What star are travelers guided by. Orientation by the stars

Every traveler can catch a moment when there is no compass or GPS at hand, and it is necessary to move at night in search of a suitable place to sleep, or in the desert, when comfortable movement is possible only at night. The moon is not always visible, but in the event of such situations, you can navigate by night luminaries, the trajectory of which is always the same. Orientation by the stars will help not only find the right side of the world, but sometimes even survive.

Of course, you can only navigate correctly with the necessary experience, so before you go on a trip into the wild, it does not hurt to practice how to navigate by the stars, first in a night city.

There are several methods by which you can navigate by the stars.

Northern Hemisphere method

Using the main night landmark - the North Star. This celestial body is the main and only night luminary that never changes its location in the sky. It is an accurate guide, because it always indicates the direction of the north, deviating from the trajectory with minimal errors (1.5 degrees).

It should be remembered that, mistakenly focusing on the brightest star, it can be confused with the planet Venus, since it is brighter than the Polaris. Therefore, in order to find this heavenly body, it is necessary navigate according to the constellations Ursa Minor and Ursa Major, popularly known as the "big" and "small bucket".

The polar star is in the extreme point"bucket" Ursa Minor. Since the constellation Ursa Major is always more noticeable than Ursa Minor, to search for the North Star, you can also navigate along it: to do this, you need to find two stars along the edges of the "bucket", draw a straight line forward equal to five distances between them, and stumble upon the same " tail" of the bucket of Ursa Minor, which is the North Star.

Navigate by the stars

In addition, you can find the constellation Cassiopeia, which looks like the letter "M" or "W". If you draw an imaginary straight line through the luminary next to the central one, you can also stumble upon the desired North Star. Thus, when the search is successful, orientation in the area will not be difficult: looking directly at the North Star, you will find the south behind you, the east to the right, and the west to the left.

How to navigate by the stars in the southern hemisphere

Orientation by stars for the Southern Hemisphere is based on the constellation of the Southern Cross, indicating the southern direction. This constellation represents four celestial bodies arranged in the form of a cross. It is important not to confuse it with the False Cross, located on the right, in which the luminaries are at some distance from each other. To find an indication of the south direction, you need to draw a line along the luminaries that form the vertical part of the cross. In order not to be mistaken, you can wait until the Southern Cross takes a vertical position perpendicular to the horizon, then the south will be directly under this constellation.

Finding other parts of the horizon

In addition to the above, there are additional methods of how you can navigate in nature, wilderness in the starry sky:

• With the help of the constellation Orion
• Ways of orientation by star bodies of any constellation.

Orientation by the stars will help you find an indication of the east or west direction. This can be done using the constellation Orion, which resembles hourglass curved shape. It cannot be seen in summer, because the constellation is in the sky during the day. In winter, it can be found by the stars that form its belt in any hemisphere, Orion is located directly above the equator. The right stellar body in his belt, called Mintaka, rises in the east anywhere on Earth and sinks in the west.

Another way is the following: you need to determine the central star in Orion's belt, and also find the stellar body located to the right below it. If you draw an imaginary straight line from this star to the one next to it, located on the left, and then connect the middle of this distance with the central stellar body and continue straight, it will indicate the south direction.

Instructions for orienteering with two pegs

Orientation by the stars can be carried out not only based on the constellations that were named above. In this case, you should use the following tips:

1. You need to choose any star that is the most visible in the night sky.
2. Next, you should stick two pegs into the ground at a distance of one meter from each other and align their tops in accordance with the chosen luminary.
3. It is worth waiting a bit until the selected landmark moves a certain distance from the imaginary line.

Since the stars move along a trajectory from east to west, the following conclusions can be drawn from the movement of the landmark along an imaginary line:

• If the stellar body has risen up from the line formed by two pegs, then the east is in front of us.
• If the luminary has fallen down from the drawn line, we look to the west.
• If it moved to the right side, then to the south.
• When shifting to the left, we look to the north.

In addition, you can navigate along the Milky Way, visible on a clear night: for this you need to remember that it runs from north to south.

Thus, if you know the methods of how to navigate by the stars at night, you can not only easily find the right place without using a compass, but also go out into civilization in an extreme situation.

If suddenly you were caught by the night in the middle wildlife, the place to stay is not suitable, and you left the compass at home or broke it, then the ability to navigate by the stars will come in handy.

polar Star

The most important landmark in the night sky is the North Star. She is the only one who does not "travel" in the sky, while the rest of the stars and constellations change their location in the sky.

The polar star always points north, deviating only one and a half degrees during the night. This, of course, is essential for accurate navigation, but for a lost tourist it is not so important.

Before finding the North Star, you need to find the two most famous constellations in the sky - Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. In Ursa Major, we need the two rightmost stars, which form, as it were, the “wall” of the bucket. We draw a straight line from the upper star, equal to four distances from the two “extreme” stars of Ursa Major and ... we see the North Star, attached to the handle of the Ursa Minor bucket.

Of course, it would be easier to immediately find Ursa Minor, but, as practice shows, Ursa Major immediately catches the eye, but sometimes Ursa Minor is not very visible.

If the Big Dipper is hidden by clouds or dense vegetation prevents it from being seen, the North Star can be found using the constellation Cassiopeia. This constellation, clearly visible against the background of the Milky Way, resembles the letter "M" or "W", as you like. The North Star is located in a straight line to the left of the central star Cassiopeia.

So, when we found the North Star, it remains a matter of technology to determine the cardinal directions: when you look directly at the star, east will be on the right side, west on the left, and south on the back.

Southern Hemisphere

In the Southern Hemisphere, the North Star is not visible, so the Southern Cross, pointing south, serves as a stellar landmark here. The Southern Cross is four bright stars arranged in the shape of a cross. It is important not to confuse it with the False Cross, which is located to the right, its stars are less bright and located further from each other. In addition, to the left of the Southern Cross are two landmark stars.

The direction to the south is determined by drawing an imaginary line through the vertical axis of the Southern Cross. Here we need those same landmark stars. Mentally draw a line between them, and draw a perpendicular from the center of this line. Where the lines emanating from the Southern Cross and the landmark stars intersect, and the South Pole will be located.

constellation position

If you are well versed in the constellations, it will not be difficult for you to determine the cardinal directions on a clear night. Constellations change their position in the sky not only during the night, but throughout the year. It must be remembered that at midnight in the south you can see the following constellations: in January - Canis Major and Minor, in March - Leo, in May - Bootes, in November - Taurus, in December - Orion. In addition, the Milky Way stretches approximately from south to north, but these directions are very, very approximate, and therefore, using the Milky Way as a guide should only be for additional security.

primitive observatory

This method will require a little preparation. It is necessary to bury two sticks of different lengths in the ground. By the movement of any star, except the Polaris, relative to these sticks, you can easily determine in which direction you are looking.

If the star rises, you are facing east. If it goes down, you are facing west. If the star loops to the right, you look north, and if it loops to the left, you look south.

It should be remembered that this method shows only approximate directions and should be used only in the most extreme cases.

Found on furfurmag.ru

From time immemorial, one of the main purposes of astronomy has been navigation - captains of ships on the high seas and caravan guides in the desert were guided by the stars, for many centuries the stars helped travelers not to go astray - it was not for nothing that the expression "guiding star" appeared as a synonym for reliability. By the way, the compass in Europe has been known only since the 11th century, and before its invention, only the stars could help along the way ...

Let's try to solve the simplest navigational problem - at least approximately determine the direction to the north. (quite accurately, this can be done according to the Sun using a gnomon, but this method is not suitable for traveling)

Orientation by the stars

At night in mid-latitudes northern hemisphere it is very easy to do this - just find the Polar Star in the sky, it is located not far from the Pole of the World and will indicate the direction to the north with an accuracy of about a degree. Hope everyone can do it. However, near the equator, this task may not be as simple as it seems - after all, Ursa Major, by which we are accustomed to navigate in the sky, may not be visible. So it is desirable to be able to find the Polar and other constellations. For example, an approximate direction to it can be given by a line drawn through the wing and tail of Cygnus - Deneb (from ε to α, and the distance from Deneb to Polar is four times greater than the distance between Deneb and ε Cygnus) and the stars θ and β Aurigae, however, than the further such "pointers" are from the pole, the more difficult it is to use them ...

With the search for the southern Pole of the World, the situation is much more complicated - there are not enough bright stars near it and you have to navigate along the clearly visible constellation of the Southern Cross. However, be careful - it is easy to confuse it with a "false cross", it is much larger and is marked with red lines in the figure a little higher than the constellation of the Southern Cross.

