According to Greek mythology, Taurus represents the beautiful white bull that Zeus transformed himself into in order to abduct Europa, princess of Phoenicia. After he seduced her in Crete, she gave birth to a son who later became king Minos, the first monarch of Crete. In another version of the legend, Taurus represents the beautiful bull King Minos failed to sacrifice to Poseidon, who in punishment made the king’s wife Queen Pasiphae fall in love and mate with the beast, and as a result sire the Minotaur.
Taurus
Taurus the Bull is hard to miss as he charges through the northern winter sky as it is one of the most prominent and visible of all of the constellations. The Bull is also one of the oldest documented constellations, with details of the constellation going as far back as the Early Bronze Age.
Location
The Bull passes through the sky from November to March, but is at its most visible in January. It covers 797 square degrees.
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Right Ascension: 4 hours
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Declination: 15 degrees
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Best visible between latitudes 90 degrees and minus 65 degrees
Deep Sky Objects in Taurus
The Pleiades (Seven Sisters) – Messier 45
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Messier 45 is an open star cluster in Taurus. It consists mostly of hot, luminous B-class stars most of which have formed in the last 100 million years. It is the best known cluster in the sky, and the easiest one to find, mainly because of its proximity and brightness. The Pleiades cluster has an apparent magnitude of 1.6 and is 110 arc minutes in size. Its member stars are between 390 and 460 light years distant from the solar system.
Mythology
The Crab Nebula – Messier 1 (M1, NGC 1952)
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Messier 1 is a supernova remnant in Taurus.
It is also a pulsar wind nebula, or plerion, which is to say a nebula that is powered by the pulsar wind of a pulsar, usually found within shells of supernova remnants. A pulsar, or pulsating star, is an extremely magnetized rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation.
The Hyades Cluster (Caldwell 41, Melotte 25, Collinder 50)
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The Hyades is an open cluster that contains hundreds of stars that share the same motion through space, origin, age, and chemical content. It is the nearest open star cluster to the Sun, and consequently the most studied one, too. Its estimated age is about 625 million years. The brightest stars in the Hyadescluster and Aldebaran, the brightest star in the Taurus constellation, form a V shape. Aldebaran is not a member of the cluster, but lies along the same line of sight.
Hind’s Variable Nebula – NGC 1555
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NGC 1555 is a variable nebula in Taurus. It is a reflection nebula that exhibits variations in luminosity as a result of changes in its star. It lies next to the star T Tauri and is illuminated by the star’s light.
NGC 1410 and NGC 1409
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NGC 1409 (right) and NGC 1410 (left) are a set of colliding galaxies in Taurus constellation. The two are connected by a pipeline of gas spanning over 20,000 light years that is being funnelled from one galaxy to the other. As a result, there is a lot of star forming activity occurring in NGC 1410, the galaxy that is on the receiving end.
Crystal Ball Nebula – NGC 1514​​
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NGC 1514 is a large planetary nebula in Taurus. It was first discovered by William Herschel in November 1790. The nebula is believed to be surrounding a close binary star with an orbital period of up to 10 days
NGC 1647
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NGC 1647 is another open cluster in Taurus, located between the bull’s horns. It has an apparent magnitude of 6.4.
NGC 1817
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NGC 1817 is also an open star cluster. It was discovered by William Herschel on February 19, 1784. The cluster has an apparent magnitude of 7.7.
NGC 1807
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NGC 1807 is another open cluster in Taurus. It was discovered by John Herschel on January 25, 1832. It has a visual magnitude of 7.0.
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Merope Nebula (Tempel’s Nebula) – NGC 1435
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The Merope Nebula is a diffuse reflection nebula located in the Pleiades star cluster. It surrounds the star Merope (23 Tauri) and is illuminated by the star’s light. The nebula is a suspected supernova remnant.