Stéphane Guisard is an optical engineer at the European Southern Observatory. V professional activity he has to deal 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 doing amateur astronomy during his vacation.

Stefan's favorite hobby is astrophotography and time-lapse videos. Thanks to his work, Guizar has some advantage over other astrophotographers, because he has a very dark and transparent Andean sky - perhaps the most favorable sky for astronomical observations on Earth.

However, Guizar is not limited to the Andes alone. He traveled all over South and Central America, taking pictures of mountain landscapes, the ruins of Mayan cities and, of course, the starry sky. And last summer, Stefan Guizar visited Easter Island, where he photographed against the backdrop of the Moai statues.

Today in the section "City and Stars" we published his wonderful film Night Sky of Atacama. Here we bring to your attention some of his photographs. It is strange, unusual to look at unfamiliar drawings of the 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 stretches over the silhouettes of ancient Moai statues. The bright nebula is the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. Consisting of 10 billion stars, the galaxy lies 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 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 lights, the moon, auroras, and even planets often make subtle observations of distant galaxies or pale, almost ephemeral nebulae impossible. Where is the darkest sky? Stéphane Gizard 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 against the sky below right) and a dark midnight sky. On this night, the Moon did not interfere with the shooting (there was a new moon), and yet there is a flare 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 foggy specks - Magellanic clouds. The bright star is the planet Jupiter. And the 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, at the equator! In this long-exposure image, the stars stretched out into glowing arcs, revealing diurnal rotation starry sky. We see that the stars revolve around the celestial pole, located on the horizon line. But only at the equator, the Earth's axis of rotation is on the horizon. Accordingly, only at the equator during the year you can see all the stars of both the northern and southern hemispheres of the earth. This wonderful shot, taken in Ecuador, also includes a bright fireball. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com

5. Stephane Gizar prepares to shoot the total solar eclipse on July 11, 2010 on Easter Island. Silent statues of Moai 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 wonderful photo of the solar eclipse on July 11, 2010 was published on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website. In this eerie moment, only ancient idols guard the peace of the isolated island. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com

7. The constellation of Orion and Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, over Guatemala. Milky Way in this moonlit night almost invisible. The shooting 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 Mutul kingdom of the pre-Columbian era. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com

8. Starry night at the equator. The magnificent arc of the Milky Way curved over the Cotopaxi volcano. Just above the top of the mountain is a grandiose black hole in the Milky Way. This is the dark Coal Sack Nebula. To the right of it we see another nebula, but already bright red, the famous Carina Nebula (or Carina Nebula). And to the right, just above the horizon, Canopus shines, the second brightest star in the night sky after Sirius. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com

9. Sunset over the Atacama Desert. This picture is dedicated world day environment, which has been held under the auspices of the UN since 1972 every June 5th. What did Guizar want to say with this photo? Use renewable energy sources! Notice the serene expanses below. It's not an ocean, it's clouds. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com

10. Milky Way over the extinct volcano Chimborazo in Ecuador. The height of the volcano is 6267 meters, and up to early XIX century Chimborazo was considered the highest mountain on Earth. To a certain extent, this is true today, because despite the fact that Everest is more than 2 km higher than Chimborazo, the peak 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). And you can say it differently: the peak 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 he managed to catch the fireball, a very bright meteor that drew a bright strip not far from Sirius across 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 exposure. The stars in their movement across the sky left long trails in the sky. The ancients believed that the stars really revolve around the Earth resting in the center of the universe. The fact that the daily motion of stars reflects the rotation of the Earth became known relatively recently, some 350-400 years ago. Photo: Stephane Guisard - Astrosurf.com

Many of us love look at the starry night sky, look for familiar constellations and imagine mysterious figures inside them. All these stars, except for the one that illuminates the Earth and gives it heat, are outside the solar system and seem very tiny, despite the fact that they are many times larger than any of its planets. What do they really look like? Take a closer look at them It is possible only with the help of very powerful equipment in Earth's orbit, and this information can be available to us on the Internet, we just need to search better.