Of course, orientation by the stars should not be reduced only to these simple rules, for example, in December at equatorial latitudes around midnight, of all the constellations mentioned, you can only see the Auriga, but the constellation of Orion shining at this time at the zenith will completely replace your compass needle.

It is very useful to know which zodiac constellations culminate at midnight at a given time of the year - this will allow you to orient yourself even when you see a patch of clear sky in a break in the clouds.

During the day, the main reference point, of course, is the Sun. For an approximate determination of the sides of the horizon using a watch, the following method is used: point the hour hand at the Sun and mark on the dial the imaginary position of the hour hand at the time of true noon at the observation point (for example, for Moscow in summer it will be 1 hour 30 minutes, in winter - 12.30; more the calculation of the moment of true noon is described in the article on determining geographical coordinates). The middle of the arc between these points will indicate the direction to the south. (Please note that very often when describing this method there is an erroneous indication "to divide the segment between the hour hand directed to the Sun and the number 1 on the dial", that is, it is not taken into account summer time and a correction for geographic longitude - with this orientation, for example, in St. Petersburg in the summer, the error will be 15 °) Another reason for errors with this method is the incorrect tilt of the clock dial, it must lie in the plane of the celestial equator. Therefore, having approximately determined the direction to the south, tilt the watch at an angle of 90 ° -φ, lifting the southern part of the dial and repeat the measurements.

Of course, the described method is suitable for the middle and high latitudes of the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, the Sun moves counterclockwise across the sky, therefore, for orientation, it is not the hour hand that is directed at the Sun, but the division corresponding to the time of true noon and the middle of the arc between this direction and the hour hand is located. (Naturally, in the southern hemisphere this will be the direction to the north)

Near noon, you can do without a clock - it is enough to convert the time remaining until noon or elapsed after it into a degree measure (15 ° corresponds to one hour) and postpone this angle from the direction to the Sun. By the way, for an approximate measurement of angles, you can use in a simple way- the angle between the extended thumb and forefinger of the outstretched hand is exactly 15 °

In tropical and equatorial latitudes, it is not always possible to navigate by the Sun - when it is near the zenith, it is difficult to determine its azimuth.

The moon is the most difficult to navigate and the accuracy is usually much lower, but sometimes this turns out to be the only possibility - often the moon is viewed through fairly dense clouds, when the stars are completely invisible.

You can navigate by the Moon with the help of a watch, as well as by the Sun, only instead of the time of true noon, the moment of the upper culmination of the Moon is determined. On a full moon, this moment coincides with local midnight, so orientation by the full moon is performed in the same way as by the sun. The only trouble is that it is impossible to visually determine whether the Moon is really in a full moon - for several days near the full phase, its appearance almost does not change, and the error caused by an incorrect phase estimate can be quite large, because the Moon shifts by about 12 per day. ° However, if you have a calendar showing the phases of the moon, then everything is much simpler.

In the first quarter, the Moon culminates 6 hours before local midnight, in the third quarter - 6 hours after it. This time should be used when orienting in these phases. The result in this case is more accurate, since the moments of quarters can be easily determined visually. In the general case, there is the following rule: mentally break the diameter of the moon into 12 parts and estimate how many parts the unlit part of the disk makes up - for so many hours and the time of the culmination of the moon will differ from local midnight, the young moon culminates earlier, aging - later than midnight. This method gives relatively good results, but near the full moon, the error can still be quite large. (Near the new moon too, but in this case it is better to navigate by the Sun). However, with some experience with the Moon, it is almost always possible to determine the direction of the sides of the horizon with an accuracy of 10°-15°.

By the way, a conventional magnetic compass, although more convenient to use, can give the same errors, and in some areas (near the magnetic pole, in areas of magnetic anomalies) it is not applicable at all ...

At first glance, the night sky appears to be a jumble of glittering stars. But it was the stars and their constellations that, in ancient times, helped travelers and sailors navigate at night. You can navigate in the starry sky of the northern hemisphere of the earth thanks to the polar star, which is located above the server pole.


The constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor will help you find the polar star in the night sky. Ursa Major is perhaps the most visible and easily recognizable constellation in the sky, the seven brightest stars of this constellation form a figure resembling a ladle with a handle. The two extreme stars of the bucket, bearing the names Dubhe and Merak, are pointers to the polar star. If you draw an imaginary straight line from the star Merak through Dubhe and beyond, and then measure 5 segments equal to the distance between these two stars, then the last 5th segment will point to the North Star.


The North Star is part of the constellation Ursa Minor and a perpendicular drawn from this star to the earth will show you the direction to the north. The North Star did not always point north. The earth rotates around a tilted axis, but the axis itself also moves. Over the millennia, its direction has changed. About 5,000 years ago, Thuban (from the constellation Draco) was the north pole star. Therefore, the north pole of the world is gradually moving and can fall on different stars.

Anyone who is engaged in tourism, or goes on a trip, may be faced with the need to navigate the terrain. In this case, the compass may not be at hand, and the ZHPS navigator may not work or break down.

There are dozens of possible life situations when a tourist (traveler, mushroom picker, hunter) finds himself in an unfamiliar area in the evening or at night, therefore, the life and health of a person will depend on the correct determination of the cardinal points.

The ability to correctly find conspicuous stars and constellations can help not only to correctly determine the desired direction of movement in remote areas, but can also indicate the geographic latitude of the observer, and can also help to approximately determine the local (astronomical) time.

And even without the need to navigate: observing the night sky on hiking trips is a wonderful and exciting activity that is not available in cities and large towns due to the backlighting of the sky. But in the remote taiga, on the banks of a forest river or high in the mountains, there are excellent opportunities to see a bright scattering of northern constellations, admire the panorama of the Milky Way, and count shooting stars! The sky in such places is dark, and a person with normal vision can see the most beautiful objects on the astrodome. And if you arm yourself with binoculars or a spyglass, then you can make several exciting journeys into the depths of the Universe!

In our memory, there was a case when, on a hike in Altai, almost every evening we observed the planet Jupiter near the confrontation with the Earth. Observations were carried out in a 12-fold tube, while 4 large satellites of Jupiter (which were discovered by Galileo), as well as the orange disk of the giant planet, were clearly visible. Jupiter's satellites changed their location every day, disappeared behind Jupiter and reappeared.

(the constellation Ursa Major - Bucket - the double star Mizar-Alcor is visible - 2 stars from the handle of the Bucket, the M81 galaxy is visible to the left and above - this is the most distant object in our sky that can be observed with the naked eye - more than 11 million light years away)

ORIENTATION IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE:

The easiest and most reliable way to navigate in our area is to find the North Star. It is located within one degree of the North Pole of the World and is a reliable reference point for determining the direction of the geographic north.

First you need to find the Big Dipper, then put in one line with the two extreme stars of the front wall of the Big Dipper bucket (Dubhe and Merak) about five segments equal to the distance between these stars. Approximately at the end of the fifth segment is the North Star. It is located at the very end of the handle of the Ursa Minor bucket.

The direction to the North Star coincides with the true meridian during its upper and lower culmination. This happens when the tail end of the bucket Ursa Minor is directed approximately up or down. More precisely, when the line connecting the North Star with the fourth star (delta) of the constellation Cassiopeia and with the second from the end star (Mizar) in the tail of the Ursa Major constellation will be close to vertical.

At latitudes above 50°N, on clear nights, Ursa Major is almost always visible. If the constellation is not visible for some reason, then the North Star can be found by the constellation Cassiopeia, which has the characteristic shape of the letter M (W) and is located symmetrically to the Big Dipper relative to the North Star. To do this, imagine a straight line connecting the three brightest stars of the constellation, and restore the perpendicular from the center. The North Star is located approximately at a distance of four wingspans of the W zigzag.

Having found the North Star and determined the direction of movement, you can accurately maintain a course, focusing on some bright star located directly in the direction of your movement. Remember at the same time that the stars revolve around the North Star at a speed of 15 ° per hour, so about every 20 minutes you need to check the course of the North Star, and choose a new star (or an object on the ground, if visibility allows) as a guide.

Moon Orientation

The full moon is at its highest position above the horizon when it is in the south, and the highest, which is in the shadow at full Meadow, determines midnight.

For approximate orientation, you need to know that in the summer in the first quarter the Moon at 20 o'clock is in the south, at 2 o'clock in the morning - in the west, in the last quarter at 2 o'clock in the morning - in the east, at 8 o'clock in the morning - in the south.

At a full moon at night, the sides of the horizon are determined in the same way as by the Sun and the clock, and the Moon is taken as the Sun.

