Astronomical map. Constellations

Fig. 1. Winter constellations and the region of non-setting stars in the sky over Moscow

The proposed map creates an image of the starry sky corresponding to the current time and the given coordinates of the terrain.
For Moscow, VDNX coordinates were chosen - 55.83 ° north latitude and 37.62 ° east longitude.
When using the map, it should be borne in mind that the local time in Moscow differs from the zonal Moscow time, measured from the Greenwich meridian, by an average of 30 minutes. Figure 1 shows: the winter starry sky and the region of stars that never set at the latitude of Moscow.
Inside this area there are 6 constellations that do not go beyond its borders: Ursa Minor; The Dragon; Giraffe; Cassiopeia; Cepheus and Lizard - they are called non-entering.
No matter how the position of the constellations on the star map (Fig. 2) changes, the non-setting constellations always remain on it.

Online planetarium

Directly south of the non-setting constellations are partially setting constellations, such that at least one of their stars falls into the polar circle of the non-setting stars.
There are 15 partially setting constellations in the Moscow sky (clockwise):
1. Big Dipper;
2. Hounds Dogs;
3. Bootes;
4. Northern Crown;
5. Hercules;
6. Lyre;
7. Swan;
8. Pegasus;
9. Andromeda;
10. Triangle;
11. Perseus;
12. Charioteer;
13. Gemini;
14. Lynx;
15. Small Lion.

Further south are the setting, fully visible constellations within the boundaries adopted by the International Astronomical Union.
Above Moscow, 27 such constellations are alternately located:
1. Leo;
2. Sextant;
3. Bowl;
4. Hair of Veronica;
5. Virgo;
6. Raven;
7. Snake;
8. Libra;
9. Ophiuchus;
10. Shield;
11. Chanterelle;
12. Arrow;
13. Dolphin;
14. Eagle;
15. Capricorn;
16. Small Horse;
17. Aquarius;
18. Fish;
19. Whale;
20. Aries;
21. Taurus;
22. Orion;
23. Hare;
24. Little Dog;
25. Unicorn;
26. Big Dog;
27. Cancer

And at the southernmost horizon there are partially visible constellations, those in which at least one star is sometimes shown from beyond the horizon.
At different times of the year, 15 partially visible constellations can be found in the starry sky of Moscow:
1. Hydra;
2. Centaurus;
3. Wolf;
4. Scorpio;
5. Sagittarius;
6. Microscope;
7. South. A fish;
8. Sculptor;
9. Furnace;
10. Eridanus;
11. Cutter;
12. Dove;
13. Feed;
14. Compass;
15. Pump.

Thus, in the Moscow sky, you can find stars from 63 constellations!

It is most convenient to check for the presence or absence of a constellation in an alphabetically ordered list, so an alphabetical list of constellations visible in the sky of Sochi will be quite appropriate here:

Andromeda, Gemini, Big Bear, Big Dog, Libra, Aquarius, Charioteer, Wolf, Bootes, Hair of Veronica, Raven, Hercules, Hydra, Dove, Hounds, Virgo, Dolphin, Dragon, Unicorn, Giraffe, Hare, Ophiuchus, Snake, Cassiopeia, Whale, Capricorn, Compass, Poop, Swan, Leo, Lyra, Chanterelle, M. Horse, M. Dog, Little Lion, Little Bear, Microscope, Pump, Aries, Eagle, Orion, Pegasus, Perseus, Furnace, Cancer, Cutter, Pisces, Lynx, Northern Crown, Sextant, Scorpio, Sculptor, Arrow, Sagittarius, Taurus, Triangle, Centaurus, Cepheus, Bowl, Shield, Eridanus, Southern Fish, Lizard.

Another peculiar characteristic of the sky over Moscow is the list of constellations awarded the honor of passing through the zenith at midnight climax (the best conditions for visual observation):

from January 30 to April 29 - Ursa Major;
from April 30 to July 14 - Dragon;
from July 15 to August 1 - Swan;
from August 2 to August 28 - Cepheus;
from August 29 to September 5 - Lizard;
from September 6 to October 19 - Cassiopeia;
from October 20 to November 14 - Perseus;
from November 15 to December 9 - Giraffe;
from December 10 to December 26 - Charioteer;
from December 27 to January 29 - Lynx.

