In 1922 the International astronomical union(Mas) defined all visible constellations located in 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. A separate list marks the 12 zodiac constellations through which the Sun passes during the year.
Almost all constellations of the Southern Hemisphere, as well as asterisms, have proper 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. Likewise Ursa Major located in and pointing to North Star, in the Southern there is a constellation South Cross, with which you can trace the direction to the south pole. Both constellations of the Southern Hemisphere have great value For nautical 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- Pleiades and Hyades. 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. Taurus constellation rocked by explosion supernova, resulting in the formation of the so-called Crab Nebula with a pulsar, which is the source of the most 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 story from ancient greek mythology. When mythical monster Typhon drove the frightened gods from Olympus to Egypt, then Aphrodite, fleeing horror, turned into a fish, and then her son, Eros, turned into a fish.
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 the 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 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 her as she was in prehistoric times. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
2. Dawn over Patagonia. The planet Saturn (left) and the star Arcturus (right) shine in twilight sky over 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, moon, auroras and even the planets often do not allow for subtle observations of distant galaxies or faint, 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 - Milky Way, 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 into glowing arcs, revealing daily rotation 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. Constellation Orion and Sirius, brightest star night sky over Guatemala. The Milky Way is almost invisible on this moonlit night. 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. Just 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. Milky Way above an extinct volcano Chimborazo in Ecuador. The height of the volcano is 6267 meters, and up to early XIX century Chimborazo was considered the most high mountain on the ground. IN 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
Constellation map
southern hemisphere
Constellations are arbitrarily taken star groups, as they are visible from the earth and completely independent of actual distances and possible mutual connection stars The division of stars into constellations dates back to ancient times. Most of the constellations handed down to us by the Arabs from the Greeks undoubtedly originated in the primitive pre-Semitic cultures of Mesopotamia. The main place among them is occupied by the zodiac constellations. The themes for the zodiacal constellations were the hoary legends of primitive humanity, ideas about its destinies, and, less often, the personification of astronomical and meteorological phenomena. The most ancient names of constellations were abbreviations for myths.
Astronomer Jan Hevelius
Ptolemy in his work "Almagest" canonized the following 48 ancient constellations, which still bear the name Ptolemy. Zodiac constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. Northern constellations: Big Dipper, Ursa Minor, Dragon, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Perseus, Bootes, Northern Crown, Hercules, Lyre, Swan, Charioteer, Ophiuchus, Snake, Arrow, Eagle, Dolphin, Foal, Pegasus, Triangle. Southern constellations: Whale, Orion, River, Hare, Canis major, minor, Ship, Hydra, Chalice, Raven, Centaurus, Wolf, Altar, Southern Crown, Southern Fish. Ptolemy did not consider Coma Berenices a separate constellation.
Arab stargazers, in addition to lunar houses, gave various names for individual bright stars. Having become acquainted with the astronomy of the Greeks and translating Ptolemy's Almagest, they changed some of the names according to the positions of the stars in the drawings of the Ptolemaic constellations. Made in the 12th century Latin translation"Almagest" from Arabic, and in the 16th century - directly from Greek according to found manuscripts. The stars of the southern hemisphere, unknown to Greek astronomers, were divided into constellations much later. Some of them were planned by the Arabs.
There is no doubt that the navigators of the 15th and 16th centuries (Vespucci, Corsali, Pigafetta, Peter of Medinsky, Gutman) during their travels to southern seas New constellations were gradually assembled. They were put in order by Peter Dirk Keyser. During his stay on the island of Java (1595), he determined the locations of 120 southern stars and placed constellation figures on them. The following 13 constellations were included, based on Keyser's inventory, in the atlases of Bayer (1603) and Bartsch (1624): Phoenix, gold fish, Chameleon, Flying Fish, Southern Cross, Water Snake, Fly, Bird of Paradise, Southern Triangle, Peacock, Indian, Crane, Toucan. Of these, the Southern Cross was known to Ptolemy and formed part of the Centaurus.
The current names of constellations and stars represent an amalgam of these lists and translations. Ancient drawings of constellations are completely lost. Only distorted figures on Arab globes of the 13th century have reached us; for example, on a globe in the Borghese Museum in Veletri (1225), in the Mathematical Society in Dresden (1279), in the London Astronomical Society, etc. early XVI century, the famous Renaissance artist Albrecht Durer painted the constellations according to their description by Ptolemy.
Unfortunately, not a single authentic copy of Dürer's drawings has survived. Dürer's drawings, modified by other artists, were reprinted in the star atlases of Bayer (1603), Flamsteed (1729). Then the figures of the constellations of the latest layout appeared. Currently, constellation drawings are no longer printed. The credit for banishing the “menagerie” from astronomical atlases belongs to Harding. He published a celestial atlas in 1823, where only the boundaries of the constellations were plotted.
Stéphane Guisard is an optical engineer at the European Southern Observatory.
In his professional work, he works with one of the largest optical telescopes ever built by man, the 8-meter Very Large Telescope (VLT). 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.
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.
Dawn over Patagonia. The planet Saturn (left) and the star Arcturus (right) shine in the twilight sky above the Cuernos Mountains in Patagonia.
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 light coming from the disk of our own Galaxy. Two hazy spots - Magellanic clouds. The bright star is the planet Jupiter. And an elongated pale spot on either side of Jupiter is all that remains of the zodiacal light by midnight.
Where was this photo taken? Of course, on the equator! In this long-exposure image, the stars stretch 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. N
Only at the equator is the Earth's axis of rotation located 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.
Stéphane Guizar prepares to photograph the total solar eclipse on July 11, 2010 on Easter Island. Silent Moai statues stand in the sun, but the Moon is already approaching the Sun...
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.
The constellation Orion and Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, over Guatemala. The Milky Way is almost invisible on this moonlit night. The filming location is remarkable.
This is the famous Square of the Seven Temples in Tikal, one of the largest archaeological sites in the world. Tikal was the capital of the pre-Columbian kingdom of Mutul.
Starry night at the equator. The magnificent arc of the Milky Way curves over the Cotopaxi volcano. Just 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.
Sunset over the Atacama Desert. This photo is dedicated to World Environment Day, which takes place under the auspices of the UN every June 5th since 1972.
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.
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 highest mountain on Earth.
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.
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.
And here is another photograph of the same area, also taken at night, but with a very long exposure. 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.
Stéphane Guisard is an optical engineer at the European Southern Observatory. In his professional work, he works with one of the largest optical telescopes ever built by man, the 8-meter Very Large Telescope (VLT). 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, Stefan Guizar visited Easter Island, where he photographed total solar eclipse 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.
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 an elongated pale spot on either side of Jupiter is all that remains of the zodiacal light by 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 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 to photograph the total solar eclipse on 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. The Milky Way is almost invisible on this moonlit night. The filming location is remarkable. This is the famous Square of the Seven Temples in Tikal, one of the largest archaeological sites in the world. Tikal was the capital of the pre-Columbian kingdom of Mutul. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com
8. Starry night at the equator. The magnificent arc of the Milky Way curves over the Cotopaxi volcano. Just 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 Environment Day, which takes place under the auspices of the UN every June 5th since 1972. 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 highest mountain on Earth. 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.
