Astronomical constellation knowledge _ encyclopedia of astronomical constellation knowledge

Legend of the twelve constellations

The myth of Aries

It's a story from "Looking for golden fleece" written by the Greek poet apollonius in Rhode Island in the 3rd century.

Maslin, King Arthur of Greece, married Princess Ina, King of Thebes, but the cruel Ina tried to kill her.

Prince Frixos, so that his son can inherit the throne in the future.

Ina concentrated the seeds of all the grains in China, secretly cooked them and distributed them to the people. Therefore, grain is natural.

Unable to grow, causing the country to fall into famine; And colluded with the messengers in the temple, pretending that the gods were angry, so they had to send the prince.

Frixos's sacrifice can quell the famine.

Finally, the king listened to Yina's advice. At the moment when the prince was sent to the altar, Hermes, the messenger of the gods.

He accepted the request of the prince's mother and sent a ram with golden wool and wings from the sky to send the prince away.

They were carried away from the altar, crossed the Da Daniil Strait together, and landed in Kilkis on the Black Sea.

In order to appreciate his salvation, fleek Sotheby's dedicated the Aries to Zeus, the head of the gods, and gave him golden fleece.

King Koelsch.

This sheep is the origin of Aries now, symbolizing courage and wisdom.

Virgo myth

Demeter, the god of agriculture in charge of the grain of the earth ~ the mother of the Greek earth, has a beautiful only daughter, Posephna, who is

"The most beautiful spring god", as long as she has light steps, will be full of dazzling flowers. One day, she and her companions were

Picking flowers on a meadow in the valley, suddenly, Ah saw a silver narcissus, whose sweet fragrance floated in the air.

Posephine thought, this flower is more beautiful than any other flower! The beauty was radiant, so she stayed away from her companions, secretly approached and stretched.

This hand was about to touch those flowers when suddenly, a hole appeared in the ground. A carriage was pulled out of the ground by two dark horses. It turned out to be the ground.

The Haitian, the prison guard, set a trick to take Posephona away because he loved her.

Poseidon's cry for help echoed in the valley between the oceans, and of course, it reached the ears of his mother Demeter. She was very sad!

She left the grain to be harvested and flew over Qian Shan to find her daughter.

Without Mother Earth, seeds will no longer germinate, fertile land will not produce clusters of wheat ears, and human beings will starve to death. Zeus

Seeing this situation, as long as he ordered Pluto to release Poseidon, Pluto had to obey Zeus, but secretly gave Poseidon a trick before leaving.

A fruit, how did Posephna know? Once she ate it, she could not live on earth and was destined to return to the dark and stinking hell.

Zeus had no choice but to say, "You will spend a quarter of the year with Posephina." Since then, it has been

The earth was covered with frost, and Posephone went to hell again. Virgo symbolizes the beauty and purity of Posephone, the god of spring, and the ears of wheat raised by her mother have also become.

For what she has.

Taurus myth

One day, Zeus, the god of heaven, wandered in a certain country and suddenly saw that the princess in this country was so beautiful that Zeus didn't even know it.

I can see God unconsciously. After returning to heaven, I still miss this beautiful princess. In the country where the princess belongs,

There is a big and beautiful pasture, where countless cows are eating breakfast and playing. The princess often comes to this pasture and here.

A group of lovely cows are playing together.

One sunny morning, the princess still appeared in the pasture. When she was playing with a cow, she suddenly found it.

Among the cattle, one cow sings very well. Its singing is very pleasant, and it attracts the princess unconsciously like nature.

Walk towards it.

As soon as the princess saw the cow, she fell in love with it, because it not only sang perfectly, but also looked like nothing.

Just as the princess slowly leaned against the cow and sang with it, the cow suddenly picked up the princess and flew into the sky.

After a long flight, the cow finally stopped in a beautiful land, and then turned into a person to express his mind to the princess.

Love. It turns out that this cow is the incarnation of Zeus. Because he couldn't help thinking about the princess day and night, he decided to confess to her.

The beautiful princess accepted Zeus' love, and they returned to heaven to live together. Zeus named the princess to commemorate the place where he confessed.

