Details Oleg Nekhaev

Star the sky that you see on this map (below) displays the real position of the planets, bright stars and constellations at the moment. It is enough to make adjustments to the program settings and you will see everything on the screen, based on your location. How to set up a "starry sky"? How to see the most interesting things in space?

At the top left of the map there are two lines: date and time, below - coordinates. The first line automatically displays the time when you opened this page. Want to see what the sky will look like later? Enter the year, month, day and time to see how the stars are located in the sky at the desired period. Depending on the geographical point, there will be a different position of the stars and planets. To set the required coordinates, click on the second line. Enter latitude and longitude if you know them, or find them in the box below using the navigator. Write the name of the city (preferably in Latin), click Search. If he's lucky. Close the panel. If the "select" window appears, click on this column and select what you are looking for from the options. Close the window and check the new values.

To find out the coordinates, you can contact through the Yandex-map search. Enter the name of the area (settlement) and click "search". The coordinates of the location appear on the right. Write them down. For most locations, Wikipedia can help as well. Enter the name of the city in the search and in the right column you will see the necessary numbers. Attention! Enter data without symbols for degrees and minutes. After the whole number, put a period and add the rest of the numbers without division. Record latitude first. By default, the coordinates of the center of Moscow are set.

The star map is very convenient not only for preparing views through a telescope, but also for ordinary observations of space objects, without the use of technical means. You will always know: which planets shine in the sky or how the conspicuous star that you saw today is called, and what is the name of the constellation that appeared in the sky. You will be able to observe the passage of low-orbit satellites of the Iridium system. And it is very important to look at them at a certain point. These devices periodically emit surprisingly bright flashes. Reminiscent of the fall of notable meteorites. The brightness of this phenomenon is such that it is second only to the Sun and the Moon. Or you can predict the flight path of the International Space Station ahead of time. And you will wait for her appearance in a certain place in the starry sky. The station is broadcast live in Siberia. And to calculate the exact time of the visible flight of the ISS in your place, you can on our page on this LINK .

Small explanations. The starry sky on the diagram appears to us as if it were above our head. For its real perception, you need to make a mental rotation of the image. The cardinal points indicated in the diagram will help you to correctly represent. On the map, you can see them at the edges of the circle. You need to identify them in reality. Determine where the North is at your location using a compass or other means, for example, using GPS-Glonass navigation in programs on your smartphone or tablet. And then mentally place on them, based on the identified data, a map of the starry sky or rotate the tuned map with the cursor.

Notation. Lilac color the names of the constellations are marked on the map. White- the names of the brightest stars. Turquoise the outline shows the boundaries of the Milky Way. Arc Red reflects the ecliptic - the trajectory (projection) of the movement of the Sun. The planets of our star system also adhere to the same path. They are displayed orange color. Light green the points of the radiant of meteor showers are shown. During the periods of their activity, on any of the days, you can see the "star rain" emanating from this area. May you be lucky.

Do not forget that in the northern hemisphere, where the vast majority of visitors to our site are located, the most significant coordinate star is Polaris. It is easy to find it in the sky, if you take the famous constellation to help. Big Dipper(Ursa Major), or rather her Big Dipper. Its second star in the handle is highlighted on the map - Mizar. So, if you draw a line up through the last two stars of the ladle, then after five the same distances as between these stars, you will find Polar. She is the only one that is in one place, and everyone else, as it were, revolves around her. She also points to the North. Therefore, it has always been called a guide.
Other visible bright stars are not difficult to deal with. Some of the most notable ones ...

Deneb is one of the largest and is the most powerful star of all 25 brightest stars in the sky known to science. In one day, Deneb emits more light than our Sun in 140 years. A very distant star.

Sirius- by perception - the brightest star for us. Because it is located much closer to us than other stars, with the exception, of course, of the Sun. In fact, it is double. Moreover, it has significant mobility. After about 11 thousand years, Sirius will no longer be visible to those who live in Europe.

Arcturus. Orange giant. One of the brightest stars. All year round it can be seen from the territory of Russia. Arcturus became the first star to be seen through a telescope during the day. It happened more than three hundred years ago.

Vega. A young, rapidly rotating star. Best studied (apart from the Sun). The first one that was photographed with high quality. In addition to Antarctica, it can be seen from almost any other point in the world. Vega is one of the favorite "heroines" of science fiction writers.

Altair- a star close enough to us. It is located just 159 trillion kilometers away. Compare: the aforementioned Deneb is almost a hundred times farther from us.