In total, 10 constellations pass through the Moscow zenith.

Starry sky over Moscow
Mini planetarium online

Star map. The boundaries and names of the constellations visible at the latitude of Moscow

Hot keys for managing the map of the starry sky online:
(work with the cursor on the map and the Latin keyboard layout)

• a → haze (simulated atmosphere, on / off)
• g → take into account the horizon
• h → choice of map type
• i → invert colors
• , → show ecliptic
• ; → draw a meridian line
• e → show equatorial grid
• z → show azimuth grid
• m → show galactic grid
• M → show the boundaries of the Milky Way
• q → hide cardinal points
• s → hide stars
• S → hide names of stars
• u → hide planet names
• p → hide planets and the sun
• o → show orbits of planets

• c → show constellation diagrams
• v → hide constellation names
• b → hide the constellation boundaries
• R → show radiants of meteor showers
• 8 → set current time
• j → slow down the countdown
• k → pause in the countdown
• l → speed up the countdown
• - → one day ago
• = → one day ahead
• [ → a week ago
• ] → one week ahead
• % → rotate counterclockwise
• " → rotate clockwise
• & → show dim stars
• ( → hide faint stars

1 or ? → show this list on star map

Sergey Ov (Seosnews9)

05.25. 2018 - Work on this page will continue:
Theses:
- Constellations passing through the zenith ✔
- Constellations, asterisms and seasons
- A panoramic map of the entire part of the starry sky accessible for viewing from Moscow.

* At a similar latitude, the picture of the starry sky is similar, as a rule, visual similarity remains with deviations in latitude by 1-2 °, that is, approximately the same as in Moscow the sky will look, in such cities as:
Vladimir, Cheboksary, Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, Severobaikalsk, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Klaipeda and Vitebsk - for an exact match between the map and the sky, you only need to enter a time correction or the coordinates of the corresponding city in in the upper left corner of the star map.

Regional star maps are created for major cities and resort areas.

A virtual guide to the starry sky, allowing you to travel almost like in a real spaceship, but without restrictions in time and space, as well as learn a lot about the structure of the Universe.

Earlier, children dreamed of being pilots and astronauts. But the formidable aunt Perestroika came, and they, having reconsidered their views, decided to become businessmen and managers :) However, childhood dreams still remained somewhere at the very bottom of consciousness (or subconsciousness) ...

Looking at the starry sky, we involuntarily admire all the splendor of the Universe, and sometimes we regret that we have exchanged our childhood dreams for a more prosaic way of existence.

But ... If you are nevertheless irresistibly drawn to the stars, you may well make, albeit a virtual, but quite realistic journey through near and deep space. To do this, you just need to have a computer and the corresponding program.

The range of applications of this type is not particularly wide, but almost all of them have the status of free, so there is plenty to choose from. In my opinion, for a free journey through the Universe, it is most correct to opt for the program Celestia.

It allows you to fully consider not only our solar system, but also distant stars, as well as nebulae and even galaxies! A similar functionality is offered by the paid program Pocket Stars:

Comparison of the free Celestia star map with the paid analog of Pocket Stars

Despite the fact that Pocket Stars has introduced support for 3D observation mode, it still clearly falls short of either the quality of textures or the convenience of working with it to the level of Celestia.

In addition, the paid analogue does not have a support system for third-party plugins that could significantly speed up the improvement of the detail of the display of celestial bodies. Therefore, Celestia is still far ahead of its competitors in all respects.

Installing Celestia

To install the program, it will be enough for us to open the downloaded archive and run the installer. Despite its English language, I think there will be no problems with the installation, since the whole process practically comes down to confirming all the forms proposed by the application. Upon completion of the installation process, the program itself will start:

At boot time, Celestia will first show us our Sun and then center the image on Earth. This completes the download, and we can start working directly with the program.

