Monday 23 January 2017

Astronomy - Picture of the Day (23.01.2017)

Astronomy - Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2017 January 23

See Explanation.
Moving the cursor over the image will bring up an annotated version.
Clicking on the image will bring up the highest resolution version
available.
Winter Hexagon over Manla Reservoir 
 Image Credit & Copyright: Jeff Dai(TWAN)
Explanation: If you can find Orion, you might be able to find the Winter Hexagon. The Winter Hexagon involves some of the brightest starsvisible,  together forming a large and easily found pattern in the winter skyof Earth's northern hemisphere. The stars involved can usually be identified even in the bright night skies of a big city, although here they appeared recently in dark skies above the Manla Reservoir in TibetChina. The six stars that compose the Winter Hexagon are AldebaranCapella,Castor (and Pollux), ProcyonRigel, and Sirius. Here, the band of our Milky Way Galaxy runs through the center of the Winter Hexagon, while the Pleiades open star cluster is visible just above. The Winter Hexagon asterism engulfs several constellations including much of theiconic steppingstone Orion.

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