What is a sky map? Its varieties

Star map- it can be interactive or in the form of an ordinary picture. This is an image showing the location of stars and constellations in the sky. The most optimal and easy to use is a star chart compiled in two projections, where the equatorial part of the sky is presented in a cylindrical projection, and the poles are in an azimuth projection. At the same time, due to some distortions, some of the constellations may occur both on the equatorial and pole projections, but this is not a big minus when working with this tool. Such a map is freely available on the Internet in fairly good quality in jpeg resolution.

More accurate and professional - interactive constellation map, or as it is also called, an online star map. There are quite a few of these. The most famous and well-developed are Google Sky, Photopic Sky Survey. They allow not only to consider the general projection of the starry sky, but also to bring each of the stars and constellations closer, as well as to see those that are inaccessible even to telescopes located on Earth, not to say to the naked eye. They were compiled from numerous photographs taken by the telescope. Hubble in orbit. Also, there is another service - Google Earth, it combines Google Sky and Google map.

A bit of history

Star map of the northern hemisphere

Among the constellations of the northern hemisphere you can find such as Ursa Major and Minor(in the form of buckets). We are used to thinking that they consist of 7 stars each, but in fact this is not so, it’s just that the rest of the stars included in the bucket are very small, and therefore are not visible to us). Also, in the northern hemisphere, we can observe Cassiopeia (it is a zigzag of 6 large stars), the constellation Cepheus (a closed pentagon), Hercules, Draco, Andromeda, Perseus, Hounds Dogs (2 large stars at a short distance), Cygnus. And of course, the main landmark of all sailors and travelers is the polar star, which is at the head of Ursa Minor.

A very famous story is about how travelers, after having crossed the Equator and ended up in the Southern Hemisphere, lost sight of the North Star, thereby losing the right course. After all, the picture of the starry sky also changes with various movements on the planet Earth. Moreover, the picture of the starry sky changes for us with the onset of a new season, as the Earth moves in the orbit of the solar system.

Star map of the southern hemisphere

The constellations located on this part of the map are almost unknown to the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere of the Earth, they cannot be seen from here, just as you cannot see the constellations of the Northern Hemisphere when you are in the Southern. It is represented by such constellations as Sails, Carina, Centaurus, Wolf, Scorpio, Southern Triangle (got its name because it has the shape of an isosceles triangle), Southern Hydra, Phoenix, Peacock, Sagittarius, Crane.

equatorial belt

In the equatorial belt, you can see the constellations that we met earlier in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The following constellations are located at the equator:

• Aquarius
• Capricorn
• Sagittarius
• Twins
• Taurus

As you can see, all these constellations correspond to the horoscope (each person, depending on the time of his birth, refers himself to one or another group according to the horoscope, that is, to one or another constellation).

Interactive sky map

Now a little about access to the sky map in a more complex and accurate format. Programs that allow you to travel through the starry sky online, find the constellations and objects you need using the search, approach and move away from them, move in starry space, learn a new useful information and scientific data about the object. In order to find out additional information, such as the name, exact coordinates, the age of the star, belonging to any constellation, the average distance from the Earth, you just need to click on it with the mouse. In addition, you can get data about all photos and external articles about a given star. This information can be found on the property page.

In total, there are 88 constellations in the sky - a fairly large number. Not all of them are visible to the naked eye, but interactive maps starry sky, you can get images of even the most distant planets from the solar system.

In addition to the most famous interactive star chart resources, there are small online chart sites that do not provide additional information, but only show the full picture of the sky, and are therefore easier to manage.

10

• Alternative name:α Southern Fish
• Apparent magnitude: 1,16
• Distance to the Sun: 25 St. years

The brightest star in the constellation Southern Pisces and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. The name of the star means "mouth of the whale" in Arabic.

Fomalhaut is considered a relatively young star, with an age of 200 to 300 million years and an estimated lifespan of a billion years. The temperature on the surface of the star is about 8500 degrees Kelvin. Fomalhaut is 2.3 times heavier than the Sun, the luminosity is 16 times greater, and the radius is 1.85 times. It was found that Fomalhaut belongs to the class of young stars. This star is about 250 million years old. For comparison, our Sun is 4.57 billion years old. It turns out that our Sun is 18 times older than the star Fomalhaut!

