Cytosol

History

In the Greek Mythology, Sagittarius would represent the Centaure Pholos, although certain sources rather associate it with Crotos or even with Chiron (itself associated with the constellation of the Centaure); it would be aiming at the Scorpion with its arc.

Presentation

; Situation of the constellation Sagittarius with is crossed several alignments.

It belongs to an immense alignment which makes the turn of the sphere, and which is an axis of major location of the vault of heaven. On the basis of the arc and the head (σ Sgr) of the Sagittarius, it goes up towards north by the head of the Capricorne (β Cape), along the axis of the Verseau, to reach the diagonal of the Grand square of PEGASE. From there it passes along the diagonal of Andromède, then by Algol, Capella, Castor and Pollux, Alphard (Hydre, the end of the Voiles then Acrux and Alpha Centauri, Shaula (λ Scorpii), and finally reboucle on Sagittarius.

It belongs to another great alignment which starts from Arcturus of the Bouvier, passes by the Tête of the snake and the bottom of the Serpentaire, passes by Kaus Borealis (λ Sgr) and the “neck” of Sagittarius, Nunki (σ Sgr), and towards Fomalhaut southern Poisson is prolonged, then goes up towards Cetus.

When the Scorpion is visible, Sagittarius is located easily, by its form. It is located in the axis of the two “eyes of the cat” of the tail of the Scorpion.

; Form constellation. The constellation is easily recognizable by a Astérisme with the shape of teapot. The most brilliant star of the constellation is Kaus Australis (ε Sgr), at the southern base of the arc of Sagittarius. With 10° more in the North-East Nunki is detached (σ Sgr), which marks its neck. These two stars form the diagonal of a quadrilateral, which come to supplement Kaus Medius (δ Sgr) in the North-West, and Ascella (ζ Sgr) in South-east. This quadrilateral marks the body of the teapot. Behind stops Is σ - ζ, a weaker star, τ Sgr marks the round-off of the handle. Other side, γ form the point of the nozzle; and with the top on the Northern side, λ Sgr marks the point of the lid.

The arc of Sagittarius is made of Kaus Borealis (λ), Kaus Medius (δ) and Kaus Australis (ε) ( Kaus meaning Arab arc in ).

The Milky Way is densest at the place where it crosses Sagittarius; it is as there as its center is. Consequently, Sagittarius contains a good number of brilliant stars, stellar Amas S, and of Nébuleuse S.

Principal stars

Kaus Australis (ε Sgr)

Kaus Australis (ε Sgr), the most brilliant star of the constellation, reached the Magnitude connects 1,79 (36 {{E}} of the sky). Distant of 145 light-years, it is a blue giantess, several hundreds of times more luminous than the Sun.

It is a star doubles: his/her companion is very low magnitude.

Other stars

Nunki (σ Sgr) is the second star of the constellation.

The designations of Bayer of Sagittarius do not follow at all the order of brightness of stars.

Celestial objects

One of the most brilliant clusters of Sagittarius is M55, with approximately 7,5° in the west of δ Sgr.

The constellation contains also Nébuleuse S as the nebulous of the lagoon (M8) close to λ Sgr which is very beautiful sight with the Télescope, the nebulous of the swan (M17) and the Nébuleuse Trifide, a great nebula containing some young very hot stars.

Sagittarius has, the complex radio source associated with the center of the galaxy is also here. The astronomers think that Sagittarius has could contain a supermassif Black hole.

See too

List of stars of Sagittarius

Zh-yue: 人馬座

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