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A star chart is a celestial map of the night sky with astronomical objects laid out on a grid system. They are used to identify and locate constellations, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and planets. [1] They have been used for human navigation since time immemorial. [2]
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) designates 88 constellations. [1] In the table below, they are listed by geographical visibility according to latitude as seen from Earth, as well as the best months for viewing the constellations at 21:00 (9 p.m.).
The night sky is the nighttime appearance of celestial objects like stars, planets, and the Moon, which are visible in a clear sky between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon. Natural light sources in a night sky include moonlight , starlight , and airglow , depending on location and timing.
Centaurus (/ s ɛ n ˈ t ɔːr ə s,-ˈ t ɑːr-/) is a bright constellation in the southern sky.One of the largest constellations, Centaurus was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations.
The depictions of the constellations in Urania's Mirror are redrawings from those in Alexander Jamieson's A Celestial Atlas, published about three years earlier, and include unique attributes differing from Jamieson's sky atlas, including the new constellation of Noctua the owl, and Norma Nilotica – a measuring device for the Nile floods – held by Aquarius the water bearer.
The Great Rift covers one third of the Milky Way, and is flanked by strips of numerous stars, such as the Cygnus Star Cloud. [2] West of the Cepheus Clouds, the Funnel cloud/Le Gentil 3 and the bordering North America Nebula, the Great Rift starts with the Northern Coalsack at the constellation of Cygnus, where it is known as the Cygnus Rift. [3]
Vulpecula / v ʌ l ˈ p ɛ k j ʊ l ə / is a faint constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for "little fox", although it is commonly known simply as the fox.It was identified in the seventeenth century, and is located in the middle of the Summer Triangle (an asterism consisting of the bright stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair).
The familiar seven stars of the "Big Dipper", recorded by Ptolemy, are visible in the rump and tail, but notice they occur as a mirror-image of what we actually see because Al Sufi provided two images of each constellation, one as we see it in the night sky and one as seen here on a celestial globe.