According to the latest work of astronomers, it turned out that Fomalhaut is part of a wide triple star system. The main star Fomalhaut A was first identified to have an orange dwarf star, TW Southern Fish (Fomalhaut B), 0.9 light-years away. The third star in the system is the red dwarf LP 876-10 (Fomalhaut C). It is 2.5 light years away from Fomalhaut A and has its own comet belt.

The star Fomalhaut is one of the Castor group. This group includes stars that have a common relationship, as well as a common route of movement in space. In addition to the star Fomalhaut, this group also includes such famous celestial bodies as Vega, Alderamin, Castor, Alpha Libra and others.

9

• Alternative name:α Virgo
• Apparent magnitude: 1.04 (variable)
• Distance to the Sun: 250 St. years

The star Spica or Alpha Virgo is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. With an apparent magnitude of 0.98, Spica is the 15th brightest star in the night sky. Its absolute magnitude is -3.2, and the distance to Earth is 262 light years.

Spica is a close binary star whose components complete one revolution around a common center of mass every four days. They are located close enough to each other that they cannot be seen in a telescope as two separate stars. Changes in the orbital motion of this pair result in a Doppler shift in the absorption lines of their respective spectra, making them a spectral binary pair. The orbital parameters for this system were first derived using spectroscopic measurements.

The main star has a spectral type B1 III-IV. It is a massive star with 10 times the mass of the Sun and seven times the radius. The total luminosity of this star is 12,100 times that of the Sun and eight times that of its companion. The primary star of this pair is one of the closest stars to the Sun that has enough mass to end its life in a Type II supernova explosion.

The secondary star of this system is one of the few stars in which the Struve-Sahade effect is observed. This is an anomalous change in the strength of the spectral lines during an orbit, where the lines become weaker as the star moves away from the observer. This star is smaller than the main one. Its mass is seven times that of the Sun, and the radius of the star is 3.6 times the radius of the Sun. The star has a spectral type of B2 V, making it a star main sequence.

8

• Alternative name:α Scorpio
• Apparent magnitude: 0.91 (variable)
• Distance to the Sun:~610 St. years

The brightest star in the constellation Scorpio and one of the brightest stars in the night sky, a red supergiant. It is part of Bubble I, an area adjacent to the Local Bubble, which includes the Solar System.

The word Antares comes from the Greek ανταρης, which means "against Ares (Mars)" due to the fact that it resembles the planet Mars with its red color. The color of this star has aroused the interest of many nations throughout history. In Arabic astronomical tradition, it was called Kalb-al-Akrab (Heart of the Scorpion). Many ancient Egyptian temples are oriented in such a way that the light of Antares played a role in the ceremonies that took place in them. In ancient Persia, Antares, which they called Satevis, was one of the four royal stars. V ancient india he was called Jyestha.

Antares is a class M supergiant, with a diameter of approximately 2.1·10 9 km. Antares is about 600 light-years from Earth. Its luminosity in the visible wavelength range exceeds that of the sun by 10,000 times, but given the fact that the star radiates a significant part of its energy in the infrared, the total luminosity exceeds that of the sun by 65,000 times. The mass of the star is between 12 and 13 solar masses. The huge size and relatively small mass indicate that Antares has a very low density.

Along with Aldebaran, Spica and Regulus, Antares is one of the four brightest stars near the ecliptic. Being about 5 ° from the ecliptic, it is periodically covered by the Moon and occasionally by planets. The sun passes near Antares a little less than 5° north each year on December 2nd.

Antares has a hot blue companion star (Antares B) at a distance of about 2.9 arcseconds. Although it is 5th magnitude, it is usually difficult to see due to the brightness of Antares A. It can be observed with a small telescope for several seconds during occultation by the Moon, when the main component of Antares is obscured by the Moon; Antares B was discovered by the Viennese astronomer Johann Tobias Bürg during one of these occultations on April 13, 1819. The orbital period of the satellite is 878 years.

