BAS Observer December 2017

8 BAS OBSERVER Meridian constellations Only one region of sky selected this month is actually a true constellation: Taurus (the Bull). The other is actually a small galaxy just 160 000 light-years from our Milky Way: the Large Magellanic Cloud. Taurus is another constellation defined by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in around 100 ad , but it can also be traced back to a string of earlier astronomers many centuries – if not thousands – of years prior. The Large Magellanic Cloud, located in the constellation Toucana, has been known to Southern Hemisphere astronomers for æons, but was largely unknown to Northern Hemisphere astronomers until the Age of Discovery and the sailing ventures that headed south of the Equator. Taurus Taurus is easily recognised by its V-shaped alignment of stars and the bright-orange star Aldebaran which marks the eye of the Bull. The two most notable objects in Taurus are the bright cluster of stars to the west (the Pleiades or Seven Sisters) and the much fainter Crab Nebula north-east of Aldebaran near where the right horn of the bull might lie. The Large Magellanic Cloud The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is easily visible as a misty-white patch in a dark southern sky at this time of year. While there are dozens of star clusters and small, bright, star-birth nebulae scattered across the galaxy, the telescope is always drawn to that huge, bright knot of glowing gas, the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070). Initially thought by astronomers to be just a single bright star, in 1751 Nicholas Louis de Lacaille was the first to recognise it was actually a bright nebula and initially named it the Great Looped Nebula – which is actually what it looks like. But there is also much more to the LMC, and it can take a few hours to locate and view all it has to offer observers. EQUULEUS Taurus Large Magellanic Cloud TAURUS THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD