By Prashant Naik
The chart above shows the night sky over Shillong during the month of January 2021 at 8.00 p.m. Shillong being at 25.5o N,latitude we see mostly northern constellations. The E-W line shows the celestial equator and the line cutting it shows the zodiac line or the sun’s apparent path. The letters indicate the name of constellations. Planet Mars is visible between overhead and west.
The prominent constellations visible are Eridanus, Cetus,Orion Canis minor,Canis Major, Draco, Gemini, Taurus, Aries,Draco, Perseus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Ursa major, Ursa minor, Auriga, and Pegasus,
The constellation of the month is Taurus, the bull which was probably one of the first constellations to be named and is reminiscent of the oldest domesticated animal. The identification of this constellation as bull is likely to be prehistoric. As per the Greek mythology Zeus assumes the form of a magnificent white bull to abduct Europa a legendry Phoenician princess, and this fathers Minos. The tale informs the names of constellations since it was necessary to traverse the area of the sky known as the sea to reach. When passing through the zodiac it forms the origin of the myth of the Cretan bull one of the twelve labors of Heracles.
The most magnificent star is Aldibaran is a star with a magnitude 0.86 with a distance of 68 light years. It is a variable star with a diameter of about 50 million km and a luminosity 120 times that of the sun. Star EI Nath is a magnitude 1.65 star with a distance of 300 light years. Star Alcyclone with magnitude 2.86 and star delta 3.07 magnitude are 540 and 490 light years away respectively.The constellation contains the famous Pleiades and Hyades clusters of stars which are clearly visible to the naked eye. Not far from star delta is the Crab nebula,the remanent of a supernova that was seen to erupt in 1054 and which lies at a distance of 5500 light years.
New moon will be on 13th and full moon on 28th of the month.