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Arcturus
, - bgcolor="#FFFAFA" , Note (category: variability): , , H and K emission vary. Arcturus is a red giant star in the Northern celestial hemisphere, northern constellation of Boötes, and the brightest star in the constellation. It has the Bayer designation α Boötis, which is Latinisation of names, Latinized to Alpha Boötis and abbreviated Alf Boo or α Boo. With an apparent visual magnitude of −0.05, it is the List of brightest stars, fourth-brightest star in the night sky and the brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere. Arcturus forms one corner of the Spring Triangle Asterism (astronomy), asterism. Located relatively close at 36.7 light-years from the Sun, Arcturus is a red giant of Stellar classification, spectral type K1.5III—an aging star around 7.1 billion years old that has used up its Stellar core, core hydrogen and stellar evolution, evolved off the main sequence. It is about the same mass Solar mass, as the Sun, but has expanded to 25 times Sol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boötes
Boötes ( ) is a constellation in the northern sky, located between 0° and +60° declination, and 13 and 16 hours of right ascension on the celestial sphere. The name comes from , which comes from 'herder, herdsman' or 'plowman' (literally, 'ox-driver'; from ''boûs'' 'cow'). One of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, Boötes is now one of the 88 modern constellations. It contains the List of brightest stars, fourth-brightest star in the night sky, the orange giant Arcturus. Epsilon Boötis, or Izar, is a colourful multiple star popular with amateur astronomers. Boötes is home to many other bright stars, including eight above the fourth magnitude and an additional 21 above the fifth magnitude, making a total of 29 stars easily visible to the naked eye. History and mythology In ancient Babylon, the stars of Boötes were known as SHU.PA. They were apparently depicted as the god Enlil, who was the leader of the Babylonian religion, Babyloni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spring Triangle
The Spring Triangle is an asterism_(astronomy), astronomical asterism involving an imaginary triangle drawn upon the celestial sphere, with its defining vertices at Arcturus, Spica, and Regulus. This triangle connects the constellations of Boötes, Virgo (constellation), Virgo, and Leo (constellation), Leo. It is visible in the evening rising in the southeastern sky of the northern hemisphere, Northern Hemisphere between March and May and setting until August, while at morning rising and setting from November to the end of February. George Lovi of Sky & Telescope magazine had a slightly different Spring Triangle, including the tail of Leo, with Denebola replacing Regulus. Although Denebola is dimmer, this triangle is more nearly equilateral. These stars, together with Cor Caroli, form parts of a larger spring asterism called the Great Diamond. The stars of the Spring Triangle Arcturus (α Boötes) Arcturus is a giant orange star in the constellation Boötes. Located only 37 l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apparent Visual Magnitude
Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star, astronomical object or other celestial objects like artificial satellites. Its value depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance, and any extinction of the object's light caused by interstellar dust along the line of sight to the observer. Unless stated otherwise, the word ''magnitude'' in astronomy usually refers to a celestial object's apparent magnitude. The magnitude scale likely dates to before the ancient Roman astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, whose star catalog popularized the system by listing stars from 1st magnitude (brightest) to 6th magnitude (dimmest). The modern scale was mathematically defined to closely match this historical system by Norman Pogson in 1856. The scale is reverse logarithmic: the brighter an object is, the lower its magnitude number. A difference of 1.0 in magnitude corresponds to the brightness ratio of \sqrt /math>, or about 2.512. For example, a magnitude 2.0 star is 2. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asterism (astronomy)
An asterism is an observational astronomy, observed pattern or group of stars in the sky. Asterisms can be any identified star pattern, and therefore are a more general concept than the IAU designated constellations, 88 formally defined constellations. Constellations are based upon asterisms, but unlike asterisms, constellations are defined regions with official boundaries which together encompass the entire sky. Asterisms range from simple shapes of just a few stars to more complex collections of many stars covering large portions of the sky. The stars themselves may be bright naked-eye objects or fainter, even telescopic, but they are generally all of a similar brightness to each other. The larger brighter asterisms are useful for people who are familiarizing themselves with the night sky. The patterns of stars seen in asterisms are not necessarily a product of any physical association between the stars, but are rather the result of the particular perspectives of their observ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Giant
A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses ()) in a late phase of stellar evolution. The stellar atmosphere, outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large and the surface temperature around or lower. The appearance of the red giant is from yellow-white to reddish-orange, including the stellar classification, spectral types K and M, sometimes G, but also S-type star, class S stars and most carbon stars. Red giants vary in the way by which they generate energy: * most common red giants are stars on the red-giant branch (RGB) that are still stellar nucleosynthesis, fusing hydrogen into helium in a shell surrounding an inert helium core * red-clump stars in the cool half of the horizontal branch, fusing helium into carbon in their cores via the triple-alpha process * asymptotic-giant-branch (AGB) stars with a helium burning shell outside a degenerate carbon–oxygen core, and a hydrogen-burning shell just beyo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stellar Classification
