellar class B8V. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 5.65 and is also one of the brightest stars in the cluster. PLEIADES MYTH In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of Pleione, a sea nymph, and the Titan Atlas. The seven nymphs were sisters to the Hesperides and the Hyades , and they were companions of the goddess Artemis. Their name was derived either from their mother’s name, Pleione, or from the Greek πλεῖν, which means “to sail,” in reference to the nymphs’ role in delimiting the sailing season. The seven sisters were Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope and Merope.

The Pleiades by Elihu Vedder, 1885 The Pleiades were very well known in Greek culture. The Hecatompedon temple and the Parthenon were oriented to their rising. In Greek mythology, when Atlas was tasked with carrying the heavens on his shoulders as punishment for siding with the Titans in their war against Olympian gods, the hunter Orion started pursuing his daughters in his absence and Zeus turned the sisters first into doves and then into stars to protect them from the hunter’s advances. The constellation Orion , it is said, still pursues the Seven Sisters across the sky. The Pleiades were also pursued by several Olympians, to whom they bore children who grew up to be prominent figures in Greek mythology. Maia, the eldest of the seven sisters, had an affair with Zeus which resulted in the birth of their son Hermes, who later became the messenger of the gods. Electra and Taygete also had children by Zeus. Electra gave birth to Dardanus and Iasion, and Taygete was mother to Lacedaemon. Dardanus founded the city of Dardania on Mount Ida on the Hellespont.

The strait’s modern-day name, the Dardanelles, was derived from his name. Dardanus’ son Tros’ name is the origin of the name of the region Troad, and Tros’ son Ilus founded the city of Ilium, more commonly known as Troy. Iasion established the mystic rites on Samothrace and had twin sons with the goddess Demeter. Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt after realizing the two had an affair. Lacedaemon ruled the country which he named after himself, also naming the capital after his wife, Sparta. Alcyone and Celaeno both had children by Poseidon. Alcyone gave birth to Hyrieus (father of Orion according to some sources), Hyperenor (who co-founded the cities Hyperea and Anthea) and Aethusa (Apollo’s lover, after whom the portico open to the sun was named), and Celaeno was mother to Lycus and Eurypylus. Sterope had a child with Ares. Oenomaus, their son, was the king of Pisa and the father of Hippodamia.

Fearful of a prophecy that said he would be killed by his son-in-law, Oenomaus killed a number of his daughter’s suitors in a chariot race. Hippodamia eventually married Pelops, and their offspring included Agamemnon, Menelaus, Atreus, Thyestes, Aegisthus, and Orestes. Merope, the youngest Pleiad, married Sisyphus and bore him several sons. IMAGES The Pleiades is an open cluster consisting of approximately 3,000 stars at a distance of 400 light-years (120 parsecs) from Earth in the constellation Taurus. (It also known as “The Seven Sisters”, or the astronomical designations NGC 1432/35 and M45.) Image: NASA, ESA, AURA, Caltech, Palomar Observatory Pleiades (M45, Seven Sisters) open cluster – infrared image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope The Pleiades in X-rays, taken by ROSAT. The brightest objects in X-rays have the hottest coronas. The green squares mark the positions of the seven optically brightest stars.

Image: NASA VIDEO Constellation Taurus: All you need to know | Constellations | EarthSky Constellation Taurus: All you need to know By Bruce McClure in Constellations | January 21, 2016 How to find to find the constellation Taurus in the night sky – names some of its bright stars and star clusters – and its mythology. Taurus the Bull is a constellation of the Zodiac that you can see during Northern Hemisphere winter and spring (or Southern Hemisphere summer and fall) in the evening sky. The sun passes through the constellation Taurus from about May 14 to June 21, but you can’t see Taurus when the sun is within its borders. Instead, try looking for Taurus in the early evening sky at the opposite end of the year. Follow the links below to learn more about Taurus the Bull. Taurus the Bull in mythology and timekeeping The three stars of Orion's Belt always point to the star Aldebaran and the Pleiades star cluster. Image via Flickr user Janne . To see Taurus, start by looking along the sun’s path.