Determination of latitude

Latitude is fairly easy to determine. You need to take a protractor and a thread with a weight. Attaching a thread with a load to the center of the protractor, point its base at the North Star. On a plumb line, take the reading of the degrees on the protractor scale, and then the resulting value must be subtracted from 90. The result will be the latitude of the place, since the North Star is located on the continuation of the Earth's axis of rotation at a very large distance.

Orientation for the constellation Orion

The constellation Orion is easy to find by the three bright stars located on his "belt". Orion is located on the celestial equator, so it rises exactly in the east and sets almost exactly in the west, regardless of the latitude of the place of observation. The constellation is clearly visible in the winter night sky in the Northern Hemisphere and in the summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

According to Orion, you can determine the direction to the west, the point of which on the horizon the constellation belt crosses when setting. East is more difficult to define, because. there is a chance that you will recognize this constellation after it rises above the horizon.

SUN ORIENTATION

In the northern latitudes summer nights from the proximity of the setting Sun to the horizon, the northern side of the sky is the lightest, the southern side is darker.
The highest position of the Sun is determined by the length of the shortest shadow, which corresponds to noon, and its direction in the northern hemisphere points north. This is true only between the North Pole and the northern tropic. The rule applies in the following cases:
a) when the Sun is at its zenith (shadow at the base of the object);
b) at the equator, where the midday shadow is directed north for half a year (from 24
September to March 20) and Six months South (from March 21 to September 23);
c) in the latitudes between the equator and the tropics, where the shadow also changes direction.
In the southern hemisphere, on the contrary, the shadow points south.
With relative accuracy, the sides of the horizon can be determined from the Sun using a watch. To do this, holding the clock horizontally, you need to turn it so that the hour hand is directed to the Sun. In this case, the bisector of the angle Between the hour hand and the direction of the number 12 on the dial is south. It should be remembered that before noon it is necessary to divide the angle on the dial, which the hour hand must pass before 12 o'clock, and in the afternoon - the angle that it passed after 12 o'clock.
This method of orientation gives relatively correct results in northern and partly middle latitudes, especially in winter, less accurately in spring and autumn, while in summer the error in orientation can reach 25 °. In southern latitudes, where the sun is high in summer, the accuracy of orientation is even less, and it is not recommended to use this method there.

ORIENTATION IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE:

In the Southern Hemisphere, the constellations are completely different. Usually guided by the Southern Cross. It is a constellation of five bright, cross-visible stars. In the lower left corner of the constellation is the Coal Sack - an area devoid of visible stars, next to two bright stars of the Centaurus (Centaurus) constellation.

A line drawn through the long axis of the Southern Cross points to the South. Having found the Southern Cross in the night sky, draw an imaginary line between the two most distant stars from each other - the South Pole of the World is located on this line. To determine the desired point on the line, use the stars from the constellation Centaur, located to the left of the Southern Cross. Connect the stars with an imaginary line and draw a perpendicular from it. At the intersection of the perpendicular and the first line, the South Pole of the World is located.

If you are unsure of your constructions, wait until the Southern Cross is vertical in the sky. Then the south will be on the horizon line directly below the constellation.

The Southern Cross is sometimes confused with the constellation False Cross, whose stars are not as bright and are separated from each other by a greater distance.

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Further, for tourists and lovers of observational astronomy - a list of the most famous constellations that are visible in our hemisphere, as well as a list of the brightest stars and other remarkable objects in the constellations. The characteristics of various astronomical bodies are briefly given. We hope that this article will be interesting and useful to all tourists who can observe the night sky while hiking.

1. Cepheus

In the direction of Cepheus, due to precession, the north celestial pole moves. The star Alrai (γ Cep) will be near the pole in 3100, Alfirk (β Cep) will be closer to the pole from 5100 to 6500, and from 8300 the role of the polar star will pass to the star Alderamin (α Cep).

Star δ Cep served as a prototype for a whole class of variable stars - Cepheids. It changes its brightness from 3.7 to 4.5m with a period of 5.37 days.

There are three red supergiants in the constellationvisible to the naked eye:

μ Cep is known as the "garnet star of Herschel" due to its deep red color. This semiregular variable star, whose brightness varies from 3.4m to 5.1m. In size μ, Cephei is one of the largest stars in the sky, its radius is 11.8 astronomical units.

VV Cephei is an eclipsing binary star with a period of 20.34 years; its main component is a red giant, whose diameter is 1200 times the diameter of the Sun.

The star cluster NGC 188 is one of the oldest (5 billion years) among the open clusters of the Galaxy.

2. Ursa Minor

Currently located in Ursa Minor North Pole of the World, at a distance of about 1° from the North Star.

Polaris (αUMi). Star magnitude 2.02m.

Ursida meteor shower.

3. Ursa Major

The third largest constellation in the sky!

There are many galaxies and their clusters in the Ursa Major region. Spiral galaxy M 101 is visible flat, and spiral M 81 and spindle-shaped M 82, separated by an angle of only 38 ", form the core of the group of galaxies closest to us, the distance to which is about 7-12 million light years.

The farthest object that can be seen with the naked eye is the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). It lies at a distance of about 2 million light years, and is approximately equal in brightness to a star of the 4th magnitude. In addition to it, only two other galaxies can be observed with the naked eye - the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. They are brighter than the Andromeda Nebula, but much smaller and less distant (at 170,000 and 210,000 light years, respectively). However, it should be noted that on a dark night, sharp-sighted people can see the M81 galaxy (the Bode galaxy) in the constellation Ursa Major, the distance to which is 11 million light years. years.

And here is the Owl (M 97), almost devoid of details, one of the largest planetary nebulae, is hundreds of times closer - within our Galaxy.

IN 2002 astronomers at the University of Texas at Arlington discovered two exoplanets orbiting a star 47 Ursa Major. In 2001 and 2003, radio messages from the inhabitants of the Earth to extraterrestrial civilizations were sent to this star.

4. Dragon

In the constellation Draco, in the quadrangle of the stars ζ, δ, χ and ξ is north ecliptic pole. Around it, with a period of 25,770 years, the pole of the world moves, which is now near the North Star. Almost at the pole of the ecliptic, between the stars ξ and χ Draconis, is the greenish-blue planetary nebula NGC 6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula).

In November 2007, astronomers discovered that the star HIP 56948 is an almost exact copy of our Sun.

One of the galaxies in Draco is the lenticular galaxy NGC 5866 (Spindle Galaxy).

5. Giraffe

The brightest star, β Cam, is a binary star with components of 4.0m and 7.4m

α Cam- blue supergiant(magnitude 4.3m)

Alpha Giraffe (Alpha Cam / α Camelopardalis / α Cam) - powerful blue supergiant spectral type O9 with an apparent magnitude of 4.301m. The distance to the star is very large - about 7 thousand light years, and yet, the star is visible to the naked eye. The star itself is brighter than the Sun (bolometrically) by almost a million times, and heavier by 50 times. The surface temperature of the star is very high - about 32,000 °K.

γ Cam is a binary star with components 5.3m and 5.8m

spiral galaxy NGC 2403

open cluster NGC 1502

6. Charioteer

The brightest star is Capella, 0.1 visual magnitude.

Beta Aurigae is a triple star system whose two stars are nearly identical twin stars orbiting each other with a period of 3.96 days at a distance of one fifth of the distance between the Sun and Mercury.

Zeta Aurigae - eclipsing binary of a bright giant the size of a Venusian orbit and a blue-white star, orbiting each other with a period of 972 days.

IN In 2007, astronomers discovered an exoplanet around the star GD 66. The discovery is notable for being the first planetary system discovered around a white dwarf.

The plane of our Galaxy passes directly through the constellation Auriga. Much of this constellation's richest collection of nebulae and star clusters is captured in today's wide image covering a ten-degree region of the sky. At the lower edge of the image is a prominent bright star El-Nat, which connects the Charioteer with Taurus. To the left and above El Nat, in a densely populated star field of the constellation, three clusters of the Messier catalog are located in a row: M36, M37 and M38. These objects are known to amateur astronomers observing with binoculars. This deep image also captures the red emission nebulae IC 405 , IC 410 and IC 417 , which are part of the star forming region. On a bright background, you can see dark nebulae E.E. Barnard B34 and B226 (surrounded by blue circles in the flashing image).

The hottest known stars are the central stars of planetary nebulae. Their surface temperatures have been found to be as high as 250,000 K. An example of a planetary nebula with such a hot central star is the NGC 2240 nebula. high temperatures most of the radiation energy is in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum, so that the central star is often not visible in optical images of the nebula. Planetary nebulae form when a star sheds its outer layers at a certain stage in its evolution.