In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction grating into a spectrum exhibiting the Continuum (spectrum), rainbow of colors interspersed with spectral lines. Each line indicates a particular chemical element or molecule, with the line strength indicating the abundance of that element. The strengths of the different spectral lines vary mainly due to the temperature of the photosphere, although in some cases there are true abundance differences. The ''spectral class'' of a star is a short code primarily summarizing the ionization state, giving an objective measure of the photosphere's temperature. Most stars are currently classified under the Morgan–Keenan (MK) system using the letters ''O'', ''B'', ''A'', ''F'', ''G'', ''K'', and ''M'', a sequence from the hottest (''O'' type) to the cool ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Treatise On The Astrolabe
''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' is a medieval instruction manual on the astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer. It was completed in 1391. It describes both the form and the proper use of the instrument, and stands out as a prose technical work from a writer better known for poetry, written in English rather than the more typical Latin. Significance The ''Treatise'' is considered the "oldest work in English written upon an elaborate scientific instrument". It is admired for its clarity in explaining difficult concepts – although modern readers lacking an actual astrolabe may find the details of the astrolabe difficult to understand. Robinson believes that it indicates that had Chaucer written more freely composed prose it would have been superior to his translations of Boethius and Renaut de Louhans. Chaucer’s exact source is undetermined but most of his ‘conclusions’ go back, directly or indirectly, to ''Compositio et Operatio Astrolabii'', a Latin translation of Messahala ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Celestial Hemisphere
The northern celestial hemisphere, also called the Northern Sky, is the Northern Hemisphere, northern half of the celestial sphere; that is, it lies north of the celestial equator. This arbitrary sphere diurnal motion, appears to rotate westward around a celestial pole, polar axis due to Earth's rotation. At any given time, the entire Northern Sky is visible from the geographic North Pole, while less of the hemisphere is visible the latitude, further south the observer is located. The southern counterpart is the southern celestial hemisphere. Astronomy In the context of astronomical discussions or writing about celestial cartography, the northern celestial hemisphere may be referred to as the Northern Hemisphere. For star chart, celestial mapping, astronomers may conceive the sky like the inside of a sphere divided into two halves by the celestial equator. The Northern Sky or Northern Hemisphere is therefore the half of the celestial sphere that is north of the celestial equato ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Radius
Solar radius is a unit of distance used to express the size of objects in astronomy relative to the Sun. The solar radius is usually defined as the radius to the layer in the Sun's photosphere where the optical depth equals 2/3: 1\,R_ = 6.957\times 10^8 \hbox is approximately 10 times the average radius of Jupiter, 109 times the radius of the Earth, and 1/215 of an astronomical unit, the approximate distance between Earth and the Sun. The solar radius to either pole and that to the equator differ slightly due to the Sun's rotation, which induces an oblateness in the order of 10 parts per million. Measurements The uncrewed SOHO spacecraft was used to measure the radius of the Sun by timing transits of Mercury across the surface during 2003 and 2006. The result was a measured radius of . Haberreiter, Schmutz & Kosovichev (2008) determined the radius corresponding to the solar photosphere to be . This new value is consistent with helioseismic estimates; the same study sho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Celestial Hemisphere
The northern celestial hemisphere, also called the Northern Sky, is the Northern Hemisphere, northern half of the celestial sphere; that is, it lies north of the celestial equator. This arbitrary sphere diurnal motion, appears to rotate westward around a celestial pole, polar axis due to Earth's rotation. At any given time, the entire Northern Sky is visible from the geographic North Pole, while less of the hemisphere is visible the latitude, further south the observer is located. The southern counterpart is the southern celestial hemisphere. Astronomy In the context of astronomical discussions or writing about celestial cartography, the northern celestial hemisphere may be referred to as the Northern Hemisphere. For star chart, celestial mapping, astronomers may conceive the sky like the inside of a sphere divided into two halves by the celestial equator. The Northern Sky or Northern Hemisphere is therefore the half of the celestial sphere that is north of the celestial equato ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
J Band (infrared)
In infrared astronomy, the J band refers to an infrared window, atmospheric transmission window (1.1 to 1.4 μm) centred on 1.25 micrometres (in the near-infrared). Betelgeuse is the brightest near-IR source in the sky with a J band Magnitude (astronomy), magnitude of −2.99. The next brightest stars in the J band are Antares (−2.7), R Doradus (−2.6), Arcturus (−2.2), and Aldebaran (−2.1). In the J band Sirius is the 9th brightest star. The J band is a frequent source of ground based observations since the wavelengths it covers pass through clouds and other atmospheric gasses. The waveband does however suffer from contamination by water vapor lines and hydroxide emission lines leading to relatively high photometric error. It can be used to scrutinize the photosphere of Giant star, giant and supergiant stars while mostly avoiding opacities from molecular bands and also has access to the 1080 nm He I line which is useful in the study of Circumstellar disc, circums ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellations were likely defined in prehistory. People used them to relate stories of their beliefs, experiences, creation myth, creation, and mythology. Different cultures and countries invented their own constellations, some of which lasted into the early 20th century before today's constellations were internationally recognized. The recognition of constellations has changed significantly over time. Many changed in size or shape. Some became popular, only to drop into obscurity. Some were limited to a single culture or nation. Naming constellations also helped astronomers and navigators identify stars more easily. Twelve (or thirteen) ancient constellations belong to the zodiac (straddling the ecliptic, which the Sun, Moon, and planets all traver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
