TAURUS
The Bull
(Tau)

Generalities: it is a beautiful bright constellation of the zodiac, situated in the northern sky. It contains bright stars and interesting objects, among which the famous cluser of the Pleiades. The Sun crosses the Bull in the second half of May and in June, up to the summer solstice. The transit of this constellation at midnight takes place in December.
Origins and mythology: this constellation represents the Bull into which Jupiter was transformed to abduct Europe, the daughter of the Phoenician king, who was taken then to Crete by Zeus himself.
Stars: the brightest star of the Bull is the splendid Aldebaran, of orange color and magnitude 0.85, 13th star of the whole sky. Its name means the " pursuer ", because it seems to pursue the Pleiades in its motion on the celestial voult. The star beta, called El Nath, is moved northwards in the direction of the Auriga, the constellation it once belonged to. This star has magnitude 1.65 and white-blue color. The third star of the Bull for brightness is the brightest of the Pleiades, Alcyon, of magnitude 2.87 and white-blue color. Counting obviously also the stars belonging to the Pleiades, in the Bull other 13 stars under magnitude 4 are present.
Table of stars brighter than magnitude
3.5
| Star | Proper name | Magnitude | Spectrum | Colour | Distance (light-years) | Notes |
| Alpha | Aldebaran | 0.85 (variable) | K5 | orange | 68 | variable between 0.78 and 0.93 |
| Beta | El Nath | 1.65 | B7 | blue-white | 130 | |
| Eta | Alcione | 2.87 | B7 | blue-white | 238 | It belongs to Pleiades |
| Zeta | Alheka | 3.00 | B2 | blue | 490 | |
| Lambda | 3.3 (variabile max) | B3 | blue | 326 | ||
| Theta 2 | 3.42 | A7 | white | 124 | It belongs to Hyades |
Other objects:
in the Bull there are different interesting objects. The most beautiful
is obviously M45, the cluster of the Pleiades, a group of young stars ell
visible with a naked eye, about 450 light-years far. The Pleiades
are stars born from the same primordial nebula between 20 and 30
million of years ago. With a naked eye it is possible to count 6
or 7 of them, but observing with more and more powerful tools,
their number increases. With the greatest telescopes about 2,000 of them
have been identified. However,the vision of the Pleiades is exceptional
with simple binoculars, so it is really worth observing them. Another remarkable
cluster is the one of the Hyades, bright stars in the outskirts of
Aldebaran. The Hyades are much more scattered than the Pleiades, also because
of their small distance (130 light-years).
The last important object of the
Bull is the Crab Nebula , listed as M1, which is the residue of the explosion
of a supernova, which was noticed by the Chinese astronomers in 1054.