7. Perseus

It contains the famous variable star Algol (β Per), as well as the radiant of the annual meteor shower Perseids.

(from Arab. "Al Ghul" which means Ghost or Demon Star) represents the eye of the Gorgon Medusa in the constellation. This star is a representative of a whole group of eclipsing variable stars.

WITH galaxy cluster in Perseus one of the closest to us clusters of galaxies. Almost at the center of the cluster, about 250 million light-years away, is the cluster's main galaxy, NGC 1275. NGC 1275 is a striking source of X-ray and radio emission. It accumulates matter as the surrounding gas and other galaxies fall on it. Cluster of galaxies in Perseus cataloged under the name Abel 426. It is part of Superclusters Pisces-Perseus, which occupies about 15 degrees in the sky and has more than 1000 galaxies.

h and χ Per, Double Cluster: These two open clusters(NGC 869 and NGC 884 respectively) are among the most beautiful objects in the night sky observed with binoculars or small telescopes. Both are located at a distance of more than 7000 light years and are separated from each other by a distance of several hundred light years. The number of stars in them, respectively, is 300 and 350, and the apparent magnitude is 4.0m and 3.9m.

M76: This planetary nebula also called small dumbbell. Its size is about 65 arc seconds, the apparent stellar magnitude is 10.1m.

According to scientists from the UK, Germany and the US, conducting joint research, the youngest stars in the Galaxy are located in the nebula NGC 1333. This nebula is located at a distance of 1100 light years from us. It has attracted increased attention of astrophysicists since 1983 as the most convenient object of observation, the study of which will reveal the mechanism of star birth. At least a little to the south of this nebula, 7 of the brightest stellar origins were recorded. Among them, the youngest was identified, called "IRAS-4". His age turned out to be quite “infantile”: only a few thousand years. It will take many more hundreds of thousands of years for the star to reach the stage of its ripening, when conditions will be created in its core for the raging flow of nuclear chain reactions.

8. Cassiopeia

The brightest stars ε (Segin), δ (Rukbakh), γ (Navi), α (Shedar) and β (Kaf), forming a W figure, have a brightness of 3.4, respectively; 2.7; 2.4; 2.2 and 2.3 visual magnitudes.

Otherwise behaves ρ Cassiopeia, classified as a supergiant star (it is 40 times heavier and about 500,000 times brighter than the Sun).

Star Tycho Brahe. In 1572, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe noticed the sudden appearance of a bright new star in the constellation Cassiopeia, not far from κ Cas. Today it is known that it was a supernova - one of the last explosions of stars observed in the Milky Way galaxy. About 7,500 light-years away, the supernova remnant has a diameter of nearly 20 light-years.

Cassiopeia A. In this constellation is one of the most powerful sources of galactic radio emission - Cassiopeia A (Cas A) !!!

Among other interesting objects of the constellation:

open star clusters M52 (NGC 7654) , M103 (NGC 581) , NGC 457 and NGC 7789 ,

dwarf elliptical galaxies NGC 147 and NGC 185 are satellites Andromeda Nebulae,

diffuse nebula NGC 281

and a giant sphere of gas, the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635).

If you look at the Sun from Alpha Centauri, one of the stars closest to us, then it will be in Cassiopeia and will be visible as a star of 0.5 magnitude. Cassiopeia in this case will have the form ///, with the Sun not far from ε Cassiopeia.

9. Andromeda

The most important object in the constellation is spiral galaxy The Andromeda Nebula (M31) with its satellites, the dwarf galaxies M32 and NGC 205 (M110). On a moonless night, it is visible even to the naked eye at an angular distance of just over 1 ° west of the star n Andromeda.

variable star R Andromedae with a brightness variation amplitude of 9 magnitudes.

open star cluster NGC 752.

planetary nebula NGC 7662.

NGC 891 is one of the most impressive edge-on spiral galaxies.

υ Andromeda - the first normal star (star main sequence ), which has been found to have a multiplanetary system. Three planets are currently known. Planet b is a typical hot Jupiter, the other two are eccentric giants.

WASP-1 is a star with an exoplanet.

Alamak - multiple star system of four stars, two components of which are distinguishable in a school telescope.

10 Fish

The star Alrish (α Pisces), which in Arabic means “string”, is located in the southeast corner of the constellation and is an interesting visual double; its rather bright components are separated by a distance of 2.6″. 2° south of δ Pisces is van maanen star, probably the closest single white dwarf to us, 13.8 light-years away.

Curious and spiral galaxy M 74, the largest observed face-on. In the western part of the constellation is one of the brightest carbon stars TX Pisces (19 Pisces), having a dark red color.

There is a dot in Pisces spring equinox. The sun is in the constellation from March 12 to April 18.

WITH galaxy cluster in Perseus- is a part Superclusters Pisces-Perseus, which occupies about 15 degrees in the sky and has more than 1000 galaxies - one of the largest objects in the sky!!!

11. Aries

The three main stars - Hamal ("ram's head"), Sheratan ("trace" or "sign") and Mezarthim (respectively α, β, and γ Aries) are easy to find: they lie south of the Triangulum. The fourth-magnitude star Mezarthim became one of the first double stars discovered with a telescope (R. Hooke in 1664).

12. Triangle

In the Triangle is spiral galaxy M33 (the Triangulum galaxy), the third largest in the Local Group.

The stars of the Triangulum are not bright: α is only the third magnitude. In total, 15 stars can be counted in the constellation. Through a telescope, you can also admire the beautiful double asterisk ι, the components of which are colored in golden yellow and green-blue.

M33 clearly shows blue star clusters and pinkish star-forming regions that trace its loose spiral arms. The brightest region of star formation is having a cellular structure NGC 604- visible in the arm passing above and to the right of the center of the galaxy. Like M31, M33 has many well-studied variable stars, making this nearby spiral galaxy one of the main calibration objects when constructing a scale of distances in the universe.

13. Taurus

The brightest stars are Aldebaran, Nat, Alcyone, respectively 0.87; 1.65; 2.85 apparent magnitude.

There are two in Taurus open star clusters- Hyades and Pleiades.

The Pleiades (M 45) are often called the "Seven Sisters" - this open cluster, one of the closest to us (distance 410 St. years), containing approx. 500 stars shrouded in a barely noticeable nebula. The nine brightest stars lie in a field with a diameter of just over 1°. A keen eye distinguishes 6 or even 7 stars in the Pleiades. Together they look like a small bucket.

Even closer to us (about 150 light years) is the Hyades open cluster, which contains 132 stars brighter than 9th magnitude and another 259 fainter possible members.

The most famous astrophysical object in Taurus is the remnant of the explosion supernova 1054 years crab nebula(M 1), located in the Milky Way, just over 1° northwest of the star ζ Taurus; its apparent brightness is 8.4 magnitude. This nebula is 6300 sv away from us. years; its diameter is approx. 6 St. years, and every day it increases by 80 million km. It is a powerful source of radio and X-ray radiation. At the center of the Crab Nebula is a tiny but very hot blue star of 16th magnitude - this is a pulsar, sending strictly periodic pulses of electromagnetic radiation; astronomers have proven that neutron star. This supernova reached an apparent magnitude equal to -5 (the brightest supernova in the Northern Hemisphere, in the Southern - in the village of Volk: - 10 stars). After 1604, only one supernova visible to the naked eye was observed - it was the supernova of 1987 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which reached the 2nd magnitude at its maximum.

14. Orion

The brightest stars are Rigel, Betelgeuse and Bellatrix. In Orion is located visible to the naked eye The Great Nebula of Orion.

red supergiant Betelgeuse (α Orion) - wrong variable star, whose brightness varies from 0.2 to 1.2 magnitude and averages about 0.7m. The distance to the star from Earth is 650 light years, and the luminosity is 14,000 times that of the sun. This is one of the largest stars known to astronomers: if it were placed instead of the Sun, then at a minimum size it would fill the orbit of Mars, and at a maximum size it would reach the orbit of Jupiter. The volume of Betelgeuse is at least 160 million times that of the sun.

Blue-white supergiant Rigel (β Orionis), has visual magnitude 0.18. Rigel is over 1100 light-years from the Sun. Its surface temperature is 11,200 K (class B8I-a), its diameter is about 95 million km (that is, 68 times larger than the Sun) and the absolute magnitude-6.69; its luminosity is 80,600 times higher than the sun, which means it is one of the most powerful stars in the Galaxy (in any case, the most powerful of the brightest stars in the sky, since Rigel is the closest star with such a huge luminosity).

