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.
 


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