Constellation Cygnus: a schematic. History of the constellation Cygnus. When is it better to observe constellations

If you look at a clear summer night in the sky, your head may spin with a huge number of stars. The immense space of space above our heads has long attracted to itself, beckoning with its secrets. For convenience, all the many stars are divided into constellations. When it is better to observe each of them, it depends on its location. If we rise from the Earth into space, it will be impossible to meet there something resembling a heavenly figure familiar to us from childhood. The objects constituting the constellations, as it were, scatter and cease to form a single whole. All because any constellation is a projection of a section of the sky on which all cosmic bodies are placed, located here from the point of view of the observer. In reality, the distance between them can be thousands of light years.

One of the most famous heavenly drawings is the constellation Cygnus. The scheme of the flying bird includes about 150 stars, several of which are among the brightest objects visible from the Earth. Thanks to them, the constellation Cygnus is quite easy to find in the sky.

Observation

Many amateur astronomers from childhood know what the constellation Cygnus looks like. The stars that make up it are lined up in a cross-shaped figure resembling a large bird with an extended neck and wide wings. The silhouette gives an unambiguous answer to the question, why the constellation of Cygnus is so called.

The ideal time for his observation is in the summer. However, the swan is noticeable throughout the year. To learn it most easily on many known asterism (a characteristic group of bright stars) "Summer Triangle". Part of it is a star in the constellation Cygnus called Deneb. Its other two peaks are Vega and Altair, one of the brightest points of the night sky. The constellation Cygnus for children and their parents, fond of astronomy, is attractive also because it stretched along the Milky Way.

History

The sky map known to us today was not always that. Partly because the stars change over time. This is especially noticeable in the case of the nearest cosmic bodies. For example, at the site of the Polar Star, once a long time ago, more than 17 thousand years ago, there was the above-mentioned Deneb.

Another reason for the discrepancy between the celestial maps of the present and the past is the unification of different stars into groups. One of the first descriptions of the constellations is attributed to 275 BC. E. It was created by the Greek poet Arat. This work was then, after four centuries, revised by Ptolemy. His "Almagest" contains a list of 48 constellations. One of them (Argo) was subsequently divided into three separate ones (Kiel, Korma, Sail, Compass), while the others retained their name so far.

Today, scientists sing out 88 constellations. The swan refers to the ancient ones mentioned in Ptolemy's list. True, at that time he was known as a Bird. The history of the constellation Cygnus includes the mention in the writings of the astronomer Eudoxus of Cnidus, dating from the fourth century BC. The names of the luminaries in the Swan are reminiscent of the period when most of the sciences, including astronomy, developed in the East, in the Arab countries.

Star Bridge

The brightest star of the constellation Cygnus is Deneb, or Alpha Cygnus. In Arabic, its name means "tail". The designation is quite consistent with its location. Deneb is adorned by the constellation Cygnus (shown below) in the part where the tail of the bird is located. The object belongs to white supergiants. The comprehension of the star is well recognized if we compare it with our luminary. So, the mass of Deneb is twenty solar. The distance from the Earth to Deneb, according to various estimates, is from 1.55 to 2.6 thousand light years. At the same time, it is clearly visible in the sky, since its luminosity is more than 270 thousand times solar.

As already mentioned, Deneb enters the Summer Triangle. A beautiful Chinese legend is associated with the stars in its tops, in which Deneb appears as a bridge between the lovers represented in the sky by Vega and Altair. According to legend, it occurs once a year. This night, lovers can spend together. Then they will again have to part for another year.

Crown

Opposite to Deneb the point of the constellation Cygnus is Albireo (Beta Cygnus). It crowns the bird's head. In order to understand how the constellation Cygnus looks and where it is located, it is enough to find these two bright points. Albireo, like Deneb, can be seen with the naked eye. Those who decide to study it with a telescope will discover an even more interesting picture. Albireo is a system of two stars. The largest of them, Albireo A, is the orange giant. His companion is a blue star belonging to the Main sequence, Albireo B. The name of the star from Arabic is translated as "the beak of a hen".