Rigel Is a blue-white supergiant. More than seventy times the size of the sun. Located so far from us that the light we now see was emitted by the star 860 light years ago. Compare: the light from the Moon reaches us in one second at a distance of about 400 thousand kilometers. Rigel is a star of incredible power in its luminosity and monstrously distant. And, if somewhere out there, there is an observer, then he perceives it as his own sun. By the way, from that corner of the Universe, it is impossible to view our Sun even with the most powerful telescope, let alone the Earth on which we live ...

Pay attention! 1. Carefully read the instructions for displaying the sky map. Many people ask questions about the location of stars and planets, which they can get answers to themselves by entering the appropriate data in the map settings. 2. There are visible "parades of planets" and not visible (without the use of binoculars and telescopes). The latter happen quite often. The nearest visible parade of five planets from the territory of Russia will take place only in 2022. Do not believe the frequent reports of the "end of the world" and that the arrangement of the planets can affect the rotation of the Earth.

Clear sky and successful observations!

Astronomers and romantics aren't the only ones who love to gaze up at the sky. We all look up from time to time to the stars and admire their eternal beauty. That is why each of us, at least sometimes, is interested in which star in the sky is the brightest.

For the first time this question was asked by the Greek scientist Hipparchus, and he proposed his classification 22 centuries ago! He divided the stars into six groups, where the stars of the first magnitude are the brightest ones that he could observe, and the sixth ones are barely visible to the naked eye.

Needless to say, this is about relative brightness, and not about the actual ability to glow? Indeed, in addition to the amount of light produced, the brightness of a star observed from Earth is influenced by the distance from this star to the place of observation. It seems to us that the brightest star in the sky is the Sun, because it is closest to us. In fact, this is not a bright and very small star at all.

Now about the same system of distinguishing stars by brightness is used, only improved. Vega was taken as the starting point, and the brightness of the other stars is measured from its indicator. The brightest stars are negative.

So, we will consider exactly those stars that are recognized as the brightest according to the improved Hipparchus scale.

10 Betelgeuse (α Orion)

The red giant, whose mass is 17 times that of the sun, closes the top 10 of the brightest night stars.

This is one of the most mysterious stars in the Universe, because it is capable of changing its size, and its density remains unchanged. The color and brightness of the giant is different at different points.

Scientists expect an explosion of Betelgeuse in the future, however, given that the star is located at a huge distance from Earth (according to some scientists - 500, according to others - 640 light years), this should not affect us. However, for several months the star can be seen in the sky even during the day.

9 Achernar (α Eridani)

The favorite of science fiction writers, a blue star with a mass 8 times that of the Sun, looks very impressive and unusual. The Achernar star is flattened to resemble a rugby ball or a delicious torpedo melon, and the reason for this is the fantastic rotation speed of more than 300 km per second, approaching the so-called breakaway speed, at which centrifugal force becomes identical to gravity.

Around Achernar, one can observe a luminous envelope of stellar matter - this is plasma and hot gas, and Alpha Eridan's orbit is also very unusual. By the way, Achernar is a double star.

This star can only be observed in the Southern Hemisphere.

8 Procyon (α Lesser Dog)

One of the two "canine stars" is similar to Sirius in that it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Minor (and Sirius is the brightest star of Canis Major), and that it is also double.

Procyon A is a pale yellow star about the size of the Sun. It is gradually expanding, and in 10 million years it will become an orange or red giant. According to scientists, the process is already underway, as indicated by the unprecedented brightness of the star - it is more than 7 times brighter than the sun, although it is similar in magnitude and spectrum.

Procyon B - its companion, a dim white dwarf - is about the same distance from Procyon A as Uranus is from the Sun.

And here it was not without riddles. Ten years ago, a lengthy study of the star was undertaken using an orbiting telescope. Astronomers longed for confirmation of their hypotheses. However, the hypotheses were not confirmed, and now scientists are trying to explain what is happening on Procyon in some other way.

Continuing the "dog" theme - the name of the star means "in front of the dog"; this means that Procyon appears in the sky before Sirius.

7 Crossbar (β Orion)

In seventh place in terms of relative (observed by us) brightness is one of the most powerful stars in the Universe with an absolute magnitude of -7, that is, the brightest of the more or less nearby stars.

It is located at a distance of 870 light years, so that less bright, but closer stars seem brighter to us. Meanwhile, Rigel is 130 thousand times brighter than the Sun and 74 times larger in diameter!

The temperature on Rigel is so high that if something happened to be at the same distance from it as the Earth is relative to the Sun, this object would immediately turn into a stellar wind!

Rigel has two companion stars, almost invisible in the brightest glow of the blue-white supergiant.

6 Chapel (α Charioteer)

The Capella is the third brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere. Of the stars of the first magnitude (the famous North Star has only the second magnitude), the Capella is located closest to the North Pole.