7

• Alternative name:α Southern Cross
• Apparent magnitude: 0,79
• Distance to the Sun:~330 St. years

The star Acrux or alpha of the Southern Cross is the "Polar Star" of the Southern Hemisphere. With its help, travelers still determine the direction to the south.

The star Acrux or Alpha Southern Cross is the brightest star in the constellation Southern Cross and the twelfth brightest star in the entire expanse of the night sky. This star is one of the few observable stars in the night sky whose name is not of mythological origin. It was formed simply from the name of the constellation Southern Cross itself, which in Latin sounds like "Crux". Alpha constellation Southern Cross - Alpha Crux - A-Crux.

Observations made by astronomers in the past and present century have shown that Acrux is actually a system consisting of three stars. These stars can be distinguished from each other by observing them even with a home telescope. The first star of the Acrux system - Alpha-1 is a spectroscopic binary star. With her companion, she rotates in one orbit with a period of 76 Earth days.

As we have already found out, Acrux is a system of three stars, the nearest of which are at a distance of 320 astronomical units from the solar system. Alpha-1 - the main star of this system has a magnitude of 1.40. Its mass is approximately 14 times the mass of our Sun. The second largest star in this system, Alpha-2, has a magnitude of 2.04 and a mass 10 times the weight of the Sun. As for the third star, it is still not clear whether it is gravitationally bound to the Akrux system or not. According to some data, it is a subgiant included in this system. According to others, this is a separate spectroscopic binary star, which is not related to Acrux. Perhaps further research by astronomers will help resolve this issue.

6

• Alternative name:(β Centauri
• Apparent magnitude: 0.61 (variable)
• Distance to the Sun:~400 St. years

The second brightest star in the constellation Centaurus and the eleventh brightest star in the night sky. Hadar is a blue-white giant located about 525 light-years from the solar system.

Beta Centauri has the two most common names, Hadar and Agena. The first comes from the Arabic language and is translated as "bottom". The second has Latin roots and is translated as "knee". Both names are associated with the location of the star in the constellation Centaurus.

The data obtained by the astronomer J. Booth, back in 1935, confirmed that Beta Centauri is in fact a system consisting of three stars. The star Hadar itself, or, as it is also called, Hadar-A, is a pair of twin stars of spectral class B, which are three astronomical units apart from each other. This distance can vary due to the elliptical orbit in which these bodies move in outer space around a common center of mass. Hadar-B is a space object remote from the first two at a considerable distance - 210 astronomical units. This star is smaller.

All three stars of the Hadar system move in one orbit around a common center of mass with a period of 600 Earth years. Usually, when it comes to the Hadar system, astronomers have in mind the Hadar-A group of stars, consisting of twin stars. The twin stars of the Hadar system are ancient cosmic objects. The data obtained indicate that their age is at least 12 million years. Companion stars also have a fairly large mass. By different sources it is within 11-14 masses of our Sun. Current evidence indicates that the Hadar-A twin stars are constantly expanding. This leads some astronomers to believe that they will soon turn into red supergiants, and then explode like supernovae.

5

• Alternative name:α Eridani
• Apparent magnitude: 0,46
• Distance to the Sun: 69 St. years

Achernar is the brightest star in the constellation Eridani and the ninth brightest star in the entire night sky. It is located at the southern end of the constellation. Of the ten brightest stars, Achernar is the hottest and bluest. The star rotates unusually quickly around its axis, which is why it has a very elongated shape. Achernar is a double star. As of 2003, Achernar is the least spherical star ever studied. The star rotates at a speed of 260-310 km/s, which is up to 85% of the break up velocity. Due to the high rotation speed, Achernar is strongly flattened - its equatorial diameter is more than 50% larger than its polar diameter. Achernar's axis of rotation is tilted at an angle of about 65% to the line of sight.