Europa is the name of that land. That land is today's European continent.

The myth of Taurus is the only story describing love in the twelve constellations, which breaks the false impression that Taurus lacks romance.

Cancer myth

Sensitive and affectionate is a symbol of motherhood in Cancer. Holding your arms on your chest, the baby in your arms represents your helpless and fragile self, while holding it in your arms is

It shows that Cancer has a strong sense of self-protection.

A story in Greek deification emphasizes the unique aggressiveness of cancer.

Hurley was the son of Zeus and mortals, and Sheila killed him again and again. Heuli is also the greatest hero of Greece.

There is nothing that the strongest man in the world can't do. Even the gods conquered the giant with his help. of course，

Wu He also made great contributions to the gods. One day, he came to the kingdom of Messina and was preparing to be welcomed like a hero, but the king was arrested for

Encouraged by Sheila, he was given a difficult problem, and it was very difficult for him to kill hydra living in the swamp area, because it was cut down every time.

One head will give birth to countless heads at once.

He Wuli thought of a way to burn snakehead, so he easily solved eight snakehead, leaving only one, Sheila.

I was furious. "You failed again this time?" She is unwilling! So he called a huge crab from the sea to stop it.

He Wuli. Cancer reached out a pair of powerful crabs to hold He Wuli's feet, but everyone knows that He Wuli is the strongest person in the world!

This cancer finally died under Qi's brute force.

Sheila failed again, but she felt sorry for the desperate sacrifice of cancer, in order to thank cancer for its ultimate mission, even if it didn't.

After the success, Sheila still put it in the sky, which became the cancer now.

The myth of Capricorn

Scorpio is rigorous and introverted, as its name suggests.

In Greek mythology, the god of agriculture and animal husbandry was in charge of Zeus' cattle and sheep. His name is Paine.

Paine is so ugly that he can almost be described as ferocious. He has two horns on his head and a sheep's hoof on his lower body.

Such an ugly appearance made the faun Paine very embarrassed and inferior, and he could not sing with the gods. Who can understand that there is an ugly appearance?

A warm heart? Day and night, he can only vent his grief by blowing Xiao.

One day, the gods got together to drink and laugh loudly. Zeus, the god, knew that Pan Xiao played well, so he asked him to play for the god.

Add fun.

When the beautiful Xiao Sheng falls on the forest and Yuan Ye, and the gods and goblins are intoxicated with singing, another forest

Boss, a multi-headed and multi-eyed beast roared in the sky and came in an avalanche. The fairies turned pale with fear and threw down their musical instruments.

The butterfly fluttered away, and the gods didn't care about the wine in their hands. Some turned into a bird and fluttered away, while others simply turned into one.

The light smoke disappeared without a trace.

Paine, on the other hand, watched all the gods escape and slipped away, but still thought, "What should I do to escape?" Hesitant, finally he decided

When he became a fish, he jumped into a stream. However, he chose the stream too shallow to fully accommodate his huge body, so his lower body.

It turned into a fishtail, and the upper body was still a goat's head.

The tail of Scorpio goat symbolizes its shyness.

Sagittarius myth

On the prairie of ancient Greece, there were a group of half-man, half-beast groups running. This is a fierce group. The representative of "half man and half beast"

The contradictory struggle between rational and irrational, human nature and animal nature is called Sagittarius.

There is an exception in Sagittarius-Chilon. Although he is also a member of Sagittarius, he is kind in nature and is famous for being honest with his friends, so is Chilon.

Very respected in the clan. One day, Wu He, the greatest Greek hero, strangled the giant snake with his hands when he was young.

Lux, come and see his friend. When I heard that Sagittarius is also a nation that is good at making wine, I thought of alcohol, whether Sagittarius or not.

Responsible for the common property, he forced his friends to steal it for him to enjoy, otherwise he would be killed. Everyone knows that Wu He is the strongest man in the world.

Even Apollo, the sun god, wants him to score three points, so this Sagittarius has to do what he wants.

Just as Wu He was intoxicated with the fragrance of wine, the fragrance of wine had permeated the whole tribe, and all the people and horses severely reprimanded Wu He.