This is also a double star, and the fainter of the pair is already becoming red, and the brighter is still white, although the hydrogen in its body has obviously already passed into helium, but has not yet ignited.

You will also be interested in 10 coldest places on Earth - interesting facts

The name of the star means the Goat, because the Greeks identified it with the goat Amalthea, who nurtured Zeus.

5 Vega (α Lyrae)

The brightest of the Sun's neighbors can be observed throughout the entire Northern Hemisphere and almost the entire Southern Hemisphere, except Antarctica.

Vega is loved by astronomers for being the second most studied star after the Sun. Although there is still a lot of mystery in this "most studied" star. What to do, the stars are in no hurry to reveal their secrets to us!

Vega's rotation speed is very high (it rotates 137 times faster than the Sun, almost as fast as Achernar), so the temperature of the star (and therefore its color) is different at the equator and at the poles. Now we see Vega from the pole, so it seems to us pale blue.

Around Vega is a large cloud of dust, the origin of which is controversial among scientists. The question of whether Vega has a planetary system is also debatable.

4 The brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere is Arcturus (α Bootes)

In fourth place is the brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere - Arcturus, which in Russia can be observed anywhere throughout the year. However, it is also visible in the Southern Hemisphere.

Arcturus is many times brighter than the Sun: if we take into account only the range perceived by the human eye, then more than a hundred times, if we take the intensity of the glow as a whole, then 180 times! It is an orange giant with an atypical spectrum. Someday our Sun will reach the same stage as Arcturus is now.

According to one of the versions, Arcturus and its neighboring stars (the so-called Stream of Arcturus) were once captured by the Milky Way. That is, all these stars are of extragalactic origin.

3 Toliman (α Centauri)

This is a double, more precisely, even a triple star, but we see two of them as one, and the third, dimmer, which is called Proxima, as if separately. However, in fact, all these stars are not very bright, but they are not far from us.

Since Toliman is somewhat similar to the Sun, astronomers have long and stubbornly sought near him a planet similar to the Earth and located at such a distance that makes life possible on it. In addition, this system, as already mentioned, is relatively close, so the first interstellar flight will probably be there.

Therefore, the love of science fiction writers for Alpha Centauri is understandable. Stanislav Lem (creator of the famous Solaris), Asimov, Heinlein devoted pages of their books to this system; in the Alpha Centauri system, the action of the acclaimed film "Avatar" takes place.

2 Canopus (α Carina) - the brightest star in the Southern Hemisphere

In absolute terms of luminosity, Canopus is much brighter than Sirius, which, in turn, is much closer to Earth, so that objectively it is the brightest night star, but beyond the range (it is located at a distance of 310 light years) it seems to us dimmer than Sirius.

Canopus is a yellowish supergiant whose mass is 9 times the mass of the Sun, and it glows 14 thousand times stronger!

Unfortunately, this star cannot be seen in Russia: it is not visible north of Athens.

But in the Southern Hemisphere, Canopus was used to determine their location in navigation. In the same capacity, Alpha Carina is used by our astronauts.

1 The brightest star in our starry sky is Sirius (α Canis Major)

The famous "dog star" (it was not for nothing that J. Rowling named her hero, who turned into a dog), whose appearance in the sky meant the beginning of holidays for the ancient schoolchildren (this word means "dog days") - one of the closest to the solar system and therefore it is perfectly visible from almost anywhere on the Earth, except for the Far North.

Sirius is now believed to be a double star. Sirius A is twice the size of the Sun, and Sirius B is smaller. Although millions of years ago, apparently, it was the other way around.

Many peoples have left various legends associated with this star. The Egyptians considered Sirius the star of Isis, the Greeks - the dog of Orion taken to heaven, the Romans called him Kanikula ("little dog"), in Old Russian this star was called Psitsa.

The ancients described Sirius as a red star, while we see a bluish glow. Scientists can explain this only by the assumption that all ancient descriptions were compiled by people who saw Sirius not high above the horizon, when its color was distorted by water vapor.

Be that as it may, now Sirius is the brightest star in our sky, which can be seen with the naked eye even during the day!

Currently, the brightest star that can be seen in the earth's sky (besides, of course, the Sun) is Sirius. Its apparent magnitude is -1.46. The fact that Sirius is the brightest star in our sky is largely due to its proximity - a star located 8.6 light years away from us has a mass of two and a luminosity of twenty-two solar, while in our galaxy there are stars whose luminosity exceeds the solar a million times. Another thing is that they are much, much further than Sirius.
As you know, the Sun revolves around the center of the Milky Way, making one revolution in about 225 million years. In the process of this drift, some stars approach the solar system, some recede - so that over thousands of years, the pattern of the starry sky gradually changes, and the visible stars can become both brighter and dimmer.