Just remember that, by definition, zodiacal constellations are those that mark the sun’s yearly path across our sky. That’s what made them so important and special to the early stargazers – and it also will help guide your eye to these constellations in the night sky. Once you’ve gotten yourself oriented with respect to the sun’s path, then let the three famous Belt stars of the constellation Orion the Hunter guide your eye. Orion and Taurus are next-door neighbors on the sky’s dome. Practiced stargazers often use Orion’s Belt to find Taurus’ most prominent signposts: the V-shaped Hyades star cluster with the bright star Aldebaran in its midst, and the magnificent Pleiades star cluster. In other words, as you can see from the illustration above, Orion’s Belt points to Aldebaran and the Pleiades. Taurus is one of the most spectacular constellations in the nighttime sky. In addition to Aldebaran, Taurus has the intriguing star Elnath . Plus it has two fine star clusters, the Pleiades and the Hyades. And this constellation is the radiant point for the annual Taurid meteor shower in November.

What’s more, Taurus also features the telescopic Crab Nebula (M1) , the remains of a cataclysmic supernova explosion that lit up the daytime sky in A.D. 1054. Europa carried by Zeus, after he was transformed into a bull. Terracotta figurine from Boeotia, ca. 470 BC–450 BC. Image via Wikimedia Commons. Taurus the Bull in mythology and timekeeping. According to Greek mythology, the constellation Taurus commemorates the god Zeus changing himself into a beautiful white Bull to win the affections of the Phoenician princess Europa. After hopping onto the Bull’s back, the Bull swam across the Mediterranean Sea, taking Europa all the way to the Island of Crete. Zeus and Europa became the parents of Minos, the legendary king of Crete. The Zuni of New Mexico used the Pleiades cluster as an agricultural calendar. When the Pleiades – which the Zuni called the Seed Stars – disappeared into the western dusk in spring, they knew it was safe to plant their seeds, as the danger of frost had passed.

But the Zuni also knew the planting must be done before the Pleiades reappeared in the east before sunrise – else immature plants would succumb to autumn frosts. The Zuni were hardly alone in their reverence for Taurus’ Pleiades star cluster. Probably no other star formation has enjoyed such worldwide renown for timekeeping, celebration and storytelling. The sun on the June solstice shines in front of the constellation Taurus the Bull, so Taurus rises and sets with the sun, and is lost in the sun’s glare at this time of year. But in late autumn, winter and early spring, the constellation Taurus the Bull is clearly visible in the evening sky. The ecliptic – the sun’s yearly path through the constellations of the Zodiac – passes through the constellation Taurus the Bull, to the north of the star Aldebaran and to the south of the Pleiades stars cluster. The sun shines in front of Taurus from about May 14 to June 21. Bottom line: How to find to find the constellation Taurus in the night sky – names some of its bright stars and star clusters – and its mythology.

Constellations - AstroEd AstroEd Click here to visit the constellations You know the Big Dipper, part of the Big Bear (Ursa Major) and the Little Dipper or Little Bear (Ursa Minor) . In them we find not only the North Star, but also lovely galaxies, a planetary nebula, and the spot where the Hubble Space Telescope took its Hubble Deep Field (HDF) images of galaxies billions of light years away. The side of the bowl of the Big Dipper points towards the faint North Star (Polaris) at the tip of the Little Bear's tail, over the North Pole. As everyone knows, when we face Polaris we face North. East is to our right, West to our left, and South behind. A sextant, that measures how high Polaris is above the horizon, tells latitude, how far someone is north of the equator. If Polaris appears on the horizon (zero degrees up), we are at the Equator. If it is directly overhead (90 degrees up), we are at the North Pole.

If it appears to be 38.5 degrees above the horizon, we might be in Louisville Kentucky, or Uzbekistan, or anywhere on the globe that is 38.5 degrees north of the Equator. Ursa Major and Ursa Minor Polaris, once thought to be a binary star, now appears to be three stars orbiting one another. The largest of them is a Cepheid variable star, which brightens and dims predictably. The brightness of Cepheids is so reliable it reveals the distance to galaxies in which they occur. Polaris is a multiple star system of which one (Polaris A) is a Cepheid Variable When we look towards the Big Bear (Ursa Major) and Little Bear (Ursa Minor) we are looking out above the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, through space, to other galaxies such as the Whirlpool (M51), and M81 and 82. Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) M 82 (Cigar Galaxy) lower left and M81 upper right Owl Nebula (M97) But the little Owl Nebula is in our own galaxy.

