Sky Maps Database: Orion and Taurus

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Orion is the winter's king. Two stars part of the 10 brightest stars in the sky make up the hunter's flesh. You can't think of Orion without thinking M 42, The Great Orion Nebula, visible with the unaided eye. Every amateur agrees: this is the greatest of the greatest nebula. It's breathtaking, even in a pair of binoculars, and looks greenish in a 200 mm newtonian. If you trace a lign going through all 3 stars of Orion's belt, you'll find Sirius, the brightest star in the sky (magnitude -1.5), and the Pleiades, a nice large cluster at the top of Taurus the Bull

The Pleiades are very present in our world. It was the name of a group of french poets in the 16th century (Ronsard, Du Bellay are the most famous) and is the Logo of the car brand Subaru. Taurus the Bull also houses Messier 1, discovered by Charles Messier when he was tracking down a comet, and fell on this nebulous spot. It became the first object in his deep sky objects list. The Chinese had spotted the explosion of a star (Supernova) in 1054. An 'Invited Star' as they said. It became so bright it was visible during the day for several months and for a long time was the brightest star in the night. Astronomers now know that the remnants of this explosion is Messier 1.