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In this month: July

4 July 1054 Chinese astronomers notice a star explode becoming a supernova in the constellation Taurus. It remained visible in the night sky for 653 days. The remnant of that exploding star is what we now know as the Crab Nebula. The supernova shone roughly four times brighter than Venus and for a while was the third-brightest object in the sky, after the Sun and Moon. Image: The Crab Nebula in Taurus, Credit: ESO. The Chinese weren't the only ones to make a sighting. Astronomers in the Arab world provided their own accounts and archaeological evidence suggests that North American Indian sky watchers also recorded the supernova. The object was “rediscovered” again by Charles Messier in 1758,

Did you know? Orion

This month . . . . Orion Named after the mythological Greek hunter, the constellation Orion is one of the most famous, and recognisable, constellations in the night sky. Orion is a hunter with a shield in his hand, a belt and sword around his waist, surrounded by his hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor and fighting the bull represented by the constellation Taurus. The object of his affections are the Pleiades, the seven daughters of the giant Atlas. They begged Zeus to save them from Orion’s pursuit, so he placed them in the night sky with the giant hunter chasing them from east to west, without ever being able to catch them. The image below is from Johannes Hevelius, Prodromus Astron

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