0.5° south of the eastern Belt star (ζ Orionis) is the well-known dark Horsehead Nebula (B 33), which is clearly visible against the bright background of the IC 434 nebula.

The brightest gas and dust cloud in interstellar space is the Orion Nebula. The mass of the superhot gas cloud exceeds the mass of the Sun by 300 times, and it is located at a distance of about 1.5 thousand light years from us.

15. Gemini

The brightest stars - Pollux and Castor, have a magnitude of 1.16 and 1.59, respectively, visual magnitude.

Castor is a visual triple system, with both of its bright components being spectroscopic binaries, and the faint one being an eclipsing binary. Thus, Castor is a cluster of six stars. Their total apparent stellar magnitude is 1.59m and the distance from the Sun is 45 sv. years.

The open cluster M 35 and the planetary nebula Eskimo, or Clown (NGC 2392), consisting of a star of the 10th magnitude, surrounded by a bright and uniform shell.

To the star 37 Gemini, similar to the Sun, in 2001 a radio message was sent from the inhabitants of the Earth to extraterrestrial civilizations.

16. Small dog

Bright Stars:

Procyon (α Small Dog), apparent magnitude 0.38m eighth brightest star of the sky, double.

Gomeis (β Lesser Dog), 2.89m.

17. Bootes

α — Arcturus

β — Neckar

γ - Segin or Haris

δ - Princeps

ε - Isar or Pulcherrima (less often - Mirak)

η - Mufrid

κ - Asselus Tertius

μ - Alcalurops

Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Bootes and northern hemisphere And fourth brightest star the night sky after Sirius, Canopus and the Alpha Centauri system. Apparent magnitude Arcturus is −0.05m. Arcturus was the first star to be seen by day with a telescope. This was done in 1635 by the French astronomer and astrologer Morin.

Meteor shower - Quadrantids.

The constellation contains the largest astronomical object in the Universe, which is marked in star catalogs under the number 3C 345, registered in the early 80s. This quasar is located at a distance of 5 billion light years from the Earth. German astronomers using a 100-meter radio telescope and a fundamentally new type of radio frequency receiver measured such a distant object in the Universe. The results were so unexpected - the quasar was 78 million light years across.

18. Hounds

The brightest star of the constellation - α Hounds Dogs, which has its own name "Carl's Heart" in memory of the canceled "Carl's Heart" constellation, which included a single star, is one of the most beautiful double stars and is the prototype of the whole class of variable stars.

M51- spiral galaxy"Whirlpool", visible flat.

The Whirlpool is the only spiral galaxy that has sufficiently contrasting branches to be able to see their distinct pattern in a good dark sky and in a decent aperture (from 200-250 mm) amateur telescope. One branch can be traced for almost a complete revolution around the bright core.

Spiral galaxies M63 "Sunflower" and M94, peculiar galaxy M106.

M3 - globular star cluster. Located near the southern border of the Hounds of the Dogs and the constellation of Bootes. The star magnitude of the cluster is 6.3m, the angular diameter is 38′.

19. Whale

The brightest stars are α Kita (Menkar) and β Kita (Difda, or Deneb Kaitos).

One of the most interesting stars- the variable of the World (ο Kita), which gave the name to the class of variable stars "mirids". During its period of 331.65 days, it changes its brightness from 2.0m, becoming the brightest in the constellation, to 10.1m, being invisible even with binoculars.

Another famous star is τ Kita, 17th in distance to Earth, similar in characteristics to the Sun and therefore mentioned in many fantastic works. In the same area, with binoculars or a telescope, a closer UV Ceti is visible three light years away, the main representative flashing stars, which can increase brilliance by 6m in seconds.

Around the star HD 11964 astronomers on this moment discovered three exoplanets.

The distance to a galaxy can only be determined if it is possible to obtain its spectrum and measure the redshift. The development of technology leads to the fact that the “range records” of galaxies are constantly improving. A new galaxy z6VDF J022803-041618 has recently been discovered with a redshift of 6.17. It is located in the constellation Cetus near the star Omicron Ceti.

20. Big dog

Sirius, has a magnitude of −1.46 visual magnitude.

Sirius B", another name is "Puppy". Its luminosity is 10,000 times weaker than that of main star- Sirius A, the radius is 100 times smaller than the sun, but the mass is almost the same as that of the Sun. Therefore, Sirius B has a fantastic density: approx. 1 t/cm³. This is how white dwarfs were discovered - stars that completed their evolution and shrunk to the size of a small planet.

At 4 ° south of Sirius is a beautiful open cluster M 41, remote at 2350 St. years. Another interesting cluster is NGC 2362, whose several dozen stars surround a star of magnitude 4 τ Big Dog. This is one of the youngest clusters: its age is approx. 1 million years.

In the constellation Canis Major is not only the brightest, but also the largest star known to date - the hypergiant VY Canis Major.

The radius of the star was determined in 2005 - it lies in the range from 1800 to 2100 solar radii. The diameter of this supergiant is about 2.5–2.9 billion kilometers (≈17–19 AU). If VY Canis Majoris is placed in the place of the Sun, the star will reach the orbit of Saturn. It would take light 8 hours to go around a star in a circle.

21. Eagle

Altair, α Aql is a white star 0.77m, located at a distance of 16.8 light years from the Sun and having 9 times the luminosity of the Sun. One of the peaks of the so-called. " Summer Triangle».

7° south of Altair is the classical Cepheid η Aql, changing its brightness from 3.48m to 4.39m with a period of 7.177 days. It was discovered by the English astronomer E. Pigott a year earlier than Goodryk determined the variability of δ Cepheus.

A unique eclipsing binary V 1343 Aql or object SS 433 has been discovered in Orel, which consists of a giant OB star circling near the X-ray source.

Bright new stars flashed in Orel in 389 and 1918. The first of them appeared near Altair, was bright as Venus and was observed for three weeks. The second, seen on June 8, 1918, reached a maximum magnitude of 1.4m and turned out to be the brightest nova since the beginning of the 17th century (when New Kepler flared up in 1604).

It is believed that magnetic fields most young radio pulsars are 1012 - 1013 gauss. Some neutron stars have unusually strong magnetic fields, which even led to the emergence of a new term - magnetar. The strongest magnetic field generated by a magnetar belongs to the pulsar PSR J1847-0130, which is located in the constellation Aquila. Its magnetic field, according to rough estimates, reaches 1014 gauss. Magnetars only remain active for 10,000 years, which means that millions of them are “drifting” in our galaxy undetected.

22. Hercules

The solar apex is located in the constellation Hercules. The sun moves relative to the stars (relative to local standard of rest) at a speed of 20 km/s in the direction c equatorial coordinatesα = 270°, δ = 30°. At the same time, the Sun moves together with these stars around the center of the Galaxy at a speed of 220 km/s.

The third constellation in the sky and the second in the Northern Hemisphere in terms of the number of stars in the constellations of more than 6 stars. - 140 stars!

There is one of the Superclusters of galaxies close to us - a distance of 700 million light years. years (along with Virgo, V. Veronica, Perseus-Pisces, Leo and Hydra-Centaurus)!

23. Northern Crown

The main stars of the constellation form a semicircular crown. The Arabs called this group of stars al-Fakka, "torn", seeing in it an open ring. The brightest star is Gemma, or Alfekka, α of the Northern Crown. Located in the constellation variable star R North Crown, which is the prototype of the whole class of variable stars.

One of the brightest quasars - the brightness of this object exceeds the brightness of the Sun by 100 billion times. This newly discovered quasar has set a new record for luminosity - it is the brightest continuously emitting object. However, the object is quite far away and has 15.2 magnitude so it can only be seen with a telescope. The quasar has a large redshift, equal to 3.87.

24. Snake (Head)

It is unique in that this is the only constellation consisting of two unrelated parts, separated by the constellation Ophiuchus - the "Head of the Serpent" is located to the northwest, the "Tail of the Serpent" is to the east.

Seyfert sextet- an unusual group of interacting galaxies.

Globular cluster M5.

θ Serpens (Theta Serpens or Alia) is a beautiful pair of two greenish-yellow stars visible through a small telescope.

The Eagle Nebula (M 16 according to Messier's catalog) is a grandiose nebula in which several objects characteristic of visual memory are distinguished. Among them are gas columns (they are called "Pillars of Creation") in the zone of star formation. These are columns of cold interstellar hydrogen gas and dust in which stars are also born.

25. Virgo

The brightest star, Spica (α Virgo), which means "ear" in Latin, is a massive spectral double of magnitude 0.98. The star Porrima (γ Virgo), which means "the goddess of prophecy", is one of the closest double stars to us (distance 32 light years) with a very elongated orbit and a period of 171 years.