Achernar is a bright blue binary star with a total mass of about eight solar masses. It is a main sequence star of spectral type B6 Vep, with a luminosity of more than three thousand times that of the Sun. The distance from the star to the solar system is approximately 139 light years.

Observations of the star with the VLT have shown that Achernar has a companion orbiting at a distance of about 12.3 AU. and rotating with a period of 14-15 years. Achernar B is a star with a mass of about two solar masses, spectral type A0V-A3V.

The name comes from the Arabic آخر النهر (ākhir an-nahr) - "end of the river" and most likely originally belonged to the star θ Eridani, which bears its own name Akamar with the same etymology.

4

• Alternative name:β Orionis
• Apparent magnitude: 0.12 (variable)
• Distance to the Sun:~870 St. years

With an apparent magnitude of 0.12, Rigel is the seventh brightest star in the sky. Its absolute magnitude is -7 and it is located at a distance of ~870 light-years from us.

Rigel has a spectral class of B8Iae, a surface temperature of 11,000 Kelvin, and its luminosity is 66,000 times greater than that of the Sun. The star has a mass of 17 solar masses and a diameter 78 times that of the Sun.

Rigel is the brightest star in our local region of the Milky Way. The star is so bright that when viewed from a distance of one astronomical unit (the distance from the Earth to the Sun), it will shine as an extremely bright ball with an angular diameter of 35 ° and an apparent magnitude of -32 (for comparison: the apparent magnitude is − 26.72). The power flow at this distance will be the same as from welding arc from a distance of a few millimeters. Any object so close will be vaporized by the strong stellar wind.

Rigel is a famous binary star, which was first observed by Vasily Yakovlevich Struve in 1831. Although Rigel B has a relatively faint magnitude, its proximity to Rigel A, which is 500 times brighter, makes it one of the targets of amateur astronomers. According to calculations, Rigel B is removed from Rigel A at a distance of 2200 astronomical units. Due to such a colossal distance between them, there is no sign of orbital motion, although they have the same proper motion.

Rigel B itself is a spectroscopic binary consisting of two main sequence stars orbiting a common center of gravity every 9.8 days. Both stars belong to the spectral class B9V.

Rigel is a variable star, which is not common in supergiants, with a magnitude range of 0.03-0.3, changing every 22-25 days.

3

• Alternative name:α Centauri
• Apparent magnitude: −0,27
• Distance to the Sun: 4.3 St. years

Alpha Centauri is a double star in the constellation Centaurus. Both components, α Centauri A and α Centauri B, are visible to the naked eye as a single star −0.27m, making α Centauri the third brightest star in the night sky. Most likely, this system also includes the red dwarf Proxima, or α Centauri C, invisible to the naked eye, which is 2.2 ° away from the bright binary star. All three are the closest stars to the Sun, with Proxima somewhat closer than the others at the moment.

α Centauri has proper names: Rigel Centaurus (romanization of Arabic رجل القنطور‎ - "Centaur's foot"), Bungula (possibly from Latin ungula - "hoof") and Toliman (possibly from Arabic الظلمان‎ [al-Zulman] "Ostriches"), but they are rarely used.

The first star, Centauri A, is very similar to the Sun. There is a cold thin layer in the atmosphere. The mass of Alpha is 0.08 more than the mass of the Sun, it shines brighter and hotter. She is often reproached that she obscures Beta Centauri, but thanks to the dual union, her girlfriends are visible in the sky.

The second star - Centaurus B is 12% smaller than the Sun, therefore, it is colder. It is separated from Centaurus A by a distance of 23 astronomical units. The stars are highly interconnected. The forces of mutual attraction affect the processes occurring on the surfaces, as well as the formation of planets. Centauri B rotates relative to Centauri A. The orbit looks like a highly elongated ellipse. The turnover takes 80 years, which is very fast on a cosmic scale.

The third component of the system is the star Proxima Centauri. The name of the star means "nearest". It got its name because, thanks to its orbit, it approaches the Earth as close as possible. An object of the eleventh magnitude. Proxima revolves around two stars in 500 thousand years. According to some sources, the rotation period reaches a million years. Its temperature is very low in order to heat nearby objects, so the planets near it are not searched for. Proxima is a red dwarf that sometimes produces very powerful flares.