Here is where a little star, once the size of our Sun, died puffing out a planetary nebula, leaving a small white dwarf at its center. The M in M51, M81, M82, and M97 comes from Charles Messier (1730-1817) a clerk of the French navy, who made a list of 110 annoying objects not to be confused with comets. The objects in Messier's Catalog turned out to be more interesting than the comets. The 110 Messier Objects Some familiar Messier objects are the star forming Orion Nebula (M42), the Pleiades (M45) open star cluster and the globular star cluster M15, the planetary nebulae from dying stars Ring Nebula (M57) and Owl Nebula (M97), and a supernova remnant Crab Nebula (M1). All are in our 100,000 light year (LY) wide Milky Way galaxy. See if you can find them on the chart ! The Pleiades (M 45), also called Subaru or the Seven Sisters, may easily be seen with the naked eye.

Other Messier objects are galaxies far beyond our own Milky Way galaxy.The most famous is the Andromeda galaxy. On a dark night, away from city lights, the Andromeda galaxy may also be seen with the naked eye. Messier's galaxies were no more than 63 million light years (LY) away, and may be seen with a good backyard telescope. It wasn't until the Hubble Space Telescope that we could see galaxies 14 billion ly distant. The Hubble Deep Field (HDF) images were taken in the Big Dipper. These galaxies are what was seen in a tiny speck of sky no larger than a grain of sand held at arms length. Galaxies seen in the Hubble Deep Field Some galaxies are as much as 14 billion light years away. The light we see today, left those galaxies billions years ago. We are seeing what the Universe was like 14 billion years back in time. Click here for an interesting tour of what can be seen in Ursa Major with a small backyard telescope. Precession Although Polaris has guided navigators for thousands of years, it hasn't always been over the north pole.

Precession , a slow rotation of the direction of the Earth's axis, causes the north pole to trace out a circle every 25,765 years. This is also called precession of the equinoxes. Since it changes the direction of the Earth's tilt, and the Earth's tilt is what causes the seasons, the seasonal constellations change a tiny bit year by year until they return to their original locations after 25,765 years. Precession You see: DIFFERENT SEASONAL CONSTELLATIONS As Earth revolves around the Sun during the year our night looks out towards different parts of the universe. With each season different constellations appear to cross the sky. Autumn Pegasus (the flying horse) and Andromeda (which looks like his hind legs) leaps over a small glow, the Andromeda galaxy (M31), 2.5 million light years away. Andromeda is in the Local Group of Galaxies. It looks much like our Milky Way galaxy and they are nearly the same size. Edwin Hubble found a Cepheid Variable star in the Andromeda galaxy that revealed how distant the galaxy is.

Pegasus and Andromeda Andromeda Galaxy (M31) Winter We see Orion the hunter chase Taurus the bull, across the sky. The star Betelgeuse on Orion's left shoulder is a red giant, a dying star that has expanded before its final collapse. Orion and Taurus We also see the familiar supernova remnant Crab nebula (M1) from a giant star that exploded in 1054 CE, the Pleiades (M45) star cluster, the dim but well loved Horsehead nebula, and a star-birth nebula, the Orion Nebula (M42). Spring We see Leo the Lion, near Ursa Major, the Great Bear, where there are more galaxies up above and far beyond the plane of our Milky Way. Summer The Teapot Sagittarius crosses the sky. The center of our Milky Way galaxy looks like steam rising over the teapot's spout. Here we see many nebulae and globular clusters of stars towards the center of our galaxy. Sagittarius looks like a Teapot Use star maps , a planisphere if you have one, or free planetarium software such as Stellarium to follow the changes in the sky with seasons.

On February 1st at 9 PM you will find Orion and Taurus rising in the east. By 12 AM you will see Orion highest in the sky. At 6AM Orion will be setting in the west at the end of the night. On May 1st at 9 PM see if you can find Leo rising in the east. Watch Leo cross the sky during the night. On August 1st at 9 PM find the Teapot in Sagittarius rising in the southeast. Watch it climb in the southern sky and set at dawn. On November 1st at 9 PM find Pegasus and Andromeda, and let them fly across the autumn sky. You know about ZODIAC CONSTELLATIONS As we look towards the Zodiac Constellations, we are looking across the plane of the solar system where we naturally find the Sun, Moon, and planets. This path in the sky is called the ecliptic. Zodiac Constellations along the Ecliptic Someone's Zodiac sign is supposed to be the constellation in which the Sun shone the day of his or her birth.