The second largest constellation in the sky!

The upper right region of the constellation Virgo (to the northwest of the line formed by the stars ε, δ and γ) is of exceptional interest to specialists involved in extragalactic astronomy. Here, in a relatively small area of ​​the sky, at least two and a half thousand distant galaxies are concentrated. This field, dotted with star systems, extends beyond the constellation Virgo and extends higher into the region of the constellation Coma Berenices (once considered part of the constellation Virgo). This huge cloud of galaxies is so far away that its light takes only 1.3 billion years to reach Earth. Looking at this region of the sky, we get the opportunity to look into the distant past of the universe.

At a distance of about 59 million light years is Virgo cluster of galaxies, containing at least 1500 members, including the elliptical galaxies M 49, M 59, M 60, M 84, M 86, M 87 (source of radio emission) and M 89; spiral galaxies: crossed M 58, bright M 90, turned to us by the edge M 85 and large, turned flat M 61. Visible almost edge-on sombrero galaxy(M 104), so named because of the powerful dark dust line running along the equatorial plane. In the constellation Virgo is the brightest quasar 3C 273 (12th apparent magnitude), the most distant object accessible to an amateur telescope ( redshift z=0.158; distance 3 billion sv. years).

The local supercluster of galaxies (the Virgo Supercluster) is a system of galaxies about 200 million light years in size. years, including local group of galaxies, cluster of galaxies in Virgo and several other clusters and groups of galaxies. In total, the Local Supercluster includes 100 groups and clusters of galaxies(with the dominant Virgo cluster in the center) and about 30 thousand galaxies; its mass is in the order of magnitude 1015 solar masses (2 × 1046 kg). Since its luminosity is too low for so many stars, it is believed that most of the mass of the supercluster accounts for the mass of dark matter. The Virgo supercluster is attracted to a gravitational anomaly called Great attractor, which is located next to Cluster of Square.

Local supercluster - a typical example large scale structure Universe. It is a flattened formation consisting of several chains of galaxies (filaments), which, when projected onto the sky, looks like a strip covering the entire sky, within which most of the bright galaxies are observed (a kind of analogue of the Milky Way). The Local Group, which includes our Galaxy, turned out to be a small densification not far from the southern edge of the Local Supercluster. From our peripheral location it is clearly seen that most of the galaxies are concentrated towards the plane of the supergalactic equator, a wide band crossing our northern sky. From an analysis of the radial velocities of hundreds of galaxies, it turns out that the supercluster rotates around an axis perpendicular to its disk, and in this sense resembles an ordinary galaxy. The speed of the Local Group around the center of the supergalaxy is approx. 400 km / s, and the period of revolution is about 1011 years.

Among those black holes for which there is enough data to estimate their mass, the most massive is almost certainly located in the giant elliptical galaxy M 87, which belongs to the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Measurements made with the Hubble Space Telescope suggest that the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy M 87 has a mass greater than 3 billion times that of the Sun.

Australian astronomer D. Malin in 1985, while studying a section of the starry sky in the direction of the constellation Virgo, discovered a new galaxy. Only after the rediscovery of this galaxy by American astrophysicists in 1987, it turned out that it was a spiral galaxy, the largest and at the same time the darkest of all known to science at that time. Located at a distance of 715 million light years from us, it has a cross-sectional length of 770 thousand light years, almost 8 times the diameter of the Milky Way.

26. Veronica's hair

In this constellation lies north pole of the galaxy and thousands of galaxies and hundreds of their clusters are visible (South Pole in Sculptor).

In the Coma Veronica, there is a very distant (370 million light years) and rich Coma Cluster of galaxies, behind which the name Coma was assigned.

The supercluster in Veronica's Hair is the center of the ``Great Wall"" (Great Wall). Like other rich clusters, it contains many elliptical galaxies. The study of its dynamics for the first time indicated the presence a large number invisible matter.

A small telescope will allow you to see close globular star clusters M 53 and NGC 5053 in this constellation, as well as the Black Eye galaxy (M 64 ) with a huge dark dust cloud around the core.

27. Lion and Lesser Lion

The arrangement of bright stars really resembles a recumbent lion, whose head and chest represent the well-known asterism "Sickle", similar to a mirrored question mark.

The “point” at the bottom of this sign is the bright white-blue star Regulus (α Leo), which in Latin means “king”. Sometimes it is also called the "Heart of the Lion" (Cor Leonis). The luminosity of Regulus is 160 times higher than the solar one, and the high apparent brightness (1.36 magnitude) is due to its relative proximity to us (85 light years). Among the stars of the first magnitude, Regulus is closest to the ecliptic, so it is quite often covered by the Moon.

R Leo is one of the brightest long-term variables, varying in brightness from 5th to 10th magnitude. The very faint red dwarf Wolf 359 (visible magnitude 13.45) is the third among the nearest stars (distance 7.80 light years); its luminosity is 100,000 times less than that of the sun. If this star took the place of our Sun, then at noon on Earth it would be a little brighter than it is now at the full moon.

Among the distant objects in this constellation, the spiral galaxies M 65, M 66, M 95 and M 96 are interesting, as well as the elliptical galaxy M 105, which lies near the last two spiral ones. Their apparent brightness is from 8.4 to 10.4 magnitudes.

Discovered the most distant object in the universe - 13.1 billion light years.

An impressively large cloud of neutral hydrogen has been discovered in the universe. In diameter, this cloud is 10 times larger than our Galaxy, and the hydrogen mass in the cloud is almost a billion times greater than the mass of our star. The cloud is located towards the constellation Leo at a distance of 65 million light years from Earth and rotates around the center of mass at a speed of 80 km/s. As scientists suggest, the birth of a new galaxy is possible from this giant hydrogen cloud.

28. Cancer

There are two very famous open clusters in Cancer. One of them is the Manger (Praesepe, M44), which is sometimes called the "Beehive". It is visible to the eye as a hazy speck just to the west of the line connecting the stars γ and δ Cancer, called "Donkey". About 350 stars are observed in it in the brightness range from 6.3 to 14 magnitudes, and about 200 of them are members of the cluster. This is one of our closest star clusters: the distance to it is 525 light years, so its apparent size is very large - 1.5 °.

The M 67 cluster, located 1.8 ° west of α Cancer, is 2500 light-years away from us and contains about 500 stars from 10 to 16 magnitudes. This is one of the oldest open clusters, its age is about 4 billion years. Only a few open clusters may be even older; among them NGC 188 in Cepheus. Although most open clusters move in the plane of the Milky Way, M 67 is significantly removed from it.

OJ 287 - quasar containing the most massive black hole currently known. A quasar is a binary system of black holes, the largest of which has a mass equal to 18 billion solar masses, effectively the mass of a small galaxy. The smaller companion weighs as much as 100 million solar masses. Its rotation period is 12 years. Located in the constellation Cancer. The quasar is relatively close to the Solar System, the distance to the Earth is 3.5 billion light years (about 1 gigaparsec), the apparent brightness varies from +13 to +16 (on average ≈ +14.5-15). To search, you need a telescope with a lens diameter, usually more than 300 mm, in especially favorable conditions, you can try to find it with smaller tools.

29. Hydra

The brightest star is Alphard, which has a magnitude of 2.0 visual magnitude.

R Hydra - long period variable star like Mira Kita, changing brightness by more than 7m with a period of 387 days.

The largest constellation in area - 1303 sq. gr.

In the constellation Hydra there are three objects from the Messier catalog, very different in nature: open cluster M48 at a distance of 1500 light years from Earth, globular cluster M68 distant at 30,000 light years and part of the galaxy M83, the distance to which is 15 million light years.

Ghost of Jupiter planetary nebula, available for telescope observations.

TW Hydras - star association, consisting of stars 5-10 million years old.

The nearest of them stretched along the constellations Hydra-Centaurus-Telescope-Peacock-Indian. This formation is much larger than the Local Supercluster. Its dimensions are about 300 million St. years. Our Galaxy and the Local Supercluster are part of it. We are close to the plane of this wall at its very edge, so we see it as a narrow strip of galaxies, stretching for more than 180 degrees - the so-called. Supergalactic plane. There are only three such clusters in the "close" Universe - in Coma Berenices, Perseus and ACO 3627, which is shielded by clouds of dust in the Milky Way.

30. Libra

Contains 83 stars visible to the naked eye. The Libra constellation is one of the most visible constellations of the Zodiac, despite the fact that only five of its stars are brighter than the 4th magnitude.