Hector was furious with his force, picked up his bow and killed Sagittarius. Sagittarius fled to the hometown of Chilon, the most respected nation. At this time,

At home, Chilon heard the trampling outside and the cry for help in panic. He didn't even think about it. He opened the door and went straight out. He pulled the bow hard in an instant.

A sharp arrow hit Chilon in the heart. The kind and innocent Chilon sacrificed his life for his friend.

Zeus, the god of heaven, heard the screams of the army, so he lifted Chilon's body with both hands and threw it into the sky. Chilon instantly turned into several shining stars.

The figure is like Sagittarius. Since then, in memory of Chilon, this constellation has been called Sagittarius, which is what we call Sagittarius.

Leo myth

In the face of the challenger, the king's demeanor is straightforward and single-handedly, which is a symbol of Leo. It is said that the origin of Leo is related to Wu He.

Hector Li Wu is the illegitimate child of Zeus and mortal life. He was born with unparalleled power, and Sheila was very jealous of it. Hewuli

When I was a baby, I put two giant snakes in the cradle, hoping to kill Wu He, but Wu He killed them with a smile.

Since childhood, Wu He has been regarded as "the greatest hero of mankind".

Sheila certainly won't give up the idea of killing Hurley because of one failure. She used witchcraft to make He Wuli beat his wife crazily.

Wu He was very regretful and sad when he woke up, and decided to wash away his sins through asceticism. He came to Messini and asked the king to give him a task.

Who knows that the king got Sheila's instructions and really gave him twelve arduous tasks, which must be completed in twelve days, one of which is to

Kill a man-eating lion.

This lion usually lives in the forest. Wu He went into the forest to look for it. All the animals, birds, deer and pine trees were silent.

The mice were all eaten by the lion, and Wu He got tired of it and began to doze off. Just then, the giant lion started from a double-hole cave in Lyon.

Come out, hector. Open your eyes hard. Oh, my God! A man-eating lion is five times as big as an ordinary lion, covered in animal blood, adding a bit of horror.

Hector shot it with an arrow first, then hit it with a wooden stick, all useless, the giant lion is invincible, and finally Hector only needs to hand-to-hand combat with the lion.

It was very tragic, but in the end it strangled the lion with brute force.

Although the man-eating lion died, Sheila threw the man-eating lion into the air to commemorate its courage against hector's Force and became a Leo.

Pisces myth

Venus, the beautiful goddess, and her beloved son, little love god Cupid, dressed up for a luxurious banquet. At this party, everyone

All the participants are gods, which can be called "God's feast".

All the gods are dressed up in splendor, and no one wants to compare with others; Gods, it's one cup, three cups.

Five groups of people are talking loudly. Naughty children have been playing hide-and-seek for a long time.

When the whole banquet gradually reached its climax and everyone was intoxicated with delicious food and mellow wine, suddenly an unexpected guest came and ruined all this.

The atmosphere of the whole party.

This uninvited guest has a very ferocious appearance and an evil heart. The purpose of his appearance at the party was to destroy it. Obviously, he

This goal has been achieved.

He stretched out his hand and overturned the food table, throwing the potted flowers into the pool. The performance was terrible and frightened everyone present.

Everyone began to run around, and the original beautiful banquet turned into such panic, children screaming and crying.

At this moment, Venus suddenly found Cupid missing. She looked around nervously and didn't care about the existence of Venus, the unexpected guest.

I searched every corner of the party and finally found Cupid trembling with fear under the piano. Venus held Cupid lovingly.

Hold it tightly in your arms.

In order to prevent Cupid from being separated from her again, Venus thought of a way to tie two people's feet with a rope and then turn them into two.

Fish, in this way, successfully escaped from this terrible party.

These two fish are the origin of Pisces now, symbolizing love and delicacy.

Gemini myth

Princess Rita gave birth to many lovely children, including another brother, who not only has a very good relationship, but also looks similar, so it is easy to let go.

People think they are twins.

In fact, among the two brothers, the elder brother is the son of Princess Lida and Zeus, and the younger brother was born by King basta. They are artificial.

