Ancient astronomers, peering into the night sky, noticed that some stars were located close to each other, while others were far away. Nearby luminaries were united into groups or constellations. They began to play an important role in people's lives. This was especially true for the sailors of merchant ships, who used the stars to determine the direction of movement of their ships.
The first constellation map appeared in the 2nd century BC. uh. It was created by one of the greatest Greek astronomers, Hipparchus of Nicaea. While working at the Library of Alexandria, he compiled a catalog of 850 stars visible to the naked eye. He distributed all these luminaries among 48 constellations.
The final point on this issue was put by the Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD. He wrote his famous monograph "Almagest". In it he outlined all the astronomical knowledge that existed at that time. This work was unshakable for a whole millennium until the appearance of the greatest scientist from Khorezm, Al-Bruni, at the beginning of the 11th century.
In the 15th century, the German astronomer and mathematician Johann Müller (not to be confused with the biologist Johann Peter Müller) founded one of the first astronomical laboratories in Nuremberg. On the initiative of this respected master, astronomical tables based on the works of Ptolemy were published.
With these first cards starry sky used by such famous navigators as Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus. The latter, guided by them, crossed in 1492 Atlantic Ocean and reached the shores of South America.
The German artist and engraver Albrecht Dürer became acquainted with the works of Johann Müller, who is better known under the nickname Regiomontanus. It is thanks to his skill that in 1515 the first printed map of the constellations appeared. Those on it were depicted in the form of figures from Greek mythology. This was the beginning of the publication of celestial atlases.
They tried to reflect the brightness of the stars in descending order. For this they began to use letters Greek alphabet. The brightest luminaries within the constellations were assigned the letter "alpha". Then came the letter "beta", "gamma" and so on. This principle is still used today.
In the 17th century, Polish astronomer and telescope designer Jan Hevelius compiled a catalog that included 1,564 stars. He also indicated their coordinates on the celestial sphere.
The modern names of the constellations and their boundaries were finally approved international agreement in 1922. There are 88 constellations in total, and their names are mostly borrowed from ancient greek mythology. Each cluster of stars also has a generally accepted Latin name. This is to astronomers speaking different languages, understood each other.
constellation map,
located in the sky of the Northern Hemisphere
The picture above shows celestial map of the Northern Hemisphere. It includes the following constellations: Andromeda (1), Ursa Major (2), Auriga (3), Bootes (4), Coma Berenices (5), Hercules (6), Canes Venatici (7), Dolphin (8), Dragon (9), Giraffe (10), Cassiopeia (13), Swan (14), Lyra (15), Chanterelle (16), Ursa Minor (17), Little Horse (18), Little Lion (19), Pegasus (21 ), Perseus (22), Lynx (23), Northern Crown (24), Arrow (25), Triangle (26), Cepheus (27), Lizard (29), Hydra (33), Unicorn (35), Whale ( 43), Canis Minor (47), Orion (53).
The white circles contain the numbers of the Zodiac constellations: Aries (77), Taurus (78), Gemini (79), Cancer (80), Leo (81), Virgo (82), Pisces (88).
The figure below shows celestial map of the southern hemisphere. These include: Ophiuchus (11), Snake (12), Eagle (20), Shield (28), Canis Major (30), Wolf (31), Raven (32), Dove (34), Altar (36), Painter (37), Crane (38), Hare (39), Goldfish (40), Indian (41), Keel (42), Compass (44), Poop (45), Flying Fish (46), Microscope (48 ), Fly (49), Pump (50), Square (51), Octant (52), Peacock (54), Sails (55), Furnace (56), Bird of Paradise (57), Cutter (58), Sextant ( 59), Grid (60), Sculptor (61), Table Mountain (62), Telescope (63), Toucan (64), Phoenix (65), Chameleon (66), Centaurus (67), Compasses (68), Clock (69), Chalice (70), Eridanus (71), Southern Hydra (72), Southern Crown (73), Southern Fish (74), Southern Cross (75), Southern Triangle (76).