Demo video of the program

For a better understanding of the purpose and capabilities of the application, I would advise you to run a demo video first. To do this, go to the "Help" menu and activate the "Run DEMO script" item:

In the demo video, we will see that with the help of Celestia you can observe any planets in the solar system, stars or even our entire galaxy! Upon completion of the scenario, we will return to the starting position, that is, back to Earth.

View settings

Before starting work with the program, it will not be superfluous to also go into its settings and adjust them "for yourself". To do this, call the "View" menu and open the "View Settings" item:

Here we can activate the display of those components that we need and remove unnecessary ones. For example, we can enable the display of constellations in the corresponding section by checking the Shapes box. And by unchecking the box "Names in Latin", we will get the usual Russian-language names of the constellations! In general, try and experiment;).

Program management

A few words about program management. In fact, you can only use the mouse for this (although it is possible to work with the "hot" keys). By holding down the left mouse button, we will be able to move the viewport in a two-dimensional plane. For three-dimensional movement, you need to hold down the right key. With the help of the wheel, you can approach or move away from the selected viewpoint.

A single click of the left mouse button serves to select the desired object, and double click to center the view on the selected celestial body. Right-clicking the mouse brings up the context menu:

Using this menu, we can get detailed information about the selected celestial object, put a mark on it (to use it as a reference) and / or go to it.

When you select the "Go" item, an animated virtual "flight" in outer space starts, after which we can see the selected object close up:

In this case, in the upper left corner, rather detailed information about the celestial body will be given.

Navigating the starry sky

Now I propose to consider one of the main menus of the Celestia program - "Navigation". Here, all items are divided into three categories. The top contains functions that allow you to select any celestial bodies and travel to them.

Guide

Interesting facts about various space objects (mainly the solar system) can be gleaned from the "Guide". By selecting a specific celestial body in the drop-down list, we will be able to read about it and, if desired, proceed to its observation.

If you are “lost” in the Universe, the item “Select the Sun” (hot button “H”) will help you to return to the solar system. Highlight the Sun and then activate the item "Go to the selected object" or press the "G" button. Well, here we are at home :).

Also, to move in the virtual space of the Celestia program, it is convenient to use the navigation menu items Select object and Go to object. The first allows you to find a celestial body by its name, while the second, in addition to the name of the object, can also use exact coordinates to find it:

Time travel

We figured out how to navigate the Universe with Celestia, but the program allows you to easily overcome not only space, but also time! With its help, we can model the arrangement of celestial bodies, both in the past and in the future. To do this, just go to the "Time" menu and select the "Time setting" item:

In the window that opens, go to the "Julian date" window and use it to set the required time. For example, we can, without waiting for 2022, calmly observe a large parade of planets;).

Installing add-ons

If you're serious about astronomy, you'll also appreciate Celestia's expandability. With the help of connected plug-ins you can get, for example, a detailed drawing of the relief of distant planets, displaying nebulae and even fantastic elements in the form of spaceships and fictional planetary systems.

In this case, the installation of the add-on is reduced to a simple unpacking of them into a special directory "Extras" in the folder with the program.

Advantages and disadvantages

• good detail of outer space;
• convenient control;
• the ability to manage time;
• plugin support;
• many settings.

• there is no way to observe the sky from the surface of the Earth;
• there are very few images of nebulae and galaxies in the basic version.

conclusions

Celestia is useful for everyone who wants to learn more about the space around us. For example, at school, teachers and students can use the program in astronomy lessons to observe celestial bodies in real time.

With Celestia you will always be aware of all the events in the sky. It will help you find out when a particular comet will be visible, or where to look for the planet you want to observe through binoculars or a telescope;).