So, during the Pliocene, the brightest star in the sky was Adara. Now this blue-white giant is at a distance of 430 light years from us and has an apparent magnitude of +1.51. But 4.7 million years ago, Adara passed from the solar system at a distance of only 34 light years. Taking into account the fact that the star's luminosity is 20,000 times higher than that of the Sun, at that time it sparkled in the night sky almost as brightly as Venus, with an apparent magnitude of -3.99.

After 300,000 years, Adara was replaced by another bright blue giant Mirtsam. The star passed at a distance of 37 light years from the solar system and at that time had an apparent magnitude of -3.65. Since then, Mirtsam has moved away from us at a distance of 500 light years and faded to a magnitude of +1.95. Over the next four million years, the brightest stars in the earth's sky were Zeta Hare, Askella, Aldebaran, Capella and three times Canopus. None of these stars could compare in brightness with Adara and Mirtsam - the most brilliant among them was Askella, which had an apparent magnitude of -2.74 1.2 million years ago.

Of course, Sirius will not always be the brightest star in the earth's sky either. In about 60 thousand years, it will approach the solar system at a minimum distance of 7.8 light years, reaching a maximum apparent magnitude of -1.64, after which it will begin to gradually move away. In 150 thousand years Vega will receive the title of the brightest star in our sky. Its maximum apparent magnitude will be -0.8.

In another 270 thousand years, Canopus will become the brightest star in the night sky. The funny thing is that by that time it will be at a distance of 350 light years from us and have an apparent magnitude of only -0.4, while now these indicators are 310 light years and -0.72, respectively. But the fact is that by that time, other large stars will move away from us at an even greater distance.

After Canopus, the brightest stars in Earth's sky will be Beta Auriga and Delta Shield. The latter will surpass Sirius in brightness for some time, reaching an apparent magnitude of -1.8. This will happen in about 1.25 million years.

06/03/2015 at 01:38 PM · Johnny · 43 440

10 brightest stars in the sky

The starry sky has always attracted a person. Even being at a low stage of development, dressing in animal skins and using stone tools, a person already raised his head and looked at the mysterious points that mysteriously flickered in the depths of the huge firmament.

The stars have become one of the foundations of human mythology. According to ancient people, it was there that the gods lived. The stars have always been something sacred for a person, unattainable for an ordinary mortal. One of the most ancient sciences of mankind was astrology, which studied the influence of heavenly bodies on human life.

Today the stars remain in the center of our attention, but, however, astronomers are more engaged in their study, and science fiction writers come up with stories about the time when a person will be able to reach the stars. An ordinary person often raises his head to admire the beautiful stars in the night sky, just as his distant ancestors did millions of years ago. We have compiled a list for you, which contains the brightest stars in the sky.

10.

In tenth place on our list is Betelgeuse, astronomers call it α Orion. This star poses a great mystery to astronomers: they are still arguing about its origin and cannot understand its periodic variability.

This star belongs to the class of red giants and its size is 500-800 times the size of our Sun. If we were to move it into our system, then its boundaries would extend to the orbit of Jupiter. Over the past 15 years, the size of this star has decreased by 15%. Scientists still do not understand the reason for this phenomenon.

Betelgeuse is 570 light-years from the Sun, so a trip to it will definitely not take place anytime soon.

9.

The first star in this constellation, it ranks ninth on our list the brightest stars in the night sky... Achernar is located at the very end of the constellation Eridani. This star is classified as a blue star, it is eight times heavier than our Sun and is a thousand times brighter than it.

Achernar is 144 light-years from our solar system, and a trip to it in the near future also looks unlikely. Another interesting feature of this star is that it rotates around its axis at a tremendous speed.

8.

This star is the eighth by its brightness in our firmament... The name of this star is translated from Greek as "in front of the dog." Procyon enters the winter triangle, along with the stars Sirius and Betelgeuse.

This star belongs to double stars. In the sky we can see the larger star from the pair, the second star is a small white dwarf.

One legend is associated with this star. The constellation Canis Minor symbolizes the dog of the first winemaker Ikaria, who was killed by treacherous shepherds, having drunk him first with his own wine. The faithful dog found the owner's grave.

7.

This star is seventh brightest in our sky... The main reason for the rather low place in our rating is the very large distance between the Earth and this star. If Rigel were a little closer (at the distance of Sirius, for example), then in terms of its brightness it would surpass many other luminaries.

Rigel belongs to the class of blue-white supergiants. The size of this star is impressive: it is 74 times larger than our Sun. In fact, Rigel is not one star, but three: in addition to the giant, this stellar company includes two more small stars.

