Fornax Constellation Map

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Caption: The constellation Fornax with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Fornax is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Cetus, Sculptor, Phoenix and Eridanus. Fornax is a southern constellation and thus the whole constellation is visible in the whole southern hemisphere at some point in the year. The whole constellation is also visible from equatorial and most temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Fornax is best viewed in the northern hemisphere winter and southern hemisphere summer. The spiral galaxy NGC 1097 lies in Fornax and is marked here with a red ellipse. 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
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Glossary Terms: Apparent Magnitude , Celestial Coordinates , Constellation , Declination , Right Ascension (RA) , Spiral Galaxy
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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Virgo Constellation Map

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Caption: The zodiac constellation Virgo and its surrounding constellations. Starting from the top of the diagram and going clockwise, these are Coma Berenices, Leo, Crater, Corvus, Libra, and Bootes. The brightest star in Virgo, Spica, lies just below the ecliptic (shown here as a blue line) in the middle of the map. One way of locating this star in the night sky is to follow the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus in Bootes and go along a line straight down to Spica (“arc to Arcturus and spike to Spica”). This star lies just below the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the path the Sun appears to take across the sky over the course of a year. The Sun is in Virgo from mid September to late October. The other planets of the Solar System can often be found in Virgo. Virgo spans the celestial equator and is thus part of it is visible at some time in the year from all of planet Earth with some of the constellation obscured for the most arctic and antarctic regions of the world. Virgo is most visible in the evenings in the northern hemisphere spring and southern hemisphere autumn. The constellation Virgo appears as a person lying with their back roughly against the ecliptic, arms outstretched, and feet pointed east. Several deep-sky objects are visible in Virgo, including NGC4697, M49, M87, M86, M84, and M60, all of which are labelled as red ellipses on the map. These are all spiral and elliptical galaxies located several millions of lightyears from Earth. Most notably, M87 is host to the supermassive black hole (Pōwehi) that was imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019. All of these galaxies are members of the Virgo Cluster, the nearest cluster of galaxies to the Milky Way. 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 labelled 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 line marking the ecliptic, 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
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Glossary Terms: Apparent Magnitude , Big Dipper , Celestial Coordinates , Cluster of Galaxies , Constellation , Declination , Ecliptic , Elliptical Galaxy , Leo , Libra , Right Ascension (RA) , Spiral Galaxy , Supermassive Black Hole , Zodiac , Virgo
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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Ursa Major Constellation Map

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Caption: The constellation Ursa Major along with its bright stars and its surrounding constellations. Ursa Major is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Draco, Camelopardalis, Lynx, Leo Minor, Leo, Coma Berenices, Canes Venatici and Boötes. Ursa Major is famous for the prominent asterism often known in English as the Big Dipper or the Plough. This prominent northern asterism has a wide variety of names from cultures across the world. While most constellations and asterisms are made up of unrelated stars that randomly appear close together on the sky, five of the stars in the Big Dipper are part of the Ursa Major Moving Group, a group of stars moving through space together that likely formed in the same location 300 million years ago. The two stars on the right-hand end of the Big Dipper on this diagram form a pair of pointer stars that can be used to locate Polaris, the northern pole star which lies in the constellation of Ursa Minor. Ursa Major is a northern constellation and is visible from northern and equatorial regions. Parts of the constellation are visible from all but the most antarctic parts of the southern hemisphere but not all temperate regions of the southern hemisphere can see all of the Big Dipper. Conversely the Big Dipper and much of the rest of the constellation are circumpolar in arctic and many temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Ursa Major is most visible in the evening in the northern hemisphere spring and southern hemisphere autumn. Two prominent galaxies appear in the northern part of this constellation, the spiral galaxy M81 and M82, a possible spiral galaxy whose structure is difficult to observe from the Earth as it appears edge-on. Both are shown here as red ellipses. The planetary nebula M97 (the Owl Nebula) lies in the middle of the constellation and is marked by a green circle superimposed on a plus symbol. 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
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Glossary Terms: Apparent Magnitude , Big Dipper , Celestial Coordinates , Circumpolar Stars , Constellation , Declination , Leo , Planetary Nebula , Right Ascension (RA) , Spiral Galaxy , 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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Cepheus Constellation Map

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Caption: The constellation Cepheus along with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Cepheus is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Camelopardalis, Ursa Minor, Draco, Cygnus, Lacerta and Cassiopeia. Cepheus is a large constellation. Its most notable star is Delta Cephei, the prototype for the class of variable stars known as Cepheid variables. These are variable stars which can be used to estimate distances both within our galaxy and to nearby galaxies. Cepheus lies close to the north celestial pole. As such it is circumpolar for arctic and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. The whole of the constellation is also visible at some point in the year in equatorial regions of the northern hemisphere with parts of it visible in equatorial regions of the southern hemisphere. It is best viewed in the evening in the northern hemisphere late autumn and southern hemisphere late spring. The open cluster NGC 188 lies in Cepheus and is marked here with a yellow circle. The nebula NGC 7023 also lies in the constellation and is marked with a green square. The red ellipse in the lower right marks the position of the spiral galaxy NGC 6946. 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. Delta Cephei is marked with a circle around a dot as it is a variable star. Mu Cephei is also a variable star marked here as an open circle. 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
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Glossary Terms: Apparent Magnitude , Celestial Coordinates , Circumpolar Stars , Constellation , Declination , Nebula , North Celestial Pole (NCP) , Right Ascension (RA) , Spiral Galaxy , Open Cluster
Categories: Naked Eye Astronomy

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Camelopardalis Constellation Map

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Caption: The constellation Camelopardalis with its bright stars and surrounding constellations. Camelopardalis is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Cepheus, Cassiopea, Perseus, Auriga, Lynx, Ursa Major, Draco and Ursa Minor. Camelopardalis is a large constellation but contains relatively few bright stars. Camelopardalis is a northern constellation and as such the whole constellation is visible for the whole northern hemisphere at some point in the year. It is also visible from equatorial parts of the southern hemisphere with some parts visible to temperate southern regions. The whole constellation is circumpolar for all arctic and more northerly temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Camelopardalis is best viewed in the evening in the late northern hemisphere winter and late southern hemisphere summer. The spiral galaxies NGC 2403 and IC 342 lie in Camelopardalis and are marked here with red ellipses. 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) , Right Ascension (RA) , Spiral Galaxy
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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