Looking at the dark horizon and fantasizing, even thousands of years ago, people recognized the silhouettes of animals in the stars and gave them names. The Unicorn constellation is considered "young", located in the southern hemisphere. It contains 146 stars and covers an area in the sky of 481.6 square degrees. Located in the Milky Way. The location of the constellation is located inside the winter triangle formed by the stars of Betelgeuse, Procyon and Sirius, by which it can be found.
A unicorn is
a constellation through which the line of the celestial equator runs, and it is one of fifteen similar to it.
Search in the sky
It is easy enough to detect the Unicorn constellation in the sky, its pale stars are best viewed on a bright moonless night, far from sources of strong light. The “Neighbors” of the Unicorn are considered one of the most beautiful constellations of the entire sky. From the east and south, the Unicorn borders on Small and Big Dogs. Their bright stars Sirius and Procyon are difficult to confuse with any others. In the north, these are Gemini - Pollux and Castor. In the west, Orion with its bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel.
Many are interested in the question, when is it better to observe the constellation of the Unicorn? It is perfectly visible in most of Russia. The optimal conditions for observations are in February.
Legend
Characteristic figures formed in the sky by bright stars were called constellations in ancient times. Beautiful legends were associated with their birth. One of the most interesting is the constellation Unicorn. Legend has it that the mythical one-horned stallion is devoted and fearless.
The Chukchi people have a legend about a hunter who found a sick deer in the forest. Hunter's daughter looked after him and healed. He grew up a strong and healthy deer. Soon the trouble came to the hunter's house: his daughter became very ill, and the hope to save the girl was extinguished every minute. Then the deer rushed into the chasm gaping cold from a high cliff, and at the same moment a new constellation caught fire in the sky. Today it is called the Unicorn, consisting of bright stars. These stars merged into one, a bright beam blinding with its radiance, which was aimed at the hunter's house. Thanks to this, the hunter’s daughter recovered, and in the sky, as the legend says, that very night the constellation of the Unicorn appeared - the image of a devoted deer.
Constellation discovery
The constellation Unicorn was discovered in the 17th century by the Dutchman Peter Plantsius. But astronomer Jacob Barchius first published a picture of the constellation Unicorn in 1624 (borrowed from the atlas of Peter Planzius). The Polish astronomer Jan Havelius proposed the name Monoceros, as it was originally called the constellation Unicornio. He gave the constellation this name due to the fact that the mythical animal appeared in the Bible more than once. The Unicorn constellation (photo provided below) on ancient star maps and looks quite curious.
Constellation objects
The Unicorn constellation is an attractively bright Alpha star with a stellar apparent magnitude of 3.93. From the constellation to Earth, the distance is 144 light years. In second place is the Gamma star, whose magnitude is 3.98. A star called Beta combines three objects arranged in a fixed triangle. According to German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel, who was the first to discover the star system, this is one of the most beautiful and interesting systems.
Let's look at the next star in the constellation Unicorn. Epsilon is a paired star that changes color depending on the time of observation from purple to gold. The color of the largest star is white-blue, and its companion is yellow. Without a telescope, a double star cannot be seen.
Plaschetta is also a binary star, a hundred times larger than the Sun and can also be seen through a telescope. This is the most famous system in science, it is a pair of huge giant stars that rotate at a great distance from each other. The distance from them to the Sun is about 5000 light years.
Other objects were discovered in the constellation Unicorn
The Rosette Nebula is one of the popular emission nebulae in the sky - NGC2237. The distance to the cluster is approximately 5200 light years. It is a region of ionized hydrogen in which star formation processes occur. The apparent stellar magnitude of the cluster is 4.8 m.
In NGC2264, there are clusters of interesting stars - Snowflake and Christmas Tree. There are also Fox Fur and Cone nebulae located at a distance of about 2600 light years from us.
The Christmas Tree is a nebula that looks like a cone of great length, in structure it is a dust cloud. In shape, it is a cluster of about 40 stars and looks like a Christmas tree. Young stars in a cloud of dense dust in the Snezhinka cluster are located in the form of a beautiful crystalline structure.
Fox Fur is a nebula painted bright red. Something like a fur cape. There are some areas with gas and dust.
Star clusters
In the center of NGC2264 is the star S, which forms a multi-star system with a dwarf in white and blue . Contains several dim space objects. It consists of a paired star with a huge mass and a primary component.
Monsieur 50 (NGC2323) - is a star cluster. And its shape resembles a human heart. It is located at a distance of about 3000 light years from us.
Endless space has long been of great interest to man. The main object of research and observation was and remains the stars as the brightest and most mysterious formations.