Half-brother. Moreover, my brother is a "god" and has eternal life, while my brother is an ordinary person.

One day, Greece was attacked by a huge wild boar, and the princes called many warriors to chase the wild boar. When the wild boar was successfully solved,

In the time of warriors, however, because of the struggle for merit, hatred was forged between each other.

In a busy market, warriors who look at each other unpleasantly meet unexpectedly, and of course there is a quarrel. In an argument,

Someone started fighting and the scene got out of hand. Many people were injured or even killed in this killing. Unfortunately, the two kings

The younger brother among the children was also killed in the chaos.

My brother, who has been very kind to this brother, has been crying at his body, hoping that his brother can be resurrected and let them be together.

Enjoy the happy time of brotherhood again.

So, my brother returned to heaven and asked his father Zeus, hoping that Zeus could bring his brother back to life. But Zeus told him that his brother was just an ordinary man.

Ben would have died. If you really want to save your brother, you must give him the rest of his life. A brother with deep feelings certainly won't hesitate.

I agreed at once, and the two brothers can live happily together again.

This is the origin of Gemini.

The myth of water bottle

In Troy, there lived a handsome prince. His handsome appearance is not even comparable to the beauty in the city.

One day, the gods held a banquet, but the girl who poured Zeus wine was injured, so no one could replace her, but the girl who was introduced,

Zeus was not satisfied.

One day, Apollo came to Troy and saw the handsome prince and ladies playing together. He thought to himself, there is such a handsome prince in the world.

So Apollo returned to the world of God and reported to Zeus what he had seen in Troy. Zeus felt incredible and wanted to witness the Prince of Troy.

Zeus saw the Prince of Troy and missed him every day, so an evil idea was brewing in Zeus' heart. Zeus came to Troy again.

When Prince Troy acted alone, Zeus turned into an eagle, and when the prince was not looking, he caught the prince and returned to the divine world.

Prince Troy came to the celestial world, and Zeus asked him to pour wine for Zeus instead of the injured girl. The prince had no choice but to stay in heaven.

The prince misses his hometown and family very much, and so does the king of Troy. I don't know where he went. Zhou Shi saw the prince getting thinner.

I began to feel ashamed, so I had a dream for the king and told him about the prince in the celestial world. In order to comfort the king, I also gave him some horses as comfort.

Finally, Zeus allowed the prince to visit the king in Troy once in a while, and then he returned to the divine world to pour wine for Zeus. The prince has since become a water bottle.

Responsible for pouring wine for Zeus. Whenever you look up at the starry sky at night, you can see a shining Aquarius star.

Libra myth

In ancient Greek mythology, both human beings and gods lived on the ground and lived a peaceful and happy life together. However, human beings are getting smarter and smarter.

They not only learned to build houses and pave the way, but also learned bad habits such as intrigue and intrigue, which made the immortals unbearable and left one after another.

Humans, return to life in the sky.

But among the gods, there is a goddess who represents justice. She has not lost faith in human nature, and still lives with human beings.

More and more wars have started, killing each other. Finally, even the goddess of justice couldn't stand it and decided to move.

She returned to heaven. But this does not mean that she has completely despaired of mankind. She still believes that human beings will wake up one day and return to the good and pure nature of the past.

The goddess of justice who returned to heaven met Poseidon by chance one day. Poseidon laughed at her foolish trust in human beings, and they happened immediately.

A heated debate. In the debate, the goddess of justice thought that Poseidon had insulted her and had to apologize to her. Poseidon didn't think so, so they were deadlocked and one sued.

To Zeus.

This situation embarrassed Zeus, because the goddess of justice was her daughter and Poseidon was her younger brother, and neither side could take sides.

Just when Zeus was worried about this, the queen made a suggestion in time, asking the winner to apologize to the other side in a competition between Poseidon and the goddess of justice.

The competition will be held in Paradise Square, and Poseidon will start first. Poseidon waved a stick at the wall, and the crack immediately flowed out, which was very beautiful.