Finally, the program will allow you to look into the most distant corners of our galaxy and see even stars that are millions of light years distant! In general, as Big Uh said, there are many miracles in the sky! And to see them it is enough to install Celestia;)

P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

It is generally accepted that the stars are not visible during the day. However, from the top of Mount Ararat (height 5000 m), bright stars are clearly visible even at noon. The sky there is dark blue. With a telescope with a 70 mm objective lens, bright stars can be seen even from flat terrain. Still, the stars are best observed at night, when the blinding light of the Sun does not interfere.

The starry sky is one of the most beautiful sights that exist in nature. About 6,000 stars can be seen across the sky with the naked eye. (simultaneously above the horizon about 3000).

Since ancient times, people mentally combined the most noticeable stars into shapes and called them constellations. The constellations have been associated with myths and legends. Today, a constellation is called a section of the starry sky with conditional boundaries., which includes not only stars, but also other objects - nebulae, galaxies, clusters. ABOUT objects included in this or that constellation are not connected with each other, since they are, firstly, from the Earth at different distances, and secondly, the boundaries of the constellations are conditional, i.e. can be changed at any time.

Today, 88 constellations have been identified in the starry sky.

The Latin names of the constellations are also adopted. All atlases of the starry sky published abroad contain the Latin names of the constellations.

The constellations can be divided into three large groups: human (Aquarius, Cassiopeia, Orion ...), animals (Hare, Swan, Whale ...) and subject (Libra, Microscope, Shield ...). For better memorization of constellations, prominent stars in them are usually connected by lines in polygons or bizarre shapes. Below are: Ursa Major, Bootes, Virgo and Leo.

Since the constellations are parcels, then they have an area. The constellation areas are different. The largest in area is Hydra. In second place is Virgo. The third is the Big Dipper. The smallest constellation in area is the Southern Cross (not visible in our latitudes).

The constellations differ in the number of bright stars. Most of the brightest stars in Orion.

The bright stars of the constellations have their own names (usually invented by Arab and Greek astronomers). For example, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra - Vega, in the constellation Cygnus - Deneb, in the constellation Eagle - Altair... Remember the names of the stars of the Big Dipper bucket:

The stars in the constellations are also designated. The letters of the Greek alphabet are used for designation:

α - alpha

β - beta

γ - gamma

δ - delta

ε - epsilon

ζ - zeta

η - this

etc. It is worth remembering the designation and pronunciation of at least the first seven Greek letters. This is how the stars of the Big Dipper bucket are indicated:

Usually the brightest star in the constellation is designated by the letter α (alpha). But not always. There are other systems for naming stars.

Star maps have been compiled since ancient times. Usually they depicted not only stars, but also drawings of animals, people and objects with which the constellations were associated. Since there was no order in the name and number of constellations, the star maps were different. It got to the point that various astronomers tried to enter their constellations (drawing the contours of the constellations in a new way). For example, in 1798 astronomer Lalande proposed the constellation Balloon. In 1679 Halley introduced the constellation Charles Oak. There were also many other exotic names (Poniatowski's Vol, Cat, Friedrich's Regalia, etc.). Only in 1922 were the conditional boundaries of the constellations finally drawn, and their number and names were fixed.

For practical purposes, today they use a moving map of the starry sky, consisting of a map of the starry sky and an overlay circle with an oval cut out. Here is the map:

Stars are indicated by circles of various sizes. The larger the circle, the brighter the star it depicts. Binary, variable stars, galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters are also marked on star maps.

The starry sky rotates slowly. The reason is the rotation of the Earth around its axis. The earth rotates from west to east, and the starry sky, on the contrary, from east to west. Therefore, stars, planets and luminaries rise in the eastern side of the horizon and set in the western one. This movement is called daily rotation... It should be noted that the constellations retain their relative position during diurnal rotation. The starry sky rotates as a whole, like a huge celestial sphere. The Earth makes one revolution around its axis in relation to the stars in 23 hours 56 minutes 04 seconds. This period is called starry days... Every 23 hours 56 minutes 04 seconds, the view of the starry sky is repeated.