However, since the Zodiac was invented by ancient Babylonians in southern Iraq thousands of years ago, precession has shifted the constellations by about a month. So the constellation you were born under is probably the sign for the month before yours, i.e. if you were born in August with the zodiac sign Virgo, the Virgin (tra-la-la), you were really born under Leo, the Lion (grrr), the sign for the month before. Naturally one cannot see his or her constellation behind the Sun. The ancients looked at the constellations nearest the Sun at sunrise and sunset and knew the missing constellation. The best way to see your own personal constellation is 6 months later, when Earth is on the same side of the Sun as your constellation. Now look at the sky maps, planisphere, or the software and see if you can find 12 Zodiac constellations, and the line of the Ecliptic, running through them, that is the plane of the Solar System. Then go outside on a clear night and see if you can find any of them in the sky. Altogether there are 88 constellations. Visit this website for a tour.

Google Sky offers an on-line realistic view with links to Hubble Space Telescope images. Did you recognize the galaxies that showed up when you clicked the link? Sombrero Galaxy, The Crab Nebula, Eagle Nebula, Whirlpool Galaxy, Ganymede, - YouTube Sombrero Galaxy, The Crab Nebula, Eagle Nebula, Whirlpool Galaxy, Ganymede, Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Feb 2, 2013 In this video I show nebula's and galaxy's in the universe. Ganymede is composed of approximately equal amounts of silicate rock and water ice. It is a fully differentiated body with an iron-rich, liquid core. A saltwater ocean is believed to exist nearly 200 km below Ganymede's surface, sandwiched between layers of ice.

Ganymede is the only satellite in the Solar System known to possess a magnetosphere, likely created through convection within the liquid iron core.The satellite's name was soon suggested by astronomer Simon Marius, for the mythological Ganymede, cupbearer of the Greek gods and Zeus's lover. The Rose Nebula. Resembling a delicate rose floating in space, the nebula N11A is seen in a new light in a true-colour image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Fierce radiation from massive stars embedded at the centre of N11A illuminates the surrounding gas with a soft fluorescent glow. The Dumbbell Nebula -also known as Apple Core Nebula, This object was the first planetary nebula to be discovered; by Charles Messier in 1764. It is a in the constellation Vulpecula (pron.: /vʌlˈpɛkjʊlə/) is a faint constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for "little fox", although it is commonly known simply as the fox. The Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula which is about 2,000 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Lyra.

This is one of the brightest planetary nebula on the sky. The nebula spans about 1 light year in diameter. The shell of the nebula is made of ionized gases expelled by a red giant star, which is in the last stage of evolution before becoming a white dwarf. The Owl Nebula is a planetary nebula in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781.M97 is regarded as one of the more complex of the planetaries. Trifid Nebula The Trifid Nebula is an H II region located in Sagittarius. Its name means 'divided into three lobes'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars; an emission nebula, a reflection nebula and a dark nebula. The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The nebula was observed by John Bevis in 1731; it corresponds to a bright supernova recorded by Arab, Chinese and Japanese astronomers in 1054. The Sombrero Galaxy is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo located 28 million light years from Earth.

It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero. Whirlpool Galaxy The Whirlpool Galaxy is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. Wikipedia Distance to Earth: 23,160,000 light years. Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third-largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth It is somewhat more massive than its near-twin Uranus which is 15 times the mass of Earth but not as dense. On average, Neptune orbits the Sun and is approximately 30 times the Earth--Sun distance. Named for the Roman god of the sea. The Eagle Nebula, catalogued as Messier and is also known as the Star Queen Nebula, it is a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux in 1745-46. Its name derives from its shape that is thought to resemble an eagle.

Horsehead Nebula The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33 in emission nebula IC 434) is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, which is farthest east on Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. Bellatrix, also known by its Bayer designation Gamma Orionis (γ Ori, γ Orionis), is the third brightest star in the constellation Orion. A second-magnitude star, it is the twenty-seventh brightest star in the night sky. J.K. Rowling used the name "Bellatrix" for a death eater name, Bellatrix Lestrange, in Latin, it means "Female Warrior", which describe's Bellatrix's nature in the Harry Potter series. The Pleiades are also mentioned three times in the Bible (Job 9:9 and 38:31 , as well as Amos 5:8). The Pleiades (Krittika) are particularly revered in Hindu mythology as the six mothers of the war god Murugan, who developed six faces, one for each of them.

