Which stars are the most famous in the night sky? The Big Dipper is definitely on the list. Because the Big Dipper is not one star, it is seven stars, so it is called the Big Dipper. In Mr. Jin Yong's famous book "The Legend of the Archery Hero", the Tiangang Beidou Array of the Seven Sons of Quanzhen is that Wang Chongyang was inspired by the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper to create a formation composed of seven people. Of course, this set of unpredictable formations has a lethal effect on ordinary people, such as dealing with Mei Chaofeng, Jiangnan Seven Monsters and others, but dealing with first-class masters or top masters is not worth mentioning, such as the so-called "four absolute under the world" of the Eastern Evil West Poison Southern Emperor Beiqi, it does not put the "Tiangang Beidou Array" in the eyes at all. In the eyes of top masters, the so-called "Tiangang Beidou Array" is actually like a child's home-like game.
Big Dipper Seven Stars
The Big Dipper is famous because it is very conspicuous in the northern sky and can be seen at a glance. Especially on winter nights in the northern hemisphere, the stars in the sky are sparse, and the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper are particularly eye-catching. Second, because the Big Dipper was endowed with many legends by the ancients, such as the Tianquan Star was called Wenqu Star by the ancients, and the Kaiyang Star was called Wuqu Star. Also, the Big Dipper can navigate, and the ancients discerned the direction, taking the location of the Big Dipper as the north. And it can also distinguish the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter according to the direction pointed by the handle of the Big Dipper: the handle east refers to the spring under the world; the south finger of the handle, the whole world is summer; the handle is west, the world is autumn; the handle north refers to the winter under the world. The use of the Big Dipper to distinguish the seasons and assist agricultural production can also be regarded as the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient working people in China.
Big Dipper Seven Stars Auxiliary Bow Chart
The Big Dipper also has a lot to do with the calendar. This is explained in detail in the ancient texts "Huainanzi Astronomical Training", "Hanshu Vinaya", "Five Elements of Great Righteousness and Seven Politics" and "Li Ji • Moon Order". The changes of the Big Dipper in different seasons and different hours correspond to different months of the year, and the direction of the "handle" of the Big Dipper is used to specifically divide december of the year. So-called: the first month of Jianyin, February Jianjie, March Jianchen, April Jianwei, May Jianwu, June Jianwei, July Jianshen, August Jianyou, September Jianjiao, October Jianhai, November Jianzi, December Jianu. The ancients divided the 12 months of the year according to the direction pointed by the handle of the Big Dipper. Today's China's Beidou navigation is also named after the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper.
The Big Dipper in the night sky
In fact, the seven stars of the Big Dipper are ordinary stars in the Milky Way, and they have almost reached the final stage of stars. They are just coincidentally "matched" together by humans, and there is no half-cent relationship between them! Just from the earth, the arrangement of these seven stars is very much like a "spoon", with four stars forming the spoon head of the spoon and three stars forming the spoon handle (handle). In ancient times, there was a lack of scientific and cultural knowledge, and for celestial bodies that could not be explained or resembled an object on earth, they had to find corresponding objects from life to hook up, and then explain the reasons. Although this is superstitious and has no scientific reason, it is also a way for the ancient people to pin their spiritual sustenance. For example, the structure of walnut kernels is like a brain, and it is firmly believed that eating walnuts can supplement the brain. Eating pig blood, duck blood can replenish blood, eating bones can supplement calcium, eating so-and-so whip can aphrodisiac, etc. In fact, it's just a good wish, and it doesn't have those effects.
The Big Dipper seven stars form a spoon shape
The Big Dipper is not related to each other at all, they are all stars in the Milky Way, and they are currently in the old age of stars. Billions of years from now, the sun will become like them. The seven stars of the Big Dipper are called Tianshu, Tianxuan, Tianji, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang and Yaoguang. The four stars of Tianshu, Tianxuan, Tianji and Tianquan constitute the dou body, which is called Kui in ancient times, and the three stars of Yuheng, Kaiyang and Yaoguang form the handle, which is called 杓 in ancient times.
In fact, the Big Dipper seven stars just coincidentally looked at the shape of a spoon from the earth, and there was no half-cent relationship between them. When I was a child, I often looked at the stars in the sky at night and sang the songs that were circulating: "Spoon star, rake star, the stars in the sky are shining." Who can read it seven times, until the old man does not have waist pain. "I often have back pain now, and I regret that I didn't read it seven times in one breath when I was a child.