Gamma and Swan delta

The central point of the constellation is Sadr, which means "chest". This is the second brightest star. Sadr (Gamma Cygnus) is a supergiant belonging to the spectral class F8, with a period of pulsation of 74 days. By mass, it is 12 times greater than the Sun.

Following Sadr on luminosity is the Swan Delta. It is a double star system, located at a distance of 170 light years from Earth. To distinguish it is much more difficult than Albireo. Delta includes two stars, located fairly close, with a circulation period of 537 years. The first is a blue and white giant with a luminosity much higher than the solar one. His neighbor is a yellow and white star, less impressive in all respects.

Reference

Epsilon Cygnus or Janak - a significant point not only on the map of the starry sky, but also in astronomical calculations. It is 73 light years from Earth. In the translation Jenakh, or Hyenas, means "wing": the name gives an exhaustive description of its position in the constellation. It shines 62 times brighter than the Sun.

The special role of Jenakh in science lies in the fact that its spectrum is the standard for classifying other stars. In addition, it was on this space object that Neptune was discovered in 1846.

The Northern Cross

The constellation Cygnus for children and adults is known for another asterism, called the Northern Cross. It is formed by the five stars described. At the base is Albireo, the top is denoted by Deneb, in the center of asterism is Sadr, and on the sides - Jenakh and the Swan Delta. These are the brightest points that make up the Swan. Constellation (the photo well gives it to understand) can not boast of a bright glow of its other elements. Of course, five stars do not exhaust the interesting objects of a celestial bird. However, it is the Northern Cross that makes the Swan constellation so noticeable. How to find it, usually do not even think: asterism is known to almost everyone.

Another "population"

Another interesting object of the constellation is 61 Cygnus, a double star system. It consists of two orange dwarfs. Like Albireo, the system is visible from Earth and is available for study. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that 61 Cygni belongs to the number of stars closest to the Sun (the distance from our luminary is 11.36 light-years). In addition, it has a significant own motion and belongs to a small number of similar objects visible from the Earth. 61 Swan is famous due to the opinion in the astronomy of the middle of the last century that it has a planetary system. The new data obtained since then do not support the hypothesis, but the star continues to be the focus of many scientists.

Another object of great interest is the black hole Cygnus X-1, located near 61 Cygnus. This is the brightest source of X-ray radiation in the constellation. Swan X-1 is identified with two objects: one of them is a bright blue star, the other is its companion, inaccessible for observation. Radiation arises from the flow of matter of a blue star into a black hole. In the process of moving it warms up to enormous temperatures, and some of it is thrown out into space in the form of two jets directed at different sides from the object. The status of the black hole Cygnus X-1 received in the 70 years of the last century.

Nebulae

The stars are not the only objects entering the constellation Cygnus. Its scheme also includes a dark area, called the "Northern Coal Bag". This is an interstellar cloud of dust and gas that is quite close to our Galaxy. There is also a number of nebulae. The complex of space objects, referred to as the Veil or the Network (NGC 6960 and NGC 6992), is the consequences of a supernova explosion that took place 40,000 years ago. On the western edge of the Veil lies the Witch's Broom Nebula, striking with its beauty in pictures taken with the help of telescopes.

The brightest star in the constellation Cygnus, Deneb, boasts a neighborhood with two nebulae: North America (NGC 7000) and Pelican (IC 5070). The first shape very much resembles the eponymous continent. Together with the Pelican Nebula, they stretch for 50 light years. From the Earth, they can be viewed with the naked eye, provided that the observer will be in a place remote from the city and any other artificial lighting. They are presented in the form of a small vague spot in the northeast of the brightest star that the Swan possesses. Constellation, a photo of which, together with all the nebulae will be very interesting to consider absolutely everything, is famous not only for its bright stars and other neighboring space objects. Thus, the image of a noble bird and the history of the appearance of the constellation are reflected in ancient mythology.