The white circles show the numbers corresponding to the following Zodiac constellations: Libra (83), Scorpio (84), Sagittarius (85), Capricorn (86), Aquarius (87).
constellation map,
located in the sky of the Southern Hemisphere
The most famous constellation in the Northern Hemisphere is Ursa Major. These are 7 bright stars forming a bucket. If you draw a straight line through its “wall” opposite the “handle” (the stars Dubhe and Merak), then it will rest against the North Star, that is, it will indicate the northern direction. Over the centuries, the position of these stars in the sky changes. Therefore, several thousand years ago the outline of the ladle looked different than it does today.
The constellation map would lose a lot without Orion. Its brightest star is called Betelgeuse. And the second brightest is called Rigel. Three second magnitude stars form Orion's belt. To the south you can find the most bright star night sky, which is called Sirius. It is part of the constellation Canis Major. Still, the diversity and beauty of the night sky is impossible to describe. This must be seen and admired by the cosmic forces that are capable of creating such splendor.
Stéphane Guisard is an optical engineer at the European Southern Observatory. IN professional activity he has to deal with one of the biggest optical telescopes 8-meter Very Large Telescope (VLT) ever built by man. This, however, does not prevent Stefan from engaging in amateur astronomy during his vacation.
Stefan's favorite hobby is astrophotography and time-lapse video. Thanks to his work, Guizar has a slight advantage over other astrophotographers, because he has access to the very dark and transparent skies of the Andes - perhaps the most favorable skies on Earth for astronomical observations.
However, Guizar is not limited to the Andes alone. He traveled all over South and Central America, photographing mountain landscapes, ruins of Mayan cities and, of course, the starry sky. And last summer, Stéphane Guizar visited Easter Island, where he took photographs against the backdrop of Moai statues.
Today, in the “City and Stars” section, we published his wonderful film The Night Sky of Atacama. Here we present to your attention some of his photographs. It’s strange, unusual to look at unfamiliar drawings of the southern constellations and realize that you are still on Earth.
(Total 12 photos)
1. Night over Easter Island. A dramatic picture of the southern night sky spreads over the silhouettes of ancient Moai statues. The bright nebula is the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The galaxy, made up of 10 billion stars, is located 160,000 light-years from Earth. This means that we see it as it was in prehistoric times. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
2. Dawn over Patagonia. The planet Saturn (left) and the star Arcturus (right) shine in the twilight sky above the Cuernos Mountains in Patagonia. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
3. The darkest sky. The quality of the sky is very important to astronomers. Twilight, city light, the moon, auroras and even planets often do not allow for subtle observations of distant galaxies or pale, almost ephemeral nebulae. Where is the darkest sky? Stefan Guizar believes that in the Atacama Desert in Chile, where the Paranal Observatory is located. This photo shows a panorama of the area near the observatory (telescope towers jutting out from the sky at lower right) and a dark midnight sky. On this night, the Moon did not interfere with the shooting (it was a new moon), and yet flare was noticeable along the horizon. But these are not city lights. This is the Milky Way, the light coming from the disk of our own Galaxy. Two nebulous spots - Magellanic clouds. The bright star is the planet Jupiter. And elongated pale spot on either side of Jupiter is all that remains of the zodiacal light at midnight. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
4. Where was this photo taken? Of course, on the equator! In this long-exposure image, the stars stretch out into luminous arcs, revealing the daily rotation of the starry sky. We see that the stars rotate around the celestial pole located on the horizon. But only at the equator the Earth's rotation axis is on the horizon. Accordingly, only at the equator during the year can you see all the stars in both the northern and southern hemispheres of the earth. This wonderful photo, taken in Ecuador, also included a bright fireball. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
5. Stéphane Guizar prepares for a full-length shoot solar eclipse July 11, 2010 on Easter Island. Silent Moai statues stand in the sun, but the Moon is already approaching the Sun... Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
