Constellations of the Winter Sky #1
by Ralf Rohner
Title
Constellations of the Winter Sky #1
Artist
Ralf Rohner
Medium
Photograph
Description
In many of my posts I describe what is visible in the sky. I am fully aware that it is not easy to 'translate' a written description into an image and therefore decided to do an annotated tour of my last post "Contact".
As there is a lot going on in that sky, I will split the tour in two posts. In the first part we take a closer look at the constellations:
My main celestial target was Orion (the hunter), found directly above the radio dish. If you look at the constellation lines, it looks like an archer. The bight stars Rigel, Betelgeuze, Bellatrix, Saiph and the famous belt stars make it one of the best known asterisms in the sky.
Below the dish, you find Canis Major (the big dog) rising. Its main star is Sirius, the brightest star in our sky (except for the sun).
North (above) of Orion lies Taurus (the bull). It is one of the zodiac signs, because the sun passes through it on its apparent yearly path as seen from earth. The main star is reddish Aldebaran. It forms an easily recognizable V-shape with Ain and the brightest Hyades stars.
Further to the west (right) of Taurus you find two more zodiac signs, which are much less conspicuous: Aries (the ram) and Pisces (the fish).
South of them are two lesser known constellations that extend the water based theme from the zodiac signs Pisces and Aquarius (not in the image): Cetus (the whale), actually was a sea monster in Greek mythology, and Eridanus (the river).
If you follow the Milky Way along the left edge of the image, you can see Auriga (the charioteer), which forms a prominent pentagon with Capella beeing the brightest star. Further north lies Perseus (the hero) which also encompasses the galaxtic plane.
Finally, on the very top of the frame, you can find the Triangulum, a pretty obvious choice of name for this small constellation.
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December 1st, 2020
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