Rigel is 870 light-years from the Sun, which is a lot.

Translated from Arabic, the name of this star means "leg". People have known this star for a very long time, it was included in the mythology of many peoples, starting with the ancient Egyptians. They considered Rigel to be the embodiment of Osiris, one of the most powerful gods in their pantheon.

6.

One of the most beautiful stars of our sky... This is a double star, which in ancient times was an independent constellation and symbolized a goat with kids. The Capella is a double star that consists of two yellow giants that revolve around a common center. Each of these stars is 2.5 times heavier than our Sun and they are 42 light-years away from our planetary system. These stars are much brighter than our sun.

An ancient Greek legend is associated with the Capella, according to which Zeus was fed by the goat Amalthea. Once Zeus inadvertently broke off one of the horns of an animal and so a cornucopia appeared in the world.

5.

One of the brightest and most beautiful stars in our sky... It is located 25 light-years from our Sun (this is a fairly short distance). Vega belongs to the constellation Lyra, the size of this star is almost three times the size of our Sun.

This star rotates at a breakneck speed on its axis.

Vega can be called one of the most studied stars. It is located at a short distance and is very convenient for research.

Many myths of different peoples of our planet are associated with this star. In our latitudes, Vega is one of the brightest stars in the sky and second only to Sirius and Arcturus.

4.

One of the brightest and most beautiful stars in the sky that can be observed anywhere in the world. The reasons for this brightness are the large size of the star and the small distance from it to our planet.

Arcturus belongs to the class of red giants and is enormous in size. The distance from our solar system to this star is "only" 36.7 light years. It is more than 25 times larger than our star. Moreover, the brightness of Arcturus is 110 times higher than the Sun.

This star owes its name to the constellation Ursa Major. Translated from Greek, its name means "guardian of the bear." Arcturus is very easy in the starry sky, you just need to draw an imaginary arc through the handle of the Big Dipper's bucket.

3.

In second place on our list is the triple star, which belongs to the constellation Centaurus. This star system consists of three stars: two of them are close in size to our Sun and the third is a red dwarf star called Proxima Centauri.

Astronomers call the double star that we can see with the naked eye Toliban. These stars are very close to our planetary system, and therefore seem to us very bright. In fact, their brightness and size are quite modest. These stars are only 4.36 light years from the Sun. Astronomically speaking, it's almost there. Proxima Centauri was discovered only in 1915, it behaves rather strangely, periodically its brightness changes.

2.

it the second brightest star in our sky... But, unfortunately, we will not be able to see it, because Canopus is visible only in the southern hemisphere of our planet. In the northern part, it is visible only in tropical latitudes.

It is the brightest star in the southern hemisphere and plays the same role in navigation as the North Star in the northern hemisphere.

Canopus is a huge star that is eight times the size of our star. This star belongs to the class of supergiants, and it is in second place in brightness only because the distance to it is very large. The distance from the Sun to Canopus is about 319 light years. Canopus is the brightest star within a radius of 700 light years.

There is no consensus about the origin of the name of the star. Most likely, it got its name in honor of the helmsman who was on the ship of Menelaus (this is a character in the Greek epic about the Trojan War).

1.

The brightest star in our sky, which belongs to the constellation Canis Major. This star can be called the most important for earthlings, of course, after our Sun. Since ancient times, people have been very reverent and respectful of this luminary. There are numerous myths and legends about him. The ancient Egyptians placed their gods on Sirius. This star can be observed from anywhere on the earth's surface.

The ancient Sumerians watched Sirius and believed that it was on it that the gods were located, who created life on our planet. The Egyptians watched this star very closely, it was associated with their religious cults of Osiris and Isis. In addition, according to Sirius, they determined the time of the flood of the Nile, which was important for agriculture.

If we talk about Sirius from the point of view of astronomy, then it should be noted that it is a double star, which consists of a star of spectral class A1 and a white dwarf (Sirius B). You cannot see the second star with the naked eye. Both stars revolve around a single center with a period of 50 years. Sirius A is about twice the size of our Sun.

Sirius is 8.6 light years away from us.

The ancient Greeks believed that Sirius was the dog of the Orion Star Hunter who stalked his prey. There is an African Dogon tribe that worships Sirius. But this is not surprising. The Africans, who did not know the written language, had information about the existence of Sirius B, which was discovered only in the middle of the 19th century with the help of fairly sophisticated telescopes. The Dogon calendar is based on the periods of rotation of Sirius B around Sirius A. And it is compiled quite accurately. Where the primitive African tribe got all this information from is a mystery.