Gliese 581, a red dwarf with four planets, one of them - (Gliese 581 d - (eng. Gliese 581d)) is in habitable zone this star and belongs to the Super-Earth class. Due to the fact that the planet is located inside the habitable zone, water in a liquid state can exist on it, and therefore life in the form as Earth scientists understand it. This made the planet an object for close study. On October 9, 2008, an AMFE radio message was sent to the star Gliese 581, and on August 28, 2009, an HFE radio message.

The coldest "true" stars are thought to have surface temperatures around 2600 K. An example of such a star is Gliese 105C, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. The main factor, which determines the surface temperature of a star, is its mass. The theory predicts that the lower limit of the mass of a star is 8% of the mass of the Sun. Below this limit, the gas cloud, condensed under the influence of gravitational forces, can no longer heat up so much that a self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction begins. Clouds of gas that fail to become a star because their mass is below this limit turn into what is called a brown dwarf.

A team of astronomers from the University of Washington has discovered the most distant star in our galaxy - an 18-magnitude red giant. This star is located in the direction of the constellation Libra and is removed from the Earth at a distance that light can overcome in 400 thousand years. It is clear that this star is located near the boundary line, in the so-called zone of the galactic halo. After all, the distance to this star is approximately 4 times the diameter of the imaginary expanses of our Galaxy.

31. Sagittarius

The point of the winter solstice is located in Sagittarius, as well as the center of the Galaxy, about 30,000 light-years away from us and hidden behind clouds of interstellar dust.

It is believed that the most beautiful part of the Milky Way is located in Sagittarius, many globular clusters, as well as dark and light nebulae. For example, the Lagoon Nebulae ( M8 ), Omega ( M17 ; other names are Cygnus, Horseshoe), Triple ( M20 ; another name is Trilobal), open clusters M18 , M21 , M23 , M25 and NGC 6603 , globular clusters M22 , M28 , M54 , M55 , M69 , M70 , M75 and the Arch Cluster. There are several bright sources in the radio range in Sagittarius, one of which (Sagittarius A* ) is believed to be a supermassive black hole at the center of the Galaxy.

In the northeastern part of the constellation, not far from the band of the Milky Way, at a distance of 1.7 million sv. years away lies the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822, discovered by E. Barnard in 1884. In 2002, a planet was discovered orbiting the star OGLE-TR-56.

closest star to the sun in Sagittarius it is Ross 154, 9.69 light-years away.

The dwarf galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius is the Milky Way closest to our galaxy. This small galaxy is so close that the Milky Way seems to be swallowing it up. The galaxy in Sagittarius lies at a distance of 80 thousand light years from the Sun and 52 thousand light years from the center of the Milky Way. The next closest galaxy to us is the Large Magellanic Cloud, 170,000 light-years away. Until 1994, when a dwarf galaxy was discovered in the constellation Sagittarius, the closest galaxy was thought to be the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Initially, the dwarf galaxy in Sagittarius was a sphere about 1000 light-years across. But now its shape is distorted by the gravity of the Milky Way, and the galaxy has stretched in length for 10 thousand light years. Several million stars that belong to the dwarf in Sagittarius are now scattered throughout the constellation of Sagittarius. Therefore, if you just look at the sky, then the stars of this galaxy cannot be distinguished from the stars of our own Galaxy.

In 1997, astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a star that should have entered the record book. They named it "The Gun Star" after the shape of the nebula surrounding it. Although the radiation of this star is 10 million times greater than the radiation of the Sun, it is not visible to the naked eye, because it is located near the center of the Milky Way at a distance of 25,000 light years from Earth and is hidden by large clouds of dust. The space telescope has detected its infrared radiation, which can penetrate dusty masses. The star LBV 1806-20 in Sagittarius, 45,000 light-years away from Earth, has recently become a candidate for the title of the star of the highest luminosity. Its radiation is very strongly absorbed by the dust of the Milky Way, so so far it has only been possible to determine that the luminosity of the star LBV 1806-20 is from 5 to 40 million luminosities of the Sun. The mass of LBV 1806-20 exceeds the solar mass by 150-200 times. It is possible that this is a double star, since the theory cannot explain the existence of single stars of such a large mass. But if studies show that LBV 1806-20 is a single star with a luminosity of more than 10 million solar, then the title of champion will pass to it.

32. Ophiuchus

The brightest star is Ras Alhage, 2.1 visual magnitude.

It was in this constellation that the last of the supernovae observed in our Galaxy, noted by I. Kepler in 1604, flared up.

It contains many interesting objects: the repeated new RS Ophiuchi (flared up in 1898, 1933, 1958, 1967, 1985, 1989 and 2006); Barnard's famous Flying Star is a red dwarf, whose small distance from the Sun (5.98 light years) makes it the second after the α Centauri system, and its rather high speed of movement, combined with a small distance, allows it to be the fastest star in the sky (10.3 "/year). There are many globular clusters in this constellation (M9, M10, M12, M14, M19 and M62), as well as dark nebulae, such as the S-nebula (B 72) and the Tube Nebula (B 78, representing the cup of the tube, and B 59, B 65, B 66 and B 67, forming the stem and mouthpiece of the pipe). Double star systems 70 Ophiuchi and 36 Ophiuchus.

Although Ophiuchus is not considered zodiac constellation , the Sun spends in it from November 30 to December 17.

33. Aquarius

A well-known asterism in Aquarius is the "Pitcher", a small Y-shaped group of five stars that "rides" the celestial equator. The central of these stars, ζ Aquarii, is a double star. Also of interest are the globular cluster M2 and the planetary nebulae "Saturn" and "Snail" (NGC 7009 and NGC 7293). In Aquarius lies the radiant of the Delta Aquarid meteor shower, which is active in late July.

About 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, a star similar to the Sun is dying. In the last few thousand years of her life, she has produced Nebula Snail(NGC 7293) - close to us and well studied planetary nebula. This is a typical example of the final phase in the evolution of such a star.

34. Pegasus

The brightest stars in the constellation Pegasus are Enif (ε) - 2.38m and Markab (α) - 2.49m. The rather bright star Sheat (β) is semiregular variable star, whose brightness varies from 2.4m to 2.8m without a pronounced period.

α ( Markab), β (Sheat), γ (Algenib) Pegasus, together with the star α Andromeda (Alferatz) forms the asterism Big Square Pegasus. There is no star marked δ in Pegasus; Alferatz, located on the border of Pegasus and Andromeda, was in 1928 finally assigned to Andromeda (α And).

M15 is a large globular cluster near the "head" (ε Peg, Enif) of Pegasus.

NGC 7331 - so-called. Seyfert spiral galaxy, the image of which is often used to give an idea of appearance our galaxy.

51 Peg is the first solar-type star to have an exoplanet.

Stephan's Quintet is a group of five interacting galaxies.

One of the nearby superclusters of galaxies is located in Pegasus - at a distance of 212 million light years. years.

35. Swan

Deneb (α Cygnus, apparent magnitude 1.25) is a very bright star, a white supergiant with a luminosity 67,000 times that of the sun. One of the corners Summer triangle.

Record holder (like Centaurus) for the number of stars in constellations over 6 stars. - 150 stars!

Cygnus X-1 is a bright X-ray source, one of the candidates for black holes.

Cygnus X-3 is a binary star with a relativistic object.

Cygnus OB2-12 is a luminous blue hypergiant star.

NGC 7000 - North America Nebula

IC 5070 - Pelican Nebula

Northern Coal Sack

M39 - open star cluster

Galaxy Fireworks(NGC6946) - galaxy record holder for the number of recorded supernova explosions (9 pieces)

16 Cygnus is a triple system with two stars similar to the Sun and a planet, in 1999 a radio message was sent to the system from the inhabitants of the Earth to extraterrestrial civilizations.

The Witch's Broom Nebula

Cygnus OB2-12 is a very bright blue hypergiant with an absolute bolometric magnitude of −12.2, whose luminosity approaches the upper limit of stellar luminosity (the brightness of the star is 6 million times that of the Sun).

The brightest extragalactic source of radio emission is the radio galaxy Cygnus A, represented in the optical range by a galaxy of the 15th magnitude. Although this source is 750 million light-years away, it is one of the brightest radio objects in the sky.

36. Lyra

The brightest star - Vega (α Lyrae) - has apparent magnitude+0.03m and is the second brightest (after Arcturus) star in the northern hemisphere. Vega forms one of the corners Summer triangle.

One of the interesting stars is Sheliak (β Lyrae), which is eclipsing variable star. The pulsating variable star RR Lyra gave its name to a class of variable stars. Epsilon Lyrae is a multiple star with four components.