Some scholars of Islam suggested that the Pleiades (Ats-tsuraiya) are the Star in Najm, which is mentioned in the Quran. Job 9:9 Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Amos 5:8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name: Category Star Tales – Taurus 2 TAURUS CONTINUED » The Pleiades – seven celestial sisters Even more famous than the Hyades is another star cluster in Taurus: the Pleiades (Πλειάδες in Greek), commonly known as the Seven Sisters. To a casual glance, the Pleiades cluster appears as a fuzzy patch like a swarm of flies over the back of the bull. According to Hyginus, some ancient astronomers called them the bull’s tail.

So distinctive are the Pleiades that the ancient Greeks regarded them as a separate mini-constellation and used them as a calendar marker. Hesiod, in his agricultural poem Works and Days, instructs farmers to begin harvesting when the Pleiades rise at dawn, which in Greek times would have been in May, and to plough when they set at dawn, which would have been in November. Ptolemy did not list individual members of the Pleiades in his Almagest, giving only an indication of the cluster’s size. In mythology the Pleiades were the seven daughters of Atlas and the oceanid Pleione, after whom they are named. One popular derivation is that the name c omes from the Greek word plein, meaning ‘to sail’ – so Pleione means ‘sailing queen’ and the Pleiades are the ‘sailing ones’, because in Greek times they were visible all night during the summer sailing season. When the Pleiades vanished from the night sky, it was considered prudent to remain ashore. ‘Gales of all winds rage when the Pleiades, pursued by violent Orion, plunge into the clouded sea’, wrote Hesiod.

Alternatively, and possibly more likely, the name may come from the old Greek word pleos, ‘full’, which in the plural meant ‘many’, a suitable reference to the cluster. According to other authorities, the name comes from the Greek word peleiades, meaning ‘flock of doves’. Unlike their half-sisters the Hyades, the names of all seven Pleiades are assigned to stars in the cluster: Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, and Taygeta. Two more stars are named after their parents, Atlas and Pleione. Alcyone is the brightest star in the cluster. According to mythology, Alcyone and Celaeno were both seduced by Poseidon. Maia, the eldest and most beautiful of the sisters, was seduced by Zeus and gave birth to Hermes; she later became foster-mother to Arcas, son of Zeus and Callisto. Zeus also seduced two others of the Pleiades: Electra, who gave birth to Dardanus, the founder of Troy; and Taygeta, who gave birth to Lacedaemon, founder of Sparta.

Asterope was ravished by Ares and became mother of Oenomaus, king of Pisa, near Olympia, who features in the legend of Auriga. Hence six Pleiades became paramours of the gods. Only Merope married a mortal, Sisyphus, a notorious trickster who was subsequently condemned to roll a stone eternally up a hill. Although the Pleiades are popularly termed the Seven Sisters, only six stars are easily visible to the naked eye, and a considerable mythology has grown up to account for the ‘missing’ Pleiad. Eratosthenes says that Merope was the faint Pleiad because she was the only one who married a mortal. Hyginus and Ovid also recount this story, giving her shame as the reason for her faintness, but both add another candidate: Electra, who could not bear to see the fall of Troy, which had been founded by her son Dardanus. Hyginus says that, moved by grief, she left the Pleiades altogether, but Ovid says that she merely covered her eyes with her hand.

Astronomers, however, have not followed either legend in their naming of the stars, for the faintest named Pleiad is actually Asterope. Binoculars show dozens of stars in the Pleiades, and in all the cluster contains a hundred or so members. The Pleiades lie 380 light years away, two and a half times the distance of the Hyades. They are relatively youthful by stellar standards, the youngest being no more than a few million years old. A famous myth links the Pleiades with Orion. As Hyginus tells it, Pleione and her daughters were one day walking through Boeotia when Orion tried to ravish her. Pleione and the girls escaped, but Orion pursued them for seven years. Zeus immortalized the chase by placing the Pleiades in the heavens where Orion follows them endlessly.

