TAURUS

(Abbreviation: Tau)

One of the brightest of the Zodiacal constellations. Mythologically it has been said to represent the ball into which Jupiter transformed himself when he wished to carry off Europa, daughter of the King of Crete. Taurus includes the reddish first magnitude star Aldebaran, and also the two most famous open clusters in the sky: the Pleiades and the Hyades. Altogether there are 15 stars above the fourth magnitude: Aldebaran has a very small range (0.78 – 0.93). b was formerly included in Auriga, as g Aurigæ.

BRIGHTEST STAR

STAR	R.A.			DEC			MAG.	ABS. MAG.	SPEC	DIST.PC
STAR	H	M	S	O	‘	“	MAG.	ABS. MAG.	SPEC	DIST.PC
1 o	03	24	48.7	+09	01	44	3.60	0.3	G8	46
2 x	03	27	10.1	+09	43	58	3.74	-0.1	B8p	30
5	03	30	52.3	+12	56	12	4.11	-0.9	K0	97
10	03	36	52.3	+00	24	06	4.28	4.0	F8	13
17	03	44	52.5	+24	06	48	3.70	-1.9	B6	120 ELECTRA (PLEIADES)
19	03	45	12.4	+24	28	02	4.30	-0.9	B6	110 TAYGETE (PLEIADES)
20	03	45	49.5	+24	22	04	3.88	-1.6	B7	120 MAIA (PLEIADES)
23	03	46	19.5	+23	56	54	4.18	-1.3	B6	120 MEROPE (PLEIADES)
25 h	03	47	29.0	+24	06	18	2.87	-1.6	B7	73 ALCYONE (PLEIADES)
27	03	49	09.7	+24	03	12	3.63	-1.2	B8	90 ATLAS (PLEIADES)
28 BU	03	49	11.1	+24	08	12	var.	var.	B8p	29 PLEIONE (PLEIADES)
35 l	04	00	40.7	+12	29	25	var.	-1.7	B3	100
38 n	04	03	09.3	+05	59	21	3.91	1.2	A1	34
37 A¹	04	04	41.7	+22	04	55	4.36	0.2	K0	60
49 m	04	15	32.0	+08	53	32	4.29	-1.7	B3	140
54 g	04	19	47.5	+15	37	39	3.63	0.2	K0	51 HYADUM PRIMUS (HYADES)
61 d¹	04	22	56.0	+17	32	33	3.76	0.2	K0	51 (HYADES)
65 k	04	25	22.1	+22	17	38	4.22	2.4	A7	23
68 d³	04	25	29.3	+17	55	41	4.30	1.4	A2	38 (HYADES)
69 u	04	26	18.4	+22	48	49	4.29	1.1	F0	42 (HYADES)
71	04	26	20.7	+15	37	06	4.49	2.6	F0	24
73 p	04	26	36.4	+14	42	49	4.69	0.3	G8	72
77 q¹	04	28	34.4	+15	57	44	3.85	0.2	K0	54 (HYADES)
74 e	04	28	36.9	+19	10	49	3.54	0.2	K0	45 AIN. (HYADES)
78 q²	04	28	39.6	+15	52	15	3.42	0.5	A7	38 (HYADES)
86 r	04	33	50.8	+14	50	40	4.65	2.6	F0	26
88 d	04	35	39.2	+10	09	39	4.25	2.4	A3	25
87 a	04	35	55.2	+16	30	33	0.85	-0.3	K5	21 ALDEBARAN
90 c¹	04	38	09.4	+12	30	39	4.27	2.1	A5	27
92 s¹	04	39	16.4	+15	55	05	4.68	2.1	A5	33
94 t	04	42	14.6	+22	57	25	4.28	-1.7	B3	150
102 i	05	03	05.7	+21	35	24	4.64	2.4	A7	28
112 b	05	26	17.5	+28	36	27	1.65	-1.6	B7	40 AL NATH. = g AURIGÆ
119 CE	05	32	12.7	+18	35	39	4.3v	-4.8v	M2	290
123 z	05	37	38.6	+21	08	33	3.00	-3.0	B2	150 ALHEKA
136	05	53	19.6	+27	36	44	4.58	0.4	B9.5	64

DOUBLES

STAR	R.A.			DEC			MAGS.	P.A.	DIST.”
STAR	H	M	S	o	‘	“	MAGS.	P.A.	DIST.”
52 f	04	20	21.2	+27	21	02	5.1, 8.7	250	52.1 OPTICAL
59 c	04	22	34.8	+25	37	45	5.4, 8.2	025	19.9 FIXED
87 a	04	35	55.2	+16	30	33	0.8, 11.0	112	31.4 OPTICAL. WIDENING

q¹ AND q² FORM A NAKED-EYE PAIR P.A. 346°, DISTANCE 337”.

VARIABLES

STAR	R.A.		DEC		RANGE	PEROID,D	SPEC	TYPE
STAR	H	M	o	‘	RANGE	PEROID,D	SPEC	TYPE
BU (PLEIONE)	03	49.2	+24	08	5.0 – 5.5	-	B8p	SHELL STAR
l	04	00.7	+12	29	3.3 – 4.2	3.95	B+A	ECLIPSING (ALGOL)
CE	05	32.2	+18	36	4.3 – 4.7	165	M2	SEMI-REGULAR
Y	05	42.7	+20	40	6.8 – 9.2	241	N	SEMI-REGULAR

CLUSTERS AND NEBULÆ

OBJECT	R.A.		DEC		TYPE	NOTES
OBJECT	H	M	o	‘	TYPE	NOTES
MEL.22 M.45	03	44.1	+23	58	OPEN CLUSTER	PLEIADES. DISTANCE 410LY
MEL.25	04	17	+15	30	OPEN CLUSTER	HYADES. DISTANCE 130LY VERY SCATTERED
NGC1554-5	04	19.9	+19	25	NEBULA	HIND’S VARIABLE NEBULA (T TAURI)
NGC1647	04	43.2	+18	59	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG.6.3 ABOUT 30 STARS
NGC1952 M.1	05	31.5	+21	59	SUPERNOVA REMNANT	MAG.8.4. CRAB NEBULA
NGC1807	06	07.8	+16	28	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG.7.8. ABOUT 15 STARS
NGC1817	06	09.2	+16	38	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG..9. ONLY ABOUT 10 STARS