Also in the constellation Lyra is Nebula Ring(M57).

37. Chanterelle

In this constellation in 1967, radio pulsating stars (pulsars) were first discovered. At the same time, even more than 40 years after the first discovery, new pulsars continue to be detected in this constellation: in 2011, an article was published about the discovery of PSR J1952+2630.

In nature, pulsars rotate the fastest - pulsating sources of radio emission. The speed of their rotation is so huge that the light emitted by them is focused into a thin conical beam, which an earthly observer can register at regular intervals. The fastest astronomical object discovered by a group of American astronomers at the end of 1982 is a superfast rotating pulsar assigned the designation PSR 1937 + 215, located in the constellation Vulpecula at a distance of 16 thousand light years. The record-breaking pulsar rotates at a frequency of 642 rpm.

One of the interesting objects of the constellation is a red-blue planetary nebula"Dumbbell" (M27).

In the constellation, an asterism is known, easily visible through binoculars - the Hanger Cluster (eng.) (Cr399). Six stars of the 6th and 7th magnitude form a straight line, and another 4th stars form a hook that completes the shape of the hanger.

38. Centaurus

Record holder (like Cygnus) for the number of stars in constellations over 6 stars. - 150 stars!

It is located along the line Ursa Major - Virgo south of the celestial equator at 40-50 °. But it was not always so. About 10 thousand years ago, this constellation was the decoration of the northern hemisphere, and after 13 thousand years it will again rise above our horizon under the influence of precession. The brightest stars are −0.1 and 0.6 visual magnitudes. Centaurus is the closest to solar system star - Proxima Centauri.

The brightest star of the constellation was called by the ancients Rigel Kentaurus - "the foot of the centaur", and in our time it is known as α Centauri, the star closest to the Sun: before it 4.3 St. of the year. It has a very large proper motion (3.68" per year) and the largest parallax (0.751"). It is one of the brightest stars in the sky and a visual triple; the magnitudes of its components are −0.04, 1.17, and 10.68. The main one is very similar in mass and spectrum to the Sun. The third, weakest, was discovered by R. Innes in 1915 and turned out to be the closest to us (4.16 light years). It was called Proxima ("nearest") Centauri. This actively flaring star is a low-mass red dwarf whose brightness can double in just a few minutes. The bright components of this system have an orbital period of 79.24 years, and their distant faint companion takes about 0.5 million years to orbit.

In this constellation, the largest globular cluster our Galaxy - ω Centauri (NGC 5139), consisting of several million stars, including 165 pulsating variables with periods of about half a day. Although the distance to the cluster is 17,000 sv. years, it is the brightest in the sky. Centaurus also hosts the unusual elliptical galaxy NGC 5128, criss-crossed by a ragged dark dust lane, apparently from a collision with a spiral galaxy; it is also known as a powerful radio source Centaurus A. Several planetary nebulae, among them: the SuWt 2 nebula, Southern Crab Nebula and etc.

39. Goldfish

On the territory of Russia is not observed. In the constellation is south ecliptic pole. The star AB Dorado is also located here, giving the name moving group of stars, and the star S Dorado, which is the prototype of the whole class of very bright pulsating hypergiants. In addition, one of the brightest stars in the constellation, Gamma Doradus, is also the main representative of a particular class of variable stars. In the constellation Dorado in 1987, a supernova SN 1987A.

S Doradus (lat. S Doradus) is the brightest star in Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite of our galaxy. This is a hypergiant, one of the brightest stars known to science, but it is very far from us, and therefore not visible to the naked eye. The distance to a star from us is determined at 169,000 light years. She also belongs open cluster NGC 1910, which is located in the northern part of the central LMC band.

In terms of mass S, the Golden Fish exceeds our Sun by 60 times, and by luminosity - by 500,000 times. Such stars use up their nuclear fuel so quickly that their life spans no more than a few million years. Due to such luminosity, the pressure of light on the surface S of Dorado reaches a huge value, which produces colossal emissions of stellar matter in the form solar wind.

The brightest galaxy in the sky is the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). It is located in the constellation Dorado and cannot be observed in northern latitudes. Both the LMC and the Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is the second brightest, look like separate parts of the Milky Way. The integral visual magnitude of the LMC and MMO is 0 and 2, respectively. These two small galaxies are satellites of the Milky Way and are considered the closest galaxies to the Solar System (after the dwarf galaxy in Sagittarius). However, the brightness of the dwarf in Sagittarius cannot be determined, since this galaxy is in the process of merging with our Galaxy and its stars cannot be distinguished from many other stars within the Milky Way.

40. Keel

On the territory of Russia is not observed.

Canopus (α Carina) - apparent magnitude−0.72m, second brightest star after Sirius

η Carina - Mass η Carina is 100-150 solar masses, which is close to the theoretical limit, the bolometric luminosity is about 5 million solar. The star is surrounded by a large bright nebula NGC 3372 (Carina Nebula), as well as a small, recently formed Nebula Homunculus(see below). Not far from the star is Keyhole Nebula. Some scientists believe that η Carina will go supernova before other stars in the Milky Way.

The absolute magnitude of the star is -12m, which means that at a distance of 10 parsecs, Eta Carinae in the earth's sky would be as bright as the Moon on a full moon. For comparison: the Sun from such a distance could only be barely seen with the naked eye.

41. Capricorn

The brightest star, δ Capricornus, has a visual magnitude of 2.87. The most notable object in Capricorn is the globular cluster M30, which has a very dense core. An interesting star is Alpha Capricorn - an optical binary star, consisting of two unrelated stars, each of which, in turn, is a physical binary system.

In 1984, the German astronomer G. Kuhr discovered such a dazzling quasar in the constellation that even at a great distance from our planet, calculated by many hundreds of light years, it would not yield to the Sun in terms of the intensity of light radiation sent to Earth, although it is distant from us by outer space, which light can overcome in 10 billion years. In its brightness, this quasar is not inferior to the brightness of 60 thousand Milky Ways. In the star catalog, he received the number S 50014 + 81 and is considered the brightest astronomical object in the boundless expanses of the Universe.

42. Southern Cross

WITH constellation of the southern hemisphere of the sky, the smallest constellation in area in the sky. It borders the constellations Centaurus and Mukha. Four bright stars form an easily recognizable asterism that served for navigation: a line drawn through the stars γ and α of the Southern Cross approximately passes through the South Pole of the World at a distance of 4.5 times further than the distance between the stars. This is especially important because there is no bright polar star in the southern sky (σ Octanta is a very faint star).

In the constellation is dark nebula Coal Sack, easily visible to the naked eye, as dark spot against the background of the Milky Way. However, the main treasure of the constellation is the open cluster Casket, the beauty of which can be appreciated when viewed through a telescope.

On the territory of Russia is not observed. Full visibility only at latitudes south of 25 N.Sh.

The discovery by a group of Australian astronomers led by C. McCarren in the 70s of a new type of X-ray star in the region of the constellations of the Southern Cross and Centaurus made a lot of noise. The fact is that scientists were witnesses of the birth and death of a star, the life expectancy of which was an unprecedentedly short time - about 2 years. This has never happened before in the history of astronomy. The suddenly flaring star lost its brilliance in a negligible time for stellar processes.

43. Scorpio

The sun enters the constellation Scorpio on November 23, but leaves it on November 29 (this constellation of the Sun passes in the shortest time) to go into the non-zodiacal for 20 days constellation Ophiuchus.

The brightest star Antares (α Scorpio), which in Greek means "rival of Ares (Mars)", is located in the "heart of the scorpion." It is a red supergiant with insignificant brightness variability (from 0.86 to 1.06 magnitudes); in brightness and color, this star is really very similar to Mars. Its diameter is about 700 times larger than that of the Sun, and its luminosity is 9000 times greater than that of the Sun. Antares is a beautiful visual double: its brighter component is blood red, and its less bright neighbor is bluish white, but in contrast to its companion it looks green, a very beautiful combination.

The distant globular cluster M4 hosts the oldest and most distant known planet. Formed 13 billion years ago and separated from the Earth by 5600 light years, it is located towards the constellation Scorpio. It revolves around a pair of stars - a helium white dwarf and a rapidly rotating neutron star. The discovery of this planet dates back to 1988, when a pulsar named PSR B1620-26 was discovered in M4. Having a mass only 2.5 times that of Jupiter. This ancient planet takes a year to complete one revolution around the binary system.

SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:

http://www.astronet.ru/

Wikipedia.

http://www.astroexperiment.ru/