Taurus (constellation)

Taurus constellation

Latin name	Taurus
Latin genitive	Tauri
Abbreviation	dew
Right ascension	3232103 ^h 23 ^m 21 ^s to 06 ^h 00 ^m 55 ^s60055
declination	1987954−1 ° 20 ′ 46 ″ to + 31 ° 06 ′ 01 ″2310601
surface	797.249 deg² rank 17th
Completely visible	89.2 ° N to 58.9 ° S
Observation time for Central Europe	winter
Number of stars brighter than 3 mag	4th
Brightest star (size)	Aldebaran (0.85)
Meteor streams	Taurids Beta taurids
Neighboring constellations ( clockwise from north )	Carter Perseus Aries whale Eridanus Orion Twins
swell	IAU ,

The Taurus ( Latin Taurus ; astronomical sign ♉) is a constellation in the northern winter sky . It lies on either side of the ecliptic ; the sun passes through it in late May and early June. The zodiac sign Taurus goes back to this constellation, but has shifted by about 30 ° since ancient times because of the precession .

description

The constellation of Taurus as seen with the naked eye

The bull is visible in the evening from November to April and in the morning from August to December. He stands in the sky north of the conspicuous Orion , who, according to mythology, conquered him.

The head of the bull is the V-shaped open star cluster of the Hyades , the "rain star ". The conspicuous reddish star Aldebaran represents the eye facing Orion. Some distance east of the Hyades are the stars β Tauri ( Elnath , Arabic horn) and ζ Tauri, which represent the tips of the horns. A hand's breadth north-west of the Hyades is the open star cluster of the Pleiades - also known as the seven stars . The body of Taurus in the southern half of the constellation, on the other hand, is inconspicuous.

The ecliptic runs through the constellation, so the sun , moon and planets move through it. The Taurus is one of the signs of the zodiac . The moon can sometimes cover the main star Aldebaran and stars of the Pleiades . Due to the precession movement of the earth's axis, the time of the passage of the sun has shifted compared to ancient times. The sun is currently in Taurus from May 14th to June 21st. Since 1990 the sun has been in the constellation Taurus during the summer solstice , previously it was in Gemini at this time . In ancient times the summer point was in the constellation Cancer , hence the name "Tropic of Cancer" for the northern tropic , which is still used today .

history

The Taurus is one of the oldest constellations and was already known to the earlier advanced civilizations . A constellation of Taurus (Taurus or Centaurus) is first mentioned in the 3rd millennium BC. BC with the Sumerians , where a mythological heavenly bull also appears in the Gilgamesh epic .

The constellation Taurus is one of the 48 classic constellations described in Ptolemy's astronomical work . The bull's head is formed by the bright, triangular star cluster of the Hyades , from which two long horns extend towards the constellation Orion . In Mesopotamia, however, Orion was associated with the legendary King Gilgamesh , who defeated the heavenly bull in battle.

The Hyades are also called Regengestirn , as their evening rise in autumn heralded a rainy season. In early Greece, the Hyades were considered a separate constellation. Together with the Pleiades, they form the so-called Golden Gate of the Ecliptic .

In 1054 a supernova lit Taurus , the event was recorded by Chinese astronomers . The remnant of the star explosion is visible today as the Crab Nebula . The French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier included this faintly glowing cloud as the first object M1 in his nebula catalog .

mythology

Artistic design of the constellation.

There are two original myths about the constellation Taurus :

The Sumerians gave the constellation the name Heavenly Bull / Taurus of Heaven (Gu ₄ -an-na / Gud anna), against which the legendary King Gilgamesh (around 2700 BC) had to fight. Researchers also associate it with "Taurus", the adversary of the hunter Orion . However, some historians refer to the second Taurus constellation Centaurus and therefore do not make a clear assignment.