The eye, the horns – and a nebula named the Crab The bull’s glinting red eye is marked by the brightest star in Taurus, Aldebaran, a name that comes from the Arabic al-Dabarān meaning ‘the follower’; according to the 10th-century Arabic astronomer al-Sūfī, this name arose because it follows the Pleiades across the sky. Surprisingly for such a prominent star, Greek astronomers had no name for it (although Ptolemy called it Torch in his Tetrabiblos, a book about astrology). Aldebaran appears to be a member of the Hyades but in fact is a foreground object at less than half the distance, and so is superimposed on the Hyades by chance. Aldebaran is a red giant star about 40 times the diameter of the Sun. Aldebaran marks the right eye of the bull; the left eye is represented by Epsilon Tauri, with Gamma Tauri on the nose. At the tip of the bull’s left horn is Beta Tauri, or Elnath (sometimes written as Alnath), a name that comes from the Arabic meaning ‘the butting one’.

Ptolemy described this star as being common with the right foot of Auriga, the Charioteer, but since the introduction of rigorously defined constellation boundaries in 1930 it is now the exclusive property of Taurus. Hence the bull has kept the tip of his horn, but the charioteer has lost his right foot. Near the tip of the bull’s right horn, the star Zeta Tauri, lies the remarkable Crab Nebula, the result of one of the most celebrated events in the history of astronomy – a stellar explosion, seen from Earth in AD 1054, that was bright enough to be visible in daylight for three weeks. We now know this this event was a supernova, the violent death of a massive star, and the Crab Nebula is the shattered remnant of the star that blew up. The Irish astronomer Lord Rosse gave the nebula its name in 1844 because he thought its shape resembled a crab when seen through his telescope. The Crab Nebula lies 6000 light years away, and appears as a misty patch through moderate-sized telescopes.

Chinese associations In Chinese astronomy, the Pleiades star cluster was known as Mao and was said to represent a hairy head – the head of who or what is unexplained, although the idea of hairiness might come from the cluster’s hazy appearance. Mao is also the name of the 18th lunar mansion . The V-shaped Hyades cluster was called Bi, depicting a net with a long handle for catching animals such as rabbits (Lambda Tauri was the end of the handle). Bi gave its name to the 19th lunar mansion. In a very different visualization, Bi was also seen as a regiment of soldiers guarding the frontier regions, with Aldebaran as their commanding general. Both the lunar mansions Mao and Bi were the subjects of extensive astrological lore. (Confusingly, the 14th mansion, in Andromeda and Pegasus, is also called Bi but with a different meaning.) A star just south of the Hyades, usually identified as Sigma Tauri, was Fuer, ‘whisper’, possibly referring to someone who has the ear of the Emperor or perhaps a scout indicating the presence of animals for catching in the net.

Straddling the ecliptic between the Pleiades and Hyades lay Tianjie, ‘celestial street’, consisting of Kappa and Omega Tauri, apparently representing the route used by the Emperor when he went hunting. The fourth-magnitude star 37 Tauri nearby was known as Yue, the Moon star ; it lies on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun star, Ri, in Libra, reflecting the fact that the full Moon is opposite the Sun in the sky. In ancient times, the full Moon in Bi signalled the start of the rainy season in China. To the north of Tianjie and Yue, a group of four stars (some say five), including Chi and Psi Tauri, formed Lishi, a whetstone for sharpening blades. Zeta Tauri was Tianguan, representing a gate or door on the ecliptic even though it is only a single star. It lay directly opposite in the sky to Tianyue in Sagittarius and Ophiuchus, which represented a lock or keyhole on the ecliptic.

Beta Tauri to the north was one of the five chariots of the celestial emperors, Wuche, the others being in Auriga . A line of six stars running almost parallel to the ecliptic from 136 to Tau Tauri formed Zhuwang, six sons of the Emperor. Between Zeta Tauri and the Hyades lay Tiangao, a group of four stars including Iota Tauri, representing a lookout tower for weather watching (although another interpretation sees it as a place to make offerings to the gods); the observers were Siguai, consisting of 139 Tauri plus two stars in Orion and one in Gemini. To the south of the Hyades lay a second constellation whose Chinese name Romanizes as Tianjie. This one consisted of eight stars and is said to represent a token carried by ambassadors to identify themselves when leaving the country; however, Sun and Kistemaker suggest Tianjie was the regalia of the great hunter Shen, the Chinese equivalent of Orion . On the border between Taurus and Cetus was Tianlin, four stars (Omicron, Xi, 4, and 5 Tauri) representing a storehouse for millet or rice.

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Question: 'The Pleiades' and 'Crab Nebula' are in which constellation?
Answer: TAURUS