Royal bull by Poniatowski
The bull of Poniatowski , lat. Taurus Poniatovii , also Royal Bull of Poniatowski , is a constellation of the northern sky, which was introduced by Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt in 1777 in honor of the Polish king Stanislaus Poniatowski . It is described in the star atlas Presentation of the Stars by Johann Elert Bode , but is not one of the 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) . The bull of Poniatowski is a small group of stars in the northeastern part of the official constellation Ophiuchus (Ophiuchus) and is located between the shoulder of Ophiuchus and the tail of the snake . The main star is the binary star 70 Ophiuchi, only 16.6 light years away . The star 70 Ophiuchi A is one of the few sun-like stars ( spectral type K0 V) that are visible to the naked eye and has an apparent magnitude of 4.3 mag. The companion is significantly smaller and has a brightness of 6.0 mag, as well as an apparent distance between 1.5 and 6.8 arc seconds . The orbital period is 88.3 years.
The name of the constellation is derived from the shape of the conspicuous asterism in the center of the constellation, which consists of the stars 73, 70, 68, 67 and 66 Ophiuchi. The shape is very similar to the bull's head ; H. the hyades .
Like the Hyades, the head of the bull by Poniatowski is a real open star cluster , which has the catalog names Melotte (Mel) 186 and Collinder (Cr) 359 . The total brightness of the star cluster is 3.0 mag, the diameter about 4 °.
Coordinates of the star cluster: ( Equinox 2000.0)
- Right ascension : 18h01m
- Declination : + 03 ° 00 '
Web links
- Image of the royal bull by Poniatowski near Bode ( Memento from January 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- Poniatowski's Taurus in the catalog of no longer used constellations