But this does not mean that if the Earth does not rotate on its axis, the sky will remain stationary. The appearance of the starry sky is influenced by the movement of the Earth around the Sun. If the Earth did not rotate, the appearance of the starry sky would still slowly change throughout the year. This phenomenon is called annual change in the appearance of the starry sky... We can observe that some constellations are best seen in autumn, others in winter, etc.

The constellations can be roughly divided according to the seasons of the year into autumn, winter, spring and summer. But this does not mean that only autumn constellations can be seen in autumn. On an early autumn evening, the summer constellations dominate the sky. Over time, they lean to the west, the autumn constellations rise. In the morning, the winter constellations are perfectly visible.

The view of the starry sky also depends on the latitude of the observation site. At the poles of the Earth, the starry sky rotates so that not a single star rises or sets. Moving towards the equator, the number of rising and setting stars increases. In mid-latitudes, there are both rising-setting stars, and non-setting and never rising. For example,in the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere of the Earthconstellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia never descend under the horizon. But on the other hand, the constellations of the Southern Cross, the Crane, the Altar never rise. At the earth's equator, all stars rise and set. If daylight did not interfere, all 88 constellations could be seen in one day.

Constellations help with orientation. It is especially useful to learn how to find the sides of the horizon by the Pole Star, since it almost does not change its position in the sky. The easiest way to find the North Star is to use the bucket from the constellation Ursa Major (to be precise, the line runs slightly to the left of the North Star):

The North Star always hangs over the north point. If you stand with your back to it, then there will be south in front, east on the left, and west on the right.

Some people think that the North Star is the brightest star in the starry sky. But this is not the case. The brightest is Sirius from the constellation Canis Major. Polaris is the main navigation star.

An angular measure is used to measure the apparent distances between stars and also the diameters of the disks of the planets, the Sun and the Moon, the apparent dimensions of nebulae and galaxies. 1 degree of arc contains 60 arc-minutes and 1 arc-minute contains 60 arc-seconds. The diameters of the disks of the Sun and Moon are approximately equal to 0.5º.


Click on any object to get extended information and photos of its surroundings up to 1x1 °.

Star map online - will help when observing through a telescope and simply when orienting in the sky.
Star map online - an interactive sky map shows the position of stars and foggy objects that are available in amateur telescopes at a given time over a given location.

To use the star map online, you need to set the geographic coordinates of the observation site and the observation time.
With the naked eye, only stars and planets with brightness up to about 6.5-7 m are visible in the sky. To monitor other objects, you need telescope... The larger the diameter (aperture) of the telescope and the less illumination from the flashlights, the more objects will be available to you.

This online sky map contains:

• the SKY2000 star catalog, supplemented by data from the SAO and XHIP catalogs. Total - 298457 stars.
• proper names of the main stars and their designations in the HD, SAO, HIP, HR catalogs;
• information about stars contains (if possible): coordinates J2000, proper motions, brightness V, magnitude Johnson B, color index Johnson BV, spectral class, luminosity (Sun), distance from the Sun in parsecs, number of exoplanets for April 2012 , Fe / H, age, data on variability and multiplicity;
• the position of the main planets of the solar system, the brightest comets and asteroids;
• galaxies, star clusters and nebulae from the Messier, Caldwell, Herschel 400 and NGC / IC catalogs with the ability to filter by type.

There are no Messier objects in Caldwell's catalog, and Herschel 400 partially overlaps with the first two catalogs.

It is possible to search for foggy objects on the map by their numbers in the NGC / IC and Messier catalogs. As you enter the number, the map is centered on the coordinates of the desired object.
Enter only the object number as it appears in these catalogs: without the prefixes "NGC", "IC" and "M". For example: 1, 33, 7000, 4145A-1, 646-1, 4898-1, 235A, etc.
Three objects from other catalogs: C_41, C_99 from Caldwell and the bright nebula Sh2_155 enter into the NGC field as written here - with underscore and letters.

As NGC / IC, its refined and somewhat augmented version of RNGC / IC dated January 2, 2013 was used. A total of 13958 objects.