The Greek mythology after took Zeus in the form of a bull to the beautiful Europe to approach and put them on his back across the sea to Crete to kidnap. It is therefore called the Cretan bull .
According to other sources, Zeus did not change but sent a bull to bring Europe to Crete. There the bull later fell in love with Queen Pasiphae . From this connection, the monster Minotaur emerged. The sea god Poseidon punished the bull for the sacrilege and from now on he had to walk around the island breathing fire. Heracles captured the bull and brought it to Greece , where however it ravaged the mainland. Eventually he was killed by the hero Theseus at Marathon .

According to Greek mythology, the Hyades were daughters of the titan Atlas . Unable to stop crying for their brother's death, they were exiled to heaven.

The Pleiades represent Atlas, his wife Pleione and other of his beautiful daughters. To protect Pleione and her daughters from the stalking of Orion, Zeus took them to heaven. Orion still runs after them there night after night without ever catching up with them.

Celestial objects

Stars

B.	F.	Names or other designations	^m	Lj	Spectral class
α	87	Aldebaran , Aldabaran, Cor Tauri, Parilicium	0.87	66	K5 III
β	112	Elnath , Nath	1.65	134	B7 III
η	25th	Alkiones , alcyones	2.87	410	B5 IIIe
ζ	123	Tien Kuan	3.03	400	B2 IIIpe
θ ²	78	Theta2 Tauri	3.40	157	A7 III
λ	35	Lambda Tauri	3.41	400	B3 V + A IV
ε	74	Ain	3.53	160	K0 III
ο			3.61	212	G8 III
	27	Atlas	3.62	387	B8 III + B8 V
γ	54	Hyadum I	3.65	144	G8 III
	17th	Elektra , Electra	3.70	375	B6 IIIe
ξ			3.73	222	B9 Vn
δ ¹	61	Secunda Hyadum	3.76	171	K0 III
θ ¹	77	Theta1 Tauri	3.84	154	K0 IIIb
	20th	Maia , Maja	3.87	360	B8 III
ν			3.91	129	A1 V
	5		4.14	360	K0 II-III
	23	Merope	4.18	380	B6 IVe
κ ¹			4.21	153	A7 IV-V
	88		4.25	150	A5m
	9		4.27	150	A6 V
τ			4.27	401	B3 V
μ			4.27	435	B3 IV
υ			4.28	155	A8 Vn
	10	10 tauri	4.28	45.5	F9 IV-V
δ ³			4.30	148	A2 IV
	19th	Taygeta , Tayeta	4.30	364	B6 IV
	119	119 Tauri , CE Tauri	4.37	1800	M2 Ia-Ib
	37		4.36	181	K0 III
		V777	4.48	156	F0V
	136		4.56	438	A0 V
ι			4.62	163	A7 V
ρ			4.65	153	A8 V
σ ²			4.67	159	A5 Vn
π			4.69	455	G8 III
		HR 1427	4.78	145	A6 IV
δ ²			4.80	146	A7 V
	139		4.81	2100	B1 Ib
	28	Pleione , BU Tauri	4.83-5.38	422	B8 Vne
	47		4.84	372	G5 III
	126		4.84	748	B3 IV
	132		4.88	522	G8 IIIvar
	114		4.88	696	B2.5 IV
	134		4.89	272	B9 IV
	104		4.91	52	G4 V
ω ²			4.93	94	A3m
	109		4.96	206	G8 III
	75		4.96	194	K2 IIIvar
φ			4.97	342	K1 III
	111		5.00	48	F8 V SB
	79		5.02	160	A7 V
	30th		5.08	565	B3 V
σ ¹			5.08	152	A4m
		V480	5.08	189	A7 IV-V
	66		5.10	396	A3 V
		PPM119132	5.12	417	A0
	4th		5.14	417	A0 Vn
	125		5.18	496	B3 IV
		GS	5.18	494	B0p Si
ψ			5.21	90	F1 V
		HR 1315	5.22	474	B9 Vn
		HR 1188	5.24	192	A2 V
		V696	5.26	154	F0 V
κ ²			5.27	144	A7 V
	133		5.28	800	B2 IV-V
	106		5.28	174	A5 V
	46		5.29	121	F3V
	40		5.32	1050	B3 V
	29		5.34	589	B3 V
		V724	5.34	316	A0p Si
		HR 1257	5.36	113	F6 IV
	121		5.37	600	B2.5 IV
χ			5.38	268	B9 V
		HR 1480	5.38	168	A5m
		IN THE	5.39	195	F2 IV-V
	83		5.40	149	F0 V
	115		5.40	668	B5 V
		HR 1172	5.44	338	B8 V
	16	Celaeno	5.46	434	B7 IV
		HR 1254	5.45	117	F2 V
	93		5.45	345	B8 IV
	36		5.46	954	G0 III
	118		5.47	434	B9 Vn
	81		5.47	145	At the
	130		5.47	1270	F0 III
		HR 1847	5.50	1120	B7 III
	53		5.50	267	B9 IV
	103		5.50	3230	B2 V