Orpheus and lyre

Swan - the hero of many legends and legends. As in our, and in foreign culture, this bird was a symbol of beauty, purity of soul, art. Some myths also tell how the constellation Cygnus appeared in the sky. The legend, for children given in the history textbooks for secondary school, is associated with the ancient Greek singer Orpheus. According to her, having gone back from the realm of the dead to beloved Eurydice, he violated the prohibition to turn around on the way back and forever lost the opportunity to reunite with his beloved. Saddened, he wandered around the world for several years, remaining faithful to Eurydice and not letting other girls in, for which he was regarded as a misogynist. Once, on the bank of the river Gerb, he met a group of Bacchantes, admirers of Dionysus. Upon learning of Orpheus, they burned with anger and tore him to pieces, throwing out the lyre of the singer and his head into the water. The gods of Olympus did not remain indifferent to the hero, who admired their talent. According to one version of the myth, the soul of Orpheus and his lyre were carried up to heaven. Thus appeared the constellations Lyra and Swan, located next to each other.

Phaeton

There are several more myths explaining why today we can consider the constellation Cygnus. The legend tells of the son of Helios, the sun god, Phaeton. Mortal, he wanted to prove his origins and begged his father to let him ride on a chariot of sunlight across the sky. Helios agreed. The proud Phaethon failed to cope with the hot horses and fell out of the chariot into the river. On the ground of his remains, Kikn, a devoted friend, was looking for a long time. The gods, seeing how sad he was, turned him into a swan. In this guise, he lived by the water. Wanting to perpetuate disinterested friendship, Zeus placed in the sky constellation Cygnus. The legend, in the center of which is a hero named Kikn, is found in other variations. His name means "swan" in Greek.

Variants of the origin and death of Kikna

The hero, later turned into a noble bird, in different myths was the son of one or another god. Born of Apollo, Kikn drowned in a lake, which was later called Kiknee. As the son of Poseidon and Kaliki, he meets in the pages of legends about the Trojan War. According to legend, he was killed by Achilles, and his father turned Kikna into a swan. The third version tells that his parents were Ares, the god of war, and Pelopia. The legend tells of Kikna's excellent ability to control the chariot. He liked to invite all guests who visited the house to the competition. Victory invariably remained behind Kiknom until his opponent became Hercules. He surpassed Ares' son and wounded the god of war himself. Zeus had to intervene in the situation. As a result, Kikn was turned into a swan.

The Crucifixion

Later epochs filled with their meaning the constellation Cygnus. His scheme on maps of the XVII century and later was often replaced by the image of the crucified Christ. Not the least role in this identification was played by the North Cross, a well-marked asterism from the Earth. Correlation with the crucifixion was also found in earlier documents. In the treatise of St. Gregory of Tours, dated 592, the description of the Great Cross is given, indicating its relationship to the constellation Cygnus. According to the saint, he was located between the letters alpha and omega, "written" by the stars of Dolphin and Lyra, respectively. Such symbols were correlated with the quotation from the revelation of John, in which the risen Christ calls himself Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

It is interesting that the image of the crucifix again sends us to Orpheus. According to some scholars, the Romans at the dawn of a new faith borrowed the symbol of the crucified god from the Gentiles, who portrayed Orpheus. This assumption is again connected by a single thread, the constellation Cygnus, the myth of the singer and the biblical legend.

Starry space, striking in its beauty and invariably attracting not only the views, but also the thoughts of people, in ancient times made the wisest to seek an explanation for all this splendor. The constellation Cygnus is a vivid example of how the need to comprehend the unattainable space with the help of artistic means was expressed in poetry and legends. Perhaps, if the ancient views had not been laid down in legends and myths, we would not have known about them and half of what is known today.

Modern people are also not deprived of the desire to understand what is behind the many bright points of the night sky. For strict scientific calculations, one can see the dream of comprehending the mystery of the cosmos, of knowing its laws and intuitive understanding of the impossibility to place all its unreachiness in the human mind. The images of the Hubble telescope and its "colleagues" clearly show how close to the truth were the ancient poets in the understanding of the beauty that stretched above our heads. Looking at photos, it's easy to believe that among the sparkling splendor of stars and nebulae, no gods would disdain to live.