About maximum stellar magnitude:
The faintest star in the SKY2000 catalog, which is used in the online sky map, has a brightness of 12.9 m. If you are interested in stars, keep in mind that after about 9-9.5 m, gaps begin in the catalog, the further, the stronger (such a drop after a certain magnitude is a common thing for star catalogs). But, if the stars are needed only for searching for foggy objects in a telescope, then by introducing the 12 m limit you will get noticeably more stars for a better orientation.

If you set the maximum 12 m in the "stars brighter" field and click "Refresh data", then the initial download of the catalog (17Mb) may take up to 20 seconds or more, depending on your Internet speed.
By default, only stars up to V \u003d 6 m (2.4 Mb) are loaded. You need to know the pumped volume to select the auto-update interval for the map if you have limited Internet traffic.

To speed up the work, at low magnifications of the map (at the first 4 steps), NGC / IC objects are fainter than 11.5 m and faint stars are not shown. Zoom in on the desired part of the sky and they will appear.

When "turning off images of the Hubble telescope and others." only black-and-white images are shown, which more honestly show the image available in an amateur telescope.

Help, suggestions and comments are accepted by mail: [email protected].
Materials used from sites:
www.ngcicproject.org, archive.stsci.edu, heavens-above.com, NASA.gov, Dr. Wolfgang steinicke
The photographs used were declared by their authors free for distribution and transferred for public use (based on the data I received in the places of their original placement, including according to Wikipedia, unless otherwise indicated). If this is not the case, write to me by e-mail.

Acknowledgments:
Andrey Oleshko from Kubinka for the original coordinates of the Milky Way.
Eduard Vazhorov from Novocheboksarsk for the initial coordinates of the outlines of the Misty Objects.

Nikolay K., Russia

Summer is a good time for the first observations of the starry sky with children. Although the nights are short, they are warm. A bright sky is good for teaching a child to find the brightest stars.

Today there are a lot of different mobile applications that will show you the direction to any star or planet. Against their background, a paper map of the starry sky looks like a mysterious rarity. However, this simple device allows you to determine when and in which side of the world to look for the constellation you are interested in. With its help, you can plan observations and carry out research work. She has other possibilities, but about them in the following articles.

Star map montage

The whole device consists of two parts: a map and an overlay circle. The cut in the overhead circle is made depending on the latitude of the terrain.

1. Download a map and an overlay circle for your latitude. (You can find out the latitude of the area by simply typing "geographical coordinates ******" into the Yandex search box)

(Downloads: 10622)
(Downloads: 5711)
(Downloads: 5988)
(Downloads: 3800)

2. Print the map and circle. On A3 format, the map and circle will turn out much more convenient, but A4 will do for a start. The main thing is that the map and the circle are printed in the same format.

3. The card does not need to be cut. For strength, you can stick it on cardboard, or, even better, laminate it. The laminated card will last much longer, the paper circle does not slip off it (because it is electrified and sticks), you can stick transparent stickers on it and make marks on them with a regular ballpoint pen.

4. Cut the applied circle along the contour, cut a hole inside (marked with a red line). Laminating the circle is not worth it, but printing on thick paper would not be bad. In any case, over time, you can make a new one.

5.Glue a thread on the back of the card between points C and Yu. This thread marks the celestial meridian. It is more convenient to observe any star just when it is on the celestial meridian.

Setting a star map for a specific time

1. First you need to make a time correction. From the time shown by the clock at the moment, 1 hour and 30 minutes must be subtracted. (This is an average value that is quite suitable for initial observations. In general, the correction is calculated based on the longitude of the observation site and the time zone number)

2. Find the month and day on the edge of the map.

3. On the overlay circle, take the time.

4. Align the date on the map and the time on the overlay circle. Make sure the circle is in the middle of the map. In the slot of the circle there will be those constellations that are visible above the horizon at the specified time.

We make a time correction, subtract 1 hour 30 minutes from 21 hours 30 minutes. We get 20 hours.

We find twenty hours on the overlay circle (red mark), and on the map September 15 (blue mark)