Then the goddess of justice became a Graham tree, with a reddish-brown trunk, green leaves and golden olives, and most importantly,

Anyone who sees this tree will feel love and peace. Poseidon gave up after the game.

In order to commemorate this ending, Zeus threw the balance he carried with him into the sky and became today's Libra.

Scorpio myth

The son of Apollo, the sun god, was born beautiful and sexy. He himself feels conceited because of this and his attitude is always arrogant and rude. Too strong a personality often makes him start.

Accidentally offended many people. One day, someone told Bayeton, "You are not the son of the sun god!" " "Say that finish laughing, and roared off. Strong.

How could Bayeton swallow this breath? So he asked his mother, "Am I the son of Apollo?" But no matter how hard my mother tries.

In order to ensure that he was indeed born by Apollo, Bayton still didn't believe it. Mother went on to say, "The person who makes fun of you is the son of Zeus and has a high position. If you still don't believe it, then

Ask Apollo himself! "

Apollo listened to his son's question and said with a smile, "Don't listen to their nonsense, of course you are my son!" " "

Bayton still insists on not believing. In fact, of course he knows that the sun god never lies, but he has other purposes.

Byeton asked to drive his father's solar car to prove that he was Apollo's son. "How can this work?" Apollo was afraid that the sun was everything.

Carelessness can lead to great disaster, but when Apollo was talking about how to drive a solar car in a certain orbit,

Bai Eton was so proud that he jumped in the car, did not listen, and galloped away.

As a result, Bayton's recklessness caused people, animals and plants on the ground to either die of heat or freeze to death, and also delayed time, making it dark and full of complaints.

In order to stop Byeton, the gods released a scorpion one day and bit Byeton's ankle. Zeus used terrible lightning.

When I hit Bayton, I saw him fall to the ground with a scream.

Peace has been restored to the world. In order to commemorate the scorpion that was also killed by lightning, a constellation named Scorpio was created.

Source of twelve constellations

The well-documented constellations originated in Babylon, and the Babylonians put forward 30 constellations around 1000 BC.

After the culture of the two river basins (Babylon) spread to Greece, ancient Greek astronomers supplemented and developed the Babylonian constellation and compiled the ancient Greek constellation table. Ptolemy, an ancient Greek astronomer, synthesized the astronomical achievements at that time and sorted out 48 constellations.

After the Middle Ages, European capitalism rose and needed to expand outward, and the navigation industry was greatly developed. Ships sailing at sea need navigation at any time, and stars are the best street lamps. Among the stars, this constellation has a special shape and is the easiest to observe. Therefore, constellations have aroused widespread concern. 16 when Magellan actually sailed around the world, he not only used constellations to navigate and orient, but also studied constellations.

1922, the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided to divide the sky into 88 constellations, and their names basically followed the historical names. 1928, the international astronomical union officially announced the names of 88 constellations. These 88 constellations are divided into three celestial regions, 29 in the northern hemisphere and 47 in the southern hemisphere, near the ecliptic 12.

And the constellation we usually say is the 12 constellation on the ecliptic. Each of them has some myths and legends about himself.

In ancient times, in order to facilitate navigation and observe astronomical phenomena, people connected the scattered stars in the sky through imagination. Half of them were named in ancient times, and the naming method was based on the myths and forms of ancient civilizations (including the myths and epics of Mesopotamia, Babylon, Egypt and Greece). The other half (mostly in the night sky in the southern hemisphere) was named only in modern times, and is often named after navigation instruments.

In ancient times, because of different regions, the way to see the starry sky was different! Now the world divides the sky into 88 regions and 88 constellations according to the constellation map.

The "constellation" we usually say refers to the "sun constellation"; That is, people on the earth are the center, and at the same time we can see which constellation the sun is in orbit (Greek zodiac: the circle made by animals, also known as the "zodiac"), so we can say what constellation that person is.