It takes 1.1 million years to get to Alpha Centauri by modern spacecraft, so it won't happen in the near future.

2

• Alternative name:α Carina
• Apparent magnitude: −0,72
• Distance to the Sun: 310 St. years

The star Canopus or Alpha Carina is the brightest star in the constellation Carina. With an apparent magnitude of -0.72, Canopus is the second brightest star in the sky. Its absolute magnitude is -5.53, and it is 310 light years away from us.

Canopus has a spectral class of A9II, a surface temperature of 7350° Kelvin, and a luminosity 13,600 times that of the Sun. The star Canopus has a mass of 8.5 solar masses and a diameter 65 times that of the Sun.

The diameter of the star Canopus is 0.6 AU, or 65 times that of the Sun. If Canopus were located at the center of the solar system, then its outer edges would extend three-quarters of the way to Mercury. The Earth had to be removed to a distance of three times the orbit of Pluto in order for Canopus to look in the sky just like our Sun.

Canopus is a supergiant of spectral type F and, when viewed with the naked eye, has White color. With a luminosity 13,600 times that of the Sun, Canopus is, in fact, the brightest star, up to 700 light-years from the solar system. If Canopus were located at a distance of 1 astronomical unit (the distance from the Earth to the Sun), then it would have an apparent magnitude of -37.

1

• Alternative name: α Big Dog
• Apparent magnitude: −1,46
• Distance to the Sun: 8.6 St. years

The brightest star in the night sky is undoubtedly Sirius. It shines in the constellation Canis Major and is highly visible in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter months. Although its luminosity exceeds the luminosity of the Sun by 22 times, it is by no means a record in the world of stars - the high visible brightness of Sirius is due to its relative proximity. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is visible during summer, north of the Arctic Circle. The star is located approximately 8.6 light years from the Sun and is one of the stars closest to us. Its brilliance is the result of its true brightness and its proximity to us.

Sirius has a spectral type of A1Vm, a surface temperature of 9940° Kelvin, and a luminosity 25 times that of the Sun. The mass of Sirius is 2.02 solar masses, the diameter is 1.7 times greater than that of the Sun.

Back in the 19th century, astronomers, when studying Sirius, drew attention to the fact that its trajectory, although it is a straight line, is subject to periodic fluctuations. In the projection of the starry sky, it (the trajectory) looked like a wavy curve. Moreover, its periodic fluctuations could be detected even in a short period of time, which in itself was already surprising since we were talking about stars - which are billions of kilometers away from us. Astronomers have suggested that a hidden object that revolves around Sirius with a period of about 50 years is to blame for such “wobbles”. 18 years after a bold assumption, near Sirius, it was possible to discover a small star, which has a magnitude of 8.4 and is the first discovered white dwarf, moreover, also the most massive one discovered to date.

The Sirius system is about 200-300 million years old. Initially, the system consisted of two bright bluish stars. The more massive Sirius B, consuming its resources, became a red giant, after which it ejected its outer layers and became a white dwarf about 120 million years ago. Sirius is colloquially known as the "Dog Star", reflecting his belonging to the constellation Canis Major. The sunrise of Sirius marked the flood of the Nile in ancient Egypt. The name Sirius comes from the ancient Greek "luminous" or "hot".

Sirius is brighter than the nearest star to the Sun - Alpha Centauri, or even supergiants such as Canopus, Rigel, Betelgeuse. Knowing the exact coordinates of Sirius in the sky, it can be seen with the naked eye and during the day. For the best viewing, the sky must be very clear and the Sun low on the horizon. Sirius is currently approaching solar system at a speed of 7.6 km / s, so over time, the apparent brightness of the star will slowly increase.

That vault of heaven, which we see above us is called - only half of the entire sky, the northern hemisphere. But what can be observed in the sky of the southern hemisphere, hidden from us by the curvature of the earth's surface? What are the stars?