Astronomers classify the stars in the sky as constellations for positioning
Modern astronomy defines the Big Dipper as part of the constellation Ursa Major, located on the tail of Ursa Major, and are all old stars in the Milky Way, and the Sun develops into its later years. Tianshu Star is also called Wolf Star, 124 light years away from us, Tianxuan Star is scientifically named Giant Gate Star, 80 light years away from The Earth, Tianji Star is also called Lu Cun Star, 84 light years away from the Earth, Tianquan Star is scientifically named Wenqu Star, 81 light years away from the Earth, Yuheng Star is also called Lian Zhen Star, 81 light years away from the Earth, Kaiyang Star is scientifically known as Wuqu Star, 78 light years away from the Earth, Yao Guang Star is also called Broken Army Star, 102 light years away from the Earth. Of the seven stars, Yuheng is the brightest, with a brightness close to that of a first-class star, the darkest of the Celestial Powers, a third-magnitude star, and the remaining five stars are second-magnitude stars. Of course, brightness does not explain anything, because their size and distance from the earth are different, which also makes their brightness different. In fact, the Big Dipper is very far away from the earth, and the nearest Wuqu star has reached 78 light years! What does that mean? That is to say, even at the speed of light, it will take 78 years to reach Wuqu Star from Earth. The farthest celestial star, which is 124 light-years away from Earth, is very far away. What we see today is actually what it looked like 124 years ago. In the same way, if (I mean what if) there is a person on the planet Wolf, the earth he sees is actually the earth of 124 years. If he could carefully distinguish China, then he still saw China at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and if he could see the Forbidden City in Beijing, then he could see that the Guangxu Emperor was in the early dynasty.
The Big Dipper is on the tail of the constellation Ursa Major
The Big Dipper is the late stage of the star, in a period of energy exhaustion and rapid expansion. They are not related to each other, and they are also tens to hundreds of light-years apart from each other, and they are also far from the Earth, such as the farthest Celestial Hub Star (Coyote Star), which is as high as 124 light-years from the Earth, and the nearest Wuqu Star, which is only 78 light-years away. In addition, the age and size of the Big Dipper are not equal. With a radius of 23 times that of the Sun and a mass of 5 times that of the Sun, Coyote is a red giant that evolved to the late stages. Wolf Star is not an isolated star, it is actually a triad system, and there are two companion stars that are invisible to the naked eye. Celestial Power is a blue-and-white dwarf star that is 14 times brighter than the Sun and hotter than the Sun. Kaiyang has a visible auxiliary star, and it is also the only binary star system in the night sky that is visible to the naked eye, but this auxiliary star is darker and can only be seen by people with a visual acuity of 5.1. It was used in ancient armies to test the vision of soldiers, not only in China, but also in foreign armies to test the eyesight of soldiers. In fact, Kaiyang star is a hexagram system of 6 stars, and only 2 of them can be seen with the naked eye.
The Big Dipper and the North Star
On the extension line of the Big Dipper's Tianxuan Star and Tianshu Star, a very bright star can be found, which is the famous North Star. Polaris and six other stars form a small Big Dipper, with polaris at the very end of the handle. The Little Dipper is actually part of the constellation Ursa Minor.
The North Star is located on the tip of the tail in the constellation Ursa Minor
The Big Dipper is actually in constant motion, which is not surprising, all the celestial bodies in the universe are constantly moving and changing. The shape of the "spoon" we see is also changing. In about 50 million years, the Big Dipper will not be visible on Earth! Whether it is the Big Dipper or the North Star, in fact, they are ordinary members of space, ordinary stars in the Milky Way. The stars that human eyesight can see are all in the Milky Way, and the stars outside the Milky Way are invisible to our naked eyes. This is because the range of human vision is no more than 1,000 light-years away. The clear night sky, the twinkling stars, the stars shining, dazzling, countless, in fact, they are all stars in the Milky Way. The darkness of the deep sky is actually a large number of stars, but they are too far away from the earth, and the light has not yet reached the earth. With the help of the Hubble Deep Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered that those pitch-black places actually hide a huge number of celestial objects, countless of them.
Schematic diagram of the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper
We often say that we can't see a star because it's far away, but in fact, the light of this star has not yet reached the earth after billions of years of flight, so we can't see it. To sum up, the universe is too large, infinite, most of the celestial bodies are very far away from us, their rays, flying for billions of years, are still halfway, we may never see them, because when their rays reach the earth, human beings may not exist for a long time, and the earth will die.
Ursa Major and Ursa Minor
The universe is so big that it is desperate for humanity.