Starry sky and constellation _ The relationship between starry sky and constellation

What do you think of the constellations in the night sky?

Simply identify the stars and constellations in the night sky

? In fact, for stargazing, I am just a super amateur, living in a big city where PM2.5 seriously exceeds the standard all the year round. I seldom see a few stars at night, and I don't know much or everything. Taking the mid-latitude area of the northern hemisphere as an example, this paper briefly introduces the most common and typical night sky in winter and summer, and understands the famous stars and constellations that can be seen even in the case of serious light pollution.

? Looking to the left of Orion with Betelgeuse as the benchmark, we can see two other bright stars, Sirius Canis (Alpha Canis) and Nanhesan Canis (Alpha Canis). These three bright stars form an approximate equilateral triangle in the sky, which is the famous winter triangle. It is very dazzling in the night sky and can be easily seen even if the city lights are very strong.

Looking at the upper right of Orion again, you can find a bright star with a dot by extending the distance almost twice the height of Orion. This is the Alpha Star of Taurus. If you lengthen the distance further, you can see a cluster of six or seven stars gathered together, which is the famous Pleiades cluster, which was called the Seven Sisters cluster in ancient China. This area belongs to Taurus in the western constellation division.

? Still based on Orion, a line from Orion's left foot to the left side of his belt extends almost four times, and a less bright star Capella can be seen, and then a brighter star can be found by further extension, that is Capella (Alpha Auriga).

? Back to Orion, along the direction of Betelgeuse pointing to Betelgeuse, you can see two bright stars side by side, from left to right, namely Beihe III (Gemini β) and Beihe II (Gemini α), and Beihe III is slightly brighter. These two stars are the two heads of Gemini, and the famous Gemini meteor shower also appears in this area from 65438 to February every year.

? Orion is basically in the south of the night sky. Looking north from the other direction, you can see the famous Big Dipper, located in Ursa Major. The shape of the Big Dipper is very classic. Seven stars are arranged in the shape of a spoon, which is very bright and easy to identify.

? The Big Dipper is another good benchmark. Extend the bucket handle of the Big Dipper backward by an arc, about twice the length of bucket handle, and you can easily find a very bright star, which is arcturus, located in Capricorn. Arcturus is the second brightest star in the whole day, second only to Sirius.

Two Tian Xuan and Shu Tian are connected to the edge of the bucket of the spoon, which extends five times outward, and a star with almost due north can be found. This is the Polaris, located in Ursa minor. At present, Polaris is named Dog Chen Yi in China. Because the earth's rotation axis will change, the position of the North Pole star will be replaced by Vega in a few years. At the other end of Polaris, at about the same position from the Big Dipper, you can see five stars arranged in a "W" shape, which is Cassiopeia. A little beyond the "W" of the Queen Fairy, you can see a fuzzy little black dot in the autumn night sky. This is the Andromeda galaxy, the only extragalactic galaxy in the northern hemisphere that can be seen with the naked eye.

Winter is almost over. Let's talk about summer. In contrast, the starry sky in summer is much simpler. The most wonderful thing is the Milky Way, but usually you can only see a very light and foggy white star belt in the suburbs with good weather. There are fewer famous bright stars in summer night than in winter night, which is relatively easier to identify. One summer night in June, I don't know where to start, so I raised my head 90 degrees and looked at the zenith. There is usually a bright star with blue light, which can often be seen even in bad weather. Yes, this is the famous Vega, belonging to Lyra. Vega is the brightest star in the summer night sky.

Found Vega. Altair must be nearby. On the other side of the Milky Way opposite Vega, there is a bright star with two slightly darker stars on both sides. The bright star is the Altair, also called Hegu II, and the two Hegu I and Hegu III on both sides are the two children of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. One, two, three rivers drum to the eagle.

? At the other end of Weaver Girl and Cowherd, there is a bright star called Tianjin IV (Alpha Cygnus). These three stars are almost connected into a huge right triangle, with Zhinu as the right vertex. This big triangle is called "Summer Triangle".

At midnight in summer, along the south direction of Altair, a bright star with red light can be found near the Milky Way near the horizon. This is the famous Antares, located in Scorpio. Antares is a red Supergiant star, so it is very bright. In ancient times, it was called Big Mars. There is an old saying called "Fire in July", which means that the big Mars gradually sinks in July of the lunar calendar, which means that the weather will get cold. There are three stars arranged in a small arc outside antares to form the scorpion tail of Scorpio, and antares is the heart of Scorpio. Usually in this position, you can also see a bright star, Saturn, but Saturn should sink below the horizon after 9 pm.

? This is basically the best recognition of the starry sky in the two seasons. In fact, as long as you find the most recognizable star or constellation, you can find everything else.

? It is sometimes really silly to confuse the other planetary partners of our planet who often appear in the night sky among these bright stars. Here, I got a little trick from Shu Mi, a veteran fan of stargazing, to share with you: Ignoring Mercury, Jin Mu's fire and earth are brighter, but as a planet, they don't twinkle, but the stars twinkle, so as to distinguish them from the stars. Looking at their respective characteristics, Jupiter is usually the brightest star, and it is the one whose brightness can kill other stars. The one that always appears near the sun at dawn and dusk is Venus, the one that emits red light like antares is Mars, and the other is Saturn that always appears near the horizon in summer nights.