6. And here is the result of careful preparation: a total solar eclipse over Easter Island. This remarkable photo of the July 11, 2010 solar eclipse was published on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website. At this eerie moment, only ancient idols guard the peace of the isolated island. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
7. The constellation Orion and Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, over Guatemala. Milky Way in this moonlit night almost invisible. The filming location is remarkable. This is the famous Square of the Seven Temples in Tikal, one of the largest places archaeological excavations in the world. Tikal was the capital of the pre-Columbian kingdom of Mutul. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
8. Starlight Night at the equator. The magnificent arc of the Milky Way curves over the Cotopaxi volcano. Directly above the top of the mountain you can see a huge black hole in the Milky Way. This is the dark Coalsack Nebula. To the right of it we see another nebula, but this time bright red, the famous Carina Nebula (or Carina Nebula). And even further to the right, Canopus shines above the horizon, the second brightest star in the night sky after Sirius. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
9. Sunset over the Atacama Desert. This photo is dedicated to World Day environment, which takes place under the auspices of the UN since 1972 every June 5th. What did Guizar want to say with this photograph? Use renewable energy sources! Notice the serene expanse below. It's not the ocean, it's the clouds. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
10. The Milky Way over the extinct Chimborazo volcano in Ecuador. The height of the volcano is 6267 meters, and until the beginning of the 19th century, Chimborazo was considered the most high mountain on the ground. To a certain extent, this is still true today, because despite the fact that Everest is more than 2 km higher than Chimborazo, the top of the Ecuadorian volcano is the most distant point on the surface from the center of the Earth (do not forget that the Earth is slightly flattened towards the equator). Or you can say it another way: the top of Chimborazo is the closest place to the stars. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
11. Meteor in the sky over the Cuernos mountains, Patagonia. During the shooting, Guizar was lucky and managed to catch a fireball, a very bright meteor that drew a bright streak not far from Sirius through the Milky Way. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
12. And here is another photograph of the same area, also taken at night, but with a very long shutter speed. The stars, in their movement across the sky, left long trails in the sky. The ancients believed that the stars actually revolved around the Earth, which rested at the center of the universe. The fact that the daily movement of stars reflects the rotation of the Earth became known relatively recently, some 350-400 years ago. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
The Southern Cross is the smallest constellation in terms of area, but at the same time it has incredible beauty.
Young, small, but incredibly beautiful
Looking even with the naked eye at the southern hemisphere of the starry sky, you can easily detect about three dozen stars forming this constellation, but for the most part these are all faintly luminous stars. Of these, only four of the brightest stars - α, β and γ Southern Cross (the first in stellar magnitude) and δ (the second in stellar magnitude) - form a clearly visible cross-shaped figure in the sky.
The constellation Southern Cross is relatively young by astronomical standards; the first information about it in astronomical practice appeared thanks to the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century. However, the generally accepted name for this constellation came into use long before this, even during the time of Magellan trip around the world and was used by navigators to distinguish it from the “Northern Cross”, which in the Middle Ages was often called the constellation Cygnus.
"Coal Sack" and "Box of Diamonds"
Dark Coalsack Nebula
The Southern Cross constellation, in the vastness of which is located the “Coalsack” - one of the dark nebulae closest to planet Earth. The distance to it is 490 light years. A “coal bag” is a cloud of high-density cosmic dust that absorbs light emitted by distant stars and appears clearly visible to the naked eye. dark spot on the brighter Milky Way. Clusters of cosmic dust, such as the aforementioned “Coal Sack,” have the property of not only scattering and absorbing radiation passing through them, but also polarizing them.
