What do you think of the constellations in the night sky?

Looking to the left of Orion with Betelgeuse as the benchmark, we can see two other bright stars, Sirius Canis (Alpha Canis) and Nanhesan Canis (Alpha Canis). These three bright stars form an approximate equilateral triangle in the sky, which is the famous winter triangle. It is very dazzling in the night sky and can be easily seen even if the city lights are very strong.

Looking at the upper right of Orion, extend the distance to almost twice the height of Orion, and you will find a bright star with a little yellow. This is the alpha star of Taurus. If we continue to extend the distance by twice, we can see a cluster of six or seven stars, which is the famous Pleiades cluster, which was called the Seven Sisters cluster in ancient China. This area belongs to Taurus in the western constellation division.

Still based on Orion, a line from Orion's left foot to the left of his belt extends almost four times, and you can see a less bright star Capella, and then you can find a brighter star by further extension, that is Capella (Alpha Auriga).

Back to Orion, along the direction of Betelgeuse pointing to Betelgeuse, you can see two bright stars side by side, from left to right, namely Beihe III (Gemini β) and Beihe II (Gemini α), and Beihe III is slightly brighter. These two stars are the two heads of Gemini, and the famous Gemini meteor shower also appears in this area from 65438 to February every year.

Orion is basically in the south of the night sky. Looking north from the other direction, you can see the famous Big Dipper, located in Ursa Major. The shape of the Big Dipper is very classic. Seven stars are arranged in the shape of a spoon, which is very bright and easy to identify.

The Big Dipper is another good benchmark. Extend the bucket handle of the Big Dipper backward by an arc, about twice the length of bucket handle, and you can easily find a very bright star, which is arcturus, located in Capricorn. Arcturus is the second brightest star in the whole day, second only to Sirius.

Two Tian Xuan and Shu Tian are connected to the edge of the bucket of the spoon, which extends five times outward, and a star with almost due north can be found. This is the Polaris, located in Ursa minor.

At present, Polaris is named Dog Chen Yi in China. Because the earth's rotation axis will change, the position of the North Pole star will be replaced by Vega in a few years.

At the other end of Polaris, at about the same position from the Big Dipper, you can see five stars arranged in a "W" shape, which is Cassiopeia. A little beyond the "W" of the Queen Fairy, you can see a fuzzy little black dot in the autumn night sky. This is the Andromeda galaxy, the only extragalactic galaxy in the northern hemisphere that can be seen with the naked eye.

Extended data:

Western constellations originated in Babylon, one of the four ancient civilizations. It is said that the so-called zodiac 12 constellation has more than 20 constellation names, and Mesopotamia was born about 5000 years ago. Since then, the Babylonians have continued to divide the sky into many regions and put forward new constellations. Around 1000 BC, 30 constellations have been proposed.

Ancient Greek astronomers supplemented and developed the Babylonian constellation and compiled the ancient Greek constellation table. In the 2nd century A.D., Ptolemy, an ancient Greek astronomer, synthesized the astronomical achievements at that time and sorted out 48 constellations.

Connect the main bright stars in the constellation with imaginary lines, imagine them as images of animals or characters, and give them appropriate names in combination with fairy tales. This is the origin of the constellation name. Most of the 48 constellations in Greek mythology live in the northern sky and north and south of the equator.

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