Very beautiful and spectacular constellation Taurus has been known to people for a very long time, many centuries before the new era. It was found in the night sky by scientists in ancient Egypt and Babylon, associating it with the head of a bull. However, experts believe that only the astronomer and mathematician Eudoxus of Knidos, who lived in Ancient Greece, described it the very first. It enters the belt of the Zodiac and impresses with its beauty. For astronomers, the Taurus constellation is an extremely curious phenomenon, containing a lot of interesting things.
The name of the constellation came to us not from anywhere, but from Ancient Greece. One of its most interesting myths says that King Agenor once ruled in Phoenicia, who had three sons and a daughter, Europe. She was considered the most beautiful girl on earth and was second only to goddesses in charm. Once the beauty was noticed by Zeus the Thunderer. Turning into a snow-white bull, he kidnapped the lovely Europa and brought her to the island of Crete. The kidnapped princess eventually became the beloved of the deity and even gave him sons, one of whom was the legendary king Minos. The myth says that beautiful Europe had a very kind character, always helped people and loved them. In gratitude, subjectsnamed after her one part of the world.
One of the most remarkable objects are clusters of stars called the Hyades and Pleiades. The Pleiades, which are an open cluster, are sometimes also called seven sisters, because even ordinary people in a silvery cloud can clearly see six or even seven stars shining in the shape of a small bucket. There are about five hundred stars in the Pleiades, and they are all blue and shrouded in a blue nebula of dust and gas.
As for the Hyades, this scattered collection of stars is even closer to Earth, only some one hundred and thirty light years away, and consists of 132 luminaries. I must say that this is the closest cluster to the Sun. Well, on the very eastern edge of the cluster, a reddish star in the constellation Taurus Aldebaran or, as it is also called, the "ox's eye" shines, sometimes changing its brilliance.
This bright luminary has long attracted the eyes of people. Another very interesting object that the Taurus constellation is famous for is the so-called Crab Nebula. This name is due to the fact that the galactic nebula really does somewhat resemble the shell of a crab. This is a trace after a supernova explosion, which took place back in the 11th century. It must be said that there is mention of this event in the sources: Japanese and Chinese astronomers, like their European counterparts, observed and described the flash of an unusually bright star. This nebula is located right on the Milky Way, and from time to time it radiates with its pulsarelectromagnetic pulses.
Finding the Taurus constellation in the night sky is very easy, because there are excellent landmarks for this: the luminous Pleiades bucket and the reddish-orange Aldebaran. A little to the east of this star, the constellation Gemini shines, and beautiful Orion flickers to the south. Our luminary on May 11 comes to the constellation of Taurus, then the photos are very interesting. Well, it is best to observe this object at the end of autumn - in November and December.