More than 2000 years ago, the Greek astronomer Hipparchus (190 ~ 120 BC) divided the ecliptic into twelve segments, with spring divided into zero, and every 30 degrees from the vernal equinox (that is, the zero degree of the ecliptic) as a palace, taking the main constellations contained in each palace at that time. Babies born when the earth moves to every bisector (constellation) will always have some similar characteristics when they grow up, including behavioral characteristics and personality characteristics. Connect these associations (rich imagination and creativity) in series to make the humanity of these constellations concrete; It also adds the color of myth and becomes an important part of culture (mainly Greek and Roman mythology).

This set of numerology has been developed and circulated for at least five thousand years, represented by these twelve constellations respectively. But these constellations do not represent a certain "star", but can only be regarded as "representative symbols of the same name".

Astronomical knowledge of the twelve constellations

Astronomical names of constellations (zodiac signs) [arranged alphabetically by Latin names]

Palace number Latin name English name Chinese name

Aquarius Aquarius

Aries Aries

Cancer

10 Capricorn Ocean Goat Capricorn

Gemini Gemini

Leo lion

Libra Libra

Pisces fish

Sagittarius

Scorpio Scorpio

Taurus Taurus

6 virgo virgin girl

Aries constellation

Every year from June 5438 to mid-February at 8: 00, Aries is above our heads. This is a very dark small constellation, in which only the next 2.3m α star and 2.7m β star are slightly meaningful.

The four stars Pegasus and Andromeda in the autumn sky make up a big box. Draw a straight line from the two stars in the north of the box and extend it to the east for one and a half times, and you can see Aries.

Taurus constellation

In winter, in the sky not far from the northwest of Orion, there is a very bright 0.86m star (ranked 13 among all the stars), which is the alpha star of Taurus, which was called Bisu V in ancient China.

Taurus is also one of the famous zodiac signs, and Bi Suwu is located near the zodiac signs. It is about 90 degrees away from four bright stars, such as Xuanyuan XIV of Leo, Antares of Scorpio and Beiluoshimen of Nanyu, and is also near the zodiac. They are called the "four heavenly kings" of the zodiac.

The most famous celestial body in Taurus is "two clusters plus a nebula".

Connecting Orion γ star and Cebu star, extending about twice the distance to the northwest, there is a famous open cluster-Pleiades cluster. People with good eyesight can see seven bright stars in this cluster, so it was also called "Seven Star Cluster" in ancient China. The Pleiades cluster is 4 17 light-years away and has a diameter of 13 light-years. Observed with a large telescope, it can be found that there are more than 280 stars in the Pleiades cluster.

Another open cluster is called Biju Cluster, which is located near Biju, but Biju is not a member of it. Bi cluster is 0/43 light-years away from us/kloc-and is the closest cluster to us. You can see five or six stars with the naked eye. In fact, it has about 300 members.

Near the star zeta in Taurus, there is a famous big nebula, which was named "Crab Nebula" by a British astronomer according to its shape. Astronomers in this century infer that the Crab Nebula is the product of 1054 supernova explosion. The supernova explosion of 1054 is recorded in detail in ancient astronomical documents in China.

Gemini

Extending the connecting line between Orion's beta star and alpha star to the northeast, we can meet two bright stars which are not far apart. The brighter one is Gemini's beta star with brightness of 1. 14, etc. The dimmer star is Alpha Gemini with a brightness of 1.97. A series of stars τ, ε, μ starting from α star is almost parallel to another series of stars τ, ζ, γ starting from β star. They are imagined as two friendly brothers-casto and Poole Jocks.

Brother-β star, known as "North River III" in ancient China, is brighter than brother-α star and is the 17th brightest star in the whole day. Brother Alpha, known as "Beihe II" in ancient China, is the first confirmed binary star in the history of astronomy. In fact, it is a "six-star" composed of six stars. Interestingly, my brother Beichuan is also a Liuhe star. These two brothers are really twins. How much they look alike!

Cancer constellation

In spring, Cancer is located in the west of Leo and the north of the snake head, which is the darkest constellation in the zodiac. The brightest star in the constellation is only 3.8m, so you can't see the shape of a crab at all. This may be because Hercules had already hit it with a stick. That's right, it still clings to the long snake and goes along with it!