NGC 4755 or Diamond Box
To the east, the constellation is bordered by the open cluster NGC4755, commonly known as the “Box of Diamonds,” a small group of stars of completely different colors that sparkle brightly in the night sky. The total brilliance of all the stars in the “Box of Diamonds” is 5.2 magnitudes. The “Box” is located at a distance of more than 7,500 light years from planet Earth. This cluster of stars was discovered by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1751-1752, who was engaged in astronomical observations in southern Africa.
Location on the starry sky
The Southern Cross is a constellation that is absolutely invisible on Russian territory because... its location is far from the celestial equator, in the south. From the east, north and west, the “Cross” is surrounded by the stars of Centaurus (Centaur), and on the southern side it is adjacent to the “Fly”. Finding this constellation is very easy, because... it represents a bright, distinct figure. Help in the search for the “Cross” can also be provided by a pair of fairly bright Centauri stars, the star Rigil Centaurus (a Centauri) and Hadar (b Centauri), located slightly east of the “Southern Cross”. If you draw an imaginary straight line to the west through these stars, it will definitely point directly to the “Southern Cross”.
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In 1922, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined all visible constellations located in the celestial sphere. Everything was systematized and a catalog of the Northern and Southern hemispheres of the starry sky was created. In total, there are currently 88 constellations, and only 47 of them are the most ancient, the existence of which is determined by time periods of several thousand years. 12 are marked in a separate list zodiac constellations, through which the Sun passes during the year.
Almost all constellations of the Southern Hemisphere, as well as asterisms, have their own names, the source of which is mythology Ancient Greece. For example, the myth of how the goddess of the hunt Artemis killed young Orion and, in a fit of repentance, placed him among the stars. This is how the constellation Orion appeared. A constellation Canis Major, located at the feet of Orion, is nothing more than a hunting dog that followed its master to heaven. in each constellation it forms an approximately conventional outline of a mythological creature, Taurus or Scorpio, Virgo or Centaur.
The Southern Hemisphere star map contains many of the famous constellations. Among them there are so-called useful asterisms. Similar to the Ursa Major, located in and pointing to the North Star, in the South there is the constellation Southern Cross, with which you can trace the direction to the south pole. Both constellations of the Southern Hemisphere have great value for sea navigation, when the captain of a ship must plot a course at night. The stars provide significant assistance in navigation and lead ocean ships on the right path.
Stars can be bright or faint. The degree of glow depends on several factors. The constellations of the Southern Hemisphere include stars of both intense and subdued luminosity. The brightest star in the night sky is Sirius, which is part of the constellation Canis Major. Its age is about 235 million years, and Sirius is twice as massive as the Sun. The star has always been an idol in the night sky for people; they worshiped it, made sacrifices and expected auspiciousness, a good harvest and help in worldly affairs from Sirius. Many other stars of the Southern Hemisphere were marked with the deity’s halo; people believed in the miraculous abilities of the night luminaries. And some constellations are even described in church books.
The zodiacal constellation of the southern hemisphere of the sky is located between Aries and Gemini. Taurus includes a bright star - Aldebaran, but the location of two star clusters - the Pleiades and Hyades - is especially noteworthy. The Pleiades consists of more than 500 stars, and the Hyades has 130. Taurus is one of the constellations rich in astrophysical processes throughout its history. In the 11th century AD. The constellation Taurus was rocked by a supernova explosion, resulting in the formation of the so-called Crab Nebula with a pulsar, which is a source of powerful X-ray radiation and sends radiomagnetic pulses. Many Southern Hemisphere constellations have the potential for stellar transformations. As a result, cosmic upheavals are inevitable.
Another constellation of the Southern Hemisphere is Pisces, located between Aries and Aquarius. Pisces is notable for the fact that the point passes through it. The constellation includes two large asterisms, Northern Pisces, consisting of three stars, and the Crown of seven stars. also contains a story from ancient Greek mythology. When the mythical monster Typhon drove the frightened gods from Olympus to Egypt, Aphrodite, fleeing horror, turned into a fish, and then her son, Eros, also turned into a fish.
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