Taurus is one the 12 signs of the zodiac. Taurus is also known as ‘Bull’ across numerous ancient Civilization including the Mesopotamians, Egyptians and of course Greeks. It is an ancient constellation dating back to Bronze Age, where it marked the location of the sun during the spring equinox. Painting of the Taurus Constellation have been found in cave dating back to 15,000 BC.
Taurus is the northern hemisphere constellation. Its Genitive is ‘Tauri’ and Abbreviation is ‘Tau’. It is one of the largest Constellation. It is 17th in size ranking having area of 797 Square Degrees and captures 1.932% of the sky. Taurus has a right ascension of 4.9 Hours and declination of 19 Degrees. Taurus constellation host two famous open cluster named as Pleiades and Hyades.
Myths
In Greek Mythology, Europa was Phoenician princess. Taurus was identified with Zeus. Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek. Zeus tries to gain the favour of Europa, by assuming the form of white Bull to kidnap her and carry Europa to sea. In illustrations, only front portion of the bull is depicted. This may be explained as Taurus partly submerged underwater.
In second Greek myth, Taurus is portrayed as IO, the girlfriend of Zeus. Zeus changed IO in the form of Heifer, to hide his girlfriend from his wife.
Greek mythographer Acusilaus marks the bull Taurus as the same that formed the myth of the Cretan Bull, one of The Twelve Labors of Heracles.
How to detect
Taurus is the winter constellation. We can see Taurus in December and January. One can find Taurus by its V shaped horns. Due to its unique shape we can easily spot it. Taurus is placed at the upper part of Orion shield. If you follow the line of the three stars of Orion’s belt up and to the right of the Orion through his shield, you will find taurus. So, one can spot taurus by just looking at the Orion constellation. Aldebaran is the brightest star in Taurus constellation and 14th brightest star in the sky. One can find Aldebaran to detect the Taurus constellation.
Taurus as signpost
Major stars
Aldebaran
It is also known as Alpha Tauri. The name Aldebaran comes from Arabic al-dabaran which means “The Follower”. Aldebaran appears to follow the Pleiades cluster, the “Seven Sisters”. From this, the star got this name. It marks the famous V shape of the bull’s head. Aldebaran is usually depicted as the eye of the bull although it is a somewhat bloodshot eye being orange or reddish orange when close to the horizon. It is the brightest stars in constellation having appearing magnitude varying from 0.75 to 0.95. Aldebaran is the orange giant and has K5III classification. The star lies 65 light years from earth. The diameter of Aldebaran is 61.402 million km which is 44 times more than sun also he is 425 times more luminous than sun.
Elnath
Elnath is also known as Beta Tauri. The name Elnath derived from Arabic word an-nath, which means “The Butting Horn” referring to Bull’s horns. It is the 2nd brightest star in the constellation and it has magnitude of 1.85. Elnath is the giant star with stellar classification B7III. It is blue-white giant star. It has diameter of 5.84 million Km, and it is 700 times more luminous than sun.
Alcyone
Alcyone is also known as Eta Tauri. It is the 3rd brightest star in the constellation and brightest member of Pleiades star cluster. It is the binary star system. The main star in the system is blue-white giant. Alcyone is belong to the spectral class B7III with magnitude of 2.87. it is 440 light years from the earth.
Deep sky object
• Crab nebula – Messier 1
It is the first astronomical object to be entered in messier catalogue in 1758. Messier 1 is the supernova remnants in Taurus. It was first deep sky object that was linked to a historical supernova event. The crab nebula has apparent magnitude of 8.4 and it is located 6500 light years from sun. In the centre of the crab nebula the neutron star is present, which is known as crab pulsar.
• The Pleiades – Messier 45
The Pleiades is the open star cluster in taurus. It is also known as “seven sisters”. It is one of the famous clusters in the sky and easy to spot due to its brightness. The cluster appears as a tiny group of blue-white stars. Pleiades has apparent magnitude of 1.6. The Pleiades look beautiful through binoculars, showing hundreds of stars.
• The Hyades Cluster
This is another open cluster. The Hyades cluster has a catalogue designation of Caldwell 41, Melotte 25 and Collinder 50. The Hyades cluster is most studied one and nearest open cluster. It is located about 153 light years away from the sun and it has apparent magnitude of 0.5. The age of this open cluster is estimated to be about 625 million years. Although Aldebaran appears at the edge of the Hyades, it’s not actually a member of the group as the cluster is about 90 light years further away.
• NGC 1410 and NGC 1409
These are the colliding galaxies in the taurus. The pair has apparent magnitude of 15.4 and 300 light years distance from the sun. Both the galaxies are connected through the funnel of gas. The galaxies are gravitationally connected and will merge into one.