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Cygnus Constellation Map
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Caption: The constellation Cygnus with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Cygnus is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Cepheus, Draco, Lyra, Vulpecula, Pegasus and Lacerta. Cygnus is notable for its brightest star Deneb. This forms one vertex of the prominent Summer Triangle asterism that is visible in northern hemisphere summer evenings.
Cygnus is a northern constellation and thus the whole of the constellation is visible at some point in the year in the whole northern hemisphere. The whole constellation is also visible from equatorial regions of the southern hemisphere with parts of the constellation visible from temperate southern regions.
The plane of the Milky Way runs through Cygnus and thus the constellation is rich in nebulae and star clusters. These include the North America Nebula (NGC 7000) and the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888). The Veil Nebula is a huge supernova remnant, parts of which are marked here as NGC 6960 and NGC 6992/5. All of the previously-mentioned nebulae are marked with green squares. The planetary nebula NGC 6826 is marked here with a green circle superimposed on a plus sign. The open star clusters M29 and M39 are marked here with yellow circles.
The y-axis of this diagram is in degrees of declination with north as up and the x-axis is in hours of right ascension with east to the left. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labeled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Apparent Magnitude , Celestial Coordinates , Constellation , Declination , Milky Way , Nebula , Planetary Nebula , Right Ascension (RA) , Asterism , Open Cluster , Supernova Remnant
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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Vulpecula Constellation Map
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Caption: The constellation Vulpecula with its brighter stars and surrounding constellations. Vulpecula is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Cygnus, Lyra, Hercules, Sagitta, Delphinus and Pegasus.
Vulpecula is a northern constellation and thus the whole constellation is visible at some point in the year throughout the northern hemisphere. The whole constellation is also visible in equatorial and temperate regions of the southern hemisphere. Vulpecula is best viewed in the evening in the northern hemisphere early autumn and southern hemisphere early spring.
The planetary nebula M27, commonly known as the Dumbbell Nebula lies in Vulpecula and is marked here with a green cross superimposed on a plus sign. The open cluster NGC 6885 also lies in Vulpecula and is marked here with a yellow circle.
The y-axis of this diagram is in degrees of declination with north as up and the x-axis is in hours of right ascension with east to the left. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labeled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Apparent Magnitude , Celestial Coordinates , Constellation , Declination , Planetary Nebula , Right Ascension (RA) , Open Cluster
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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Lyra Constellation Map
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Caption: The constellation Lyra with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Lyra is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Draco, Hercules, Vulpecula and Cygnus. Lyra is dominated by its brightest star Vega which is used to define the zero point of one of the most commonly used magnitude scales of stellar brightness. Vega forms one vertex of the prominent Summer Triangle asterism that is visible in northern hemisphere summer evenings.
Lyra is a northern constellation and thus is visible at some point in the year throughout the northern hemisphere. The whole constellation is also visible from all equatorial and some temperate regions of the southern hemisphere. Parts of the constellation are visible from the remaining southern temperate areas. Lyra is best viewed in the evenings in the northern hemisphere summer and southern hemisphere winter.
The famous planetary nebula M57, commonly known as the Ring Nebula, lies in Lyra. It is marked here with a green circle superimposed on a plus sign. The globular cluster M56 also lies in Lyra and is marked here with a yellow circle with a plus sign superimposed on it.
The y-axis of this diagram is in degrees of declination with north as up and the x-axis is in hours of right ascension with east to the left. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labeled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Apparent Magnitude , Celestial Coordinates , Constellation , Declination , Globular Cluster , Planetary Nebula , Right Ascension (RA) , Asterism
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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Andromeda Constellation Map
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Caption: The constellation Andromeda showing the bright stars and surrounding constellations. Andromeda is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top) Cassiopeia, Lacerta, Pegasus, Pisces, Aries, Triangulum and Perseus. The brightest star in Andromeda (Alpheratz) is in the lower part of the constellation. Together with three stars in Pegasus it forms the asterism known as the "Great Square of Pegasus". The next two bright stars in the constellation (Mirach and Almach) form a line extending north-east from Alpheratz.
Andromeda is a northern constellation and is most visible in the evenings in the Northern Hemisphere autumn. It is visible from all of the Northern Hemisphere and most temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere but is not visible from Antarctic and Subantarctic regions.
The most famous object in Andromeda, the Andromeda Galaxy is marked here with a red ellipse and its Messier catalog number M31.
The yellow circle on the left marks the position of the open cluster NGC 752 and the green circle on the right marks NGC 7662 (the blue snowball nebula), a planetary nebula.
The y-axis of this diagram is in degrees of declination with north as up and the x-axis is in hours of right ascension with east to the left. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labeled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by IAU/Sky & Telescope
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Andromeda , Andromeda Galaxy , Apparent Magnitude , Constellation , Declination , Planetary Nebula , Right Ascension (RA) , Open Cluster
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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Draco Constellation Map
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Caption: The constellation Draco with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Draco is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Cepheus, Ursa Minor, Boötes, Hercules, Lyra and Cygnus.
Draco is a sprawling northern constellation, parts of which lie close to the celestial north pole. As such the whole constellation is visible at some point in the year from the whole northern hemisphere and a thin sliver of the southern hemisphere near the equator. Parts of the constellation are visible from all other southern equatorial and some southern temperate regions. Draco is best viewed in the evenings in the northern hemisphere summer and southern hemisphere winter.
The planetary nebula NGC 6543 (also known as the Cat’s Eye Nebula) lies in Draco. It is marked here with a green circle superimposed on a plus sign.
This diagram maps an area around the north celestial pole. Here lines of constant right ascension converge. The right ascension values of these lines are marked on the x-axis above and below the diagram. Some of the lines of constant declination are marked on the y-axis. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labeled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope
Credit Link
Glossary Terms:
Apparent Magnitude , Celestial Coordinates , Circumpolar Stars , Constellation , Declination , North Celestial Pole (NCP) , Planetary Nebula , Right Ascension (RA)
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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