We already know most of them. For example, when the constellations Auriga and Perseus stand in the north, above the very edge of the sky, while under them, somewhere deep - under the edge of the sky, against the southern side of the earth, our brilliant ones are hiding: Orion, Big and Small Dog, a lion. On the contrary, in winter, when Orion flaunts on the southern side of the sky, at this time in the north at the edge of the sky stand Lyra and Swan, and below them, below the edge of the sky, against the underside of the globe are Eagle, Bootes, Virgo, Ophiuchus.

These constellations, as you remember, occupy the entire southern side of the sky, at the time when they rise in our sky. So we've seen half of that mysterious sky, which for us is, as it were, “under the ground”. We have not seen only one-fourth of the entire celestial space, precisely that part that is located under the edge of the sky in the south. To see this quarter of the sky and its stars, one must go there, to the south, reach "to the edge of the sky" and look further down.

Of course, there is no edge of the Earth, because the Earth is a sphere, there is no edge of the sky, because the sky is an infinite space that surrounds the Earth from all sides. But there is an end visible us the sky, and this edge is exactly where we see it. For example, in winter evening the edge of the sky in the south is under Sirius, where one of the lower stars of the Great Canis sparkles low, low.

Instead of reasoning, let's go on our imaginary journey to the south. - Do not forget that we are traveling on a winter evening, when Charioteer, Taurus, Orion, Sirius are burning on the southern side of the sky. - We travel, for example, from St. Petersburg directly to the south, and with the speed of thought.

Here we are in Crimea. We look up. - Ba!

constellation map
southern hemisphere

Constellations are arbitrarily taken stellar groups, as they are seen from the earth and completely independent of the actual distances and possible interconnection of the stars. The division of stars into constellations dates back to the deepest antiquity. Most of the constellations transmitted 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 zodiac constellations were the hoary legends of primitive mankind, ideas about its fate, less often the personification of astronomical and meteorological phenomena. The oldest names of the constellations were abbreviations for myths.

Astronomer Jan Hevelius

Ptolemy in his work "Almagest" canonized the following 48 ancient constellations, which are still called Ptolemaic. Zodiac constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. Northern constellations: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Dragon, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Perseus, Bootes, Northern Crown, Hercules, Lyra, Cygnus, Charioteer, Ophiuchus, Snake, Arrow, Eagle, Dolphin, Foal, Pegasus, Triangle. Southern constellations: Whale, Orion, River, Hare, Dog big, small, Ship, Hydra, Chalice, Raven, Centaurus, Wolf, Altar, Southern Crown, Southern Fish. Ptolemy did not consider Coma Veronica to be 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 having translated Ptolemy's Almagest, they changed some names according to the position of the stars in the drawings of the Ptolemaic constellations. In the 12th century, a Latin translation of the Almagest from Arabic was made, and in the 16th century, directly from Greek, according to found manuscripts. The stars of the southern hemisphere, unknown to Greek astronomers, were broken down into constellations much later. Some of them were outlined by the Arabs.

There is no doubt that the navigators of the 15th and 16th centuries (Vespucci, Corsali, Pigafetta, Peter Medinsky, Gutman) gradually assembled new constellations during their travels to the southern seas. They were put in order by Peter Dirk Keizer. During his stay on the island of Java (1595), he identified the locations of 120 southern stars and placed constellation figures on them. The following 13 constellations were included in the Bayer (1603) and Barch (1624) atlases based on the Keyser inventory: 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 was part of the Centaurus.

The current names of the constellations and stars represent an amalgam of these lists and translations. The ancient drawings of the constellations are completely lost. Only distorted figures on Arabic globes of the thirteenth century have come down to 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. At the beginning of the 16th century, the famous Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer painted the constellations according to their description by Ptolemy.

Unfortunately, not a single original 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 newest layout appeared. Currently, constellation drawings are no longer printed. The merit of expelling the "menagerie" from astronomical atlases belongs to Harding. He published in 1823 a celestial atlas, where only the boundaries of the constellations were plotted.