The brightest star in Taurus is the reddish Aldebaran . It is a red giant 65 light years away with 40 times the diameter and 125 times the luminosity of our sun. Aldebaran is located near the ecliptic , so he is regularly the Moon and rarely by the planets covered . It does not belong to the Hyades , although seen from Earth it stands in the middle of the star cluster. The name Aldebaran is derived from Altarabic and means "the next one" (the Pleiades).

Double stars

system	^m	distance
θ	3.40 / 3.84	337 "
σ	4.8 / 5.1	429 "
τ	4.3 / 7.2	63 "
φ	5.1 / 8.7	52.1 "
δ³	4.3 / 7.6	1.6 "
47	4.9 / 3.7	1.2 "
88	4.3 / 7.8	70 "
118	5.8 / 6.6	4.8 "

The binary star systems θ and σ Tauri can be observed with the naked eye due to their wide angular distance of 337 and 429 arc seconds respectively. The systems are about 150 light-years away and belong to the Hyades star cluster.

Variable stars

star	^m	period	Type
ζ Tauri	2.80 to 3.17	132.97 days	Eclipsing star + Be star
θ ² Tauri	3.35 to 3.42	108.92 minutes	Eclipsing Star + Delta Scuti Star
λ Tauri	3.37 to 3.91	3.95 days	Algolstern
γ Tauri	3.6 to 3.67
119 Tauri	4.23 to 4.54	165 days	semi-regularly variable (μ Cep)
28 ( Pleione )	4.8 to 5.38	12630 days	Be star + Lambda Eridani star
HD 283750	8.02 to 8.4	1.79 days	BY-Draconis star
T Tauri	9.3 to 13.5	2.81 days	T-tauri star

Messier and NGC objects

Messier	NGC	^m	Type	Surname
M 1	1952	9	Gas mist	Crab Nebula , Crab Nebula
M 45		2.8 to 8.5	Open star cluster	Pleiades
		3.4	Open star cluster	Hyades
	1514	10.9	Planetary nebula
	1647	6.5	Open star cluster
	1746	6.1	Open star cluster
	1807	7.0	Asterism
	1817	7.7	Open star cluster

Photo of the constellation Taurus

Above the "Horn Star" ζ Tauri is located approximately 6,300 light years away Crab Nebula or Crab Nebula, the remnant of the supernova explosion in 1054. In a telescope it appears as a diffuse nebula. Complex structures become visible in photographs that have been exposed for a longer period of time.

The Pleiades are an open star cluster with about 3,000 stars at a distance of 410 light years . It is a relatively young star cluster, estimated to be around 80 million years old. The Pleiades are easy to see with the naked eye. Depending on the visibility, you can see six or nine stars. In the prism binoculars they are a magnificent sight. A bluish reflection fog becomes visible on photographs that have been exposed for a longer period of time .

The Hyades are an open star cluster around 150 light years away that contains several hundred stars. The brightest stars are arranged in a V-shape. The stars of the Hyades are much more developed than the members of the Pleiades, some have already turned into red giants. The age of the Hyades is estimated to be around 900 million years.

Web links

Commons : Taurus (constellation) - album containing pictures, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Taurus - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Constellation Taurus A photographic journey through the signs of the zodiac

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c VSX

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