Near the Delta Star in the center of Cancer (or between the two bright stars, Leo Xuanyuan XIV and Gemini Beta), people with good eyesight can see a small white fog, which is described in China's ancient books: "Like clouds and Feiyun, like stars instead of stars, just seeing the air." It was not until the invention of the telescope that people observed that it was originally a cluster, which was called "hive cluster" in astronomy. This cluster has more than 200 members and is 520 light years away.

Astronomically speaking, star clusters can be divided into two categories, one is the "globular cluster" in Ursa Major, and the other is the "open cluster". These clusters are irregular in shape and generally distributed on silver disks. Astronomers have discovered more than 1000 open clusters in the Milky Way. They estimate that the number of open clusters in the whole galaxy must exceed 10000.

Le Signe du Lion

Once I mentioned Leo when I introduced Capricorn and Virgo in the spring night sky. The constellations of beta star in Leo, arcturus in Capricorn and Virgo form an important "Spring Triangle" in spring night.

Leo is also the zodiac sign. Due to precession, the apparent motion of the sun just passed Leo in June every year more than 4,000 years ago. It's June, and the obvious movement of the sun has reached between Taurus and Gemini. At that time, people in the ancient Persian Gulf country of Chaldea thought that the sun got a lot of heat from Leo, so the weather became hot. The ancient Egyptians felt the same way, because at this time of year, many lions moved to the Nile Valley for the summer.

Ancient Egypt worshipped Leo very much. It is said that the famous Sphinx is shaped by the body of a lion and the head of a maid. The star of Leo was also highly valued in ancient China, and was called the God of the Yellow Emperor and Xuanyuan.

After we found the beta star of Leo through the spring triangle on a spring night, a big star to its east was all Leo's. In Leo, delta, theta and beta stars form a remarkable triangle, which is the lion's back and tail. These six stars from ε to α form the shape of a sickle, which is also like a reverse question mark. This is the lion's head. When the Polaris connecting the constellation Ursa major (that is, the two stars in the spoon mouth) extends in the opposite direction to Polaris, you can find it. Alpha star is called Xuanyuan XIV in China, and its apparent magnitude is1.35m. It is the brightest star in Leo, and it is the 2nd1in the whole day. It forms an isosceles triangle with arcturus and arcturus, and can be found by extending the δ and γ stars of Ursa Major ten times. In ancient times, navigators often used it to determine the position of ships in the sea, so Alpha Leo was awarded the title of "one of the nine navigation planets".

Leo's Xuanyuan XIV is located near the ecliptic. It has four bright stars, which are about 90 degrees apart from each other on the celestial sphere, just one in each season. Together with Pisces in Taurus, Antares in Scorpio and Nanluoshimen, it is also located near the ecliptic. They are collectively called the "Four Heavenly Kings" of the Zodiac.

Every year in June165438+1mid-October, especially in the nights of June 14 and June 15, a large number of meteors will appear near ζ star with question marks written on Leo. This is the famous Leonid meteor shower. It peaks every 33 years. As early as 93 1 year, it was recorded in China in the Five Dynasties. At the peak of 1833, meteors exploded near zeta star like fireworks, with tens of thousands of them every hour. Therefore, the next night, a farmer hurried outside to see if all the stars in the sky had fallen out.

Once I mentioned Leo when I introduced Capricorn and Virgo in the spring night sky. The constellations of beta star in Leo, arcturus in Capricorn and Virgo form an important "Spring Triangle" in spring night.

Leo is also the zodiac sign. Due to precession, the apparent motion of the sun just passed Leo in June every year more than 4,000 years ago. It's June, and the obvious movement of the sun has reached between Taurus and Gemini. At that time, people in the ancient Persian Gulf country of Chaldea thought that the sun got a lot of heat from Leo, so the weather became hot. The ancient Egyptians felt the same way, because at this time of year, many lions moved to the Nile Valley for the summer.

Ancient Egypt worshipped Leo very much. It is said that the famous Sphinx is shaped by the body of a lion and the head of a maid. The star of Leo was also highly valued in ancient China, and was called the God of the Yellow Emperor and Xuanyuan.

We crossed the Spring Triangle on a spring night and found the lion.