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Sky Chart and Artist Rendering of Monoceros
Origin:
Monoceros was known by the Persians but is otherwise an old but undated
constellation. The unicorn is found on star maps for the first time
on the 1624 sky map by Jakob Bartsch (son-in-law of Johannes Kepler) and
seen again in 1690 on Hevelius'
star maps. The legends of the unicorn may have been inspired by
the narwhale, a horned whale.
Information:
The brightest stars in Monoceros are only 4th magnitude so the area of the
sky appears barren (and in urban areas even devoid of stars). The
constellation is still easy to find since it is nearly entirely inside the
"Winter Triangle" (Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Procyon) and bounded
by constellations Canis Major, Orion, and Canis Minor.
For northern observers the constellation is a winter constellation and
highest in the sky at 9 pm in late February or early March. The
Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy runs directly through Monoceros and we
are looking directly away from the center, through the plane, of the
Galaxy. Monoceros is home to a variety of remarkable nebulae (one of
which is visible even with binoculars in a dark sky location) and multiple
stars. |
