In which month do the twelve constellations appear in the sky?

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. It is about 90 degrees away from the four bright stars near the ecliptic, such as Xuanyuan XIV of Leo, Antares of Scorpio and Beiluoshimen of Nanyu. 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, among which 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 of Leo Xuanyuan XIV and Gemini Beta), people with good eyesight can see a small white fog, which is described in China's ancient book: "Like clouds and Feiyun, like stars instead of stars, just seeing gas." 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, which is about 90 degrees away from the four bright stars Taurus, Scorpio Antares and Nanyu's Beiluoshimen. They are 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.