Aldebaran in the context of "Winter Hexagon"

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⭐ Core Definition: Aldebaran

Aldebaran (Arabic: الدَّبَران, lit. 'The Follower') is a star in the zodiac constellation of Taurus. It has the Bayer designation α Tauri, which is Latinized to Alpha Tauri and abbreviated Alpha Tau or α Tau. Aldebaran varies in brightness from an apparent visual magnitude of 0.75 down to 0.95, making it the brightest star in the constellation, as well as (typically) the fourteenth-brightest star in the night sky. It is at a distance of approximately 67 light-years. The star lies along the line of sight to the nearby Hyades cluster, but is unrelated and much older than the young cluster.

Aldebaran is a red giant, meaning that it is cooler than the Sun with a surface temperature of 3,900 K, but its radius is about 45 times the Sun's, so it is over 400 times as luminous. As a giant star, it has moved off the main sequence on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram after depleting its supply of hydrogen in the core. The star spins slowly and takes 520 days to complete a rotation.

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👉 Aldebaran in the context of Winter Hexagon

The Winter Hexagon is an asterism appearing to be in the form of a hexagon with vertices at Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Pollux, Procyon, and Sirius. It is mostly upon the Northern Hemisphere's celestial sphere. On most locations on Earth (except the South Island of New Zealand and the south of Chile and Argentina and further south), this asterism is visible in the evening sky at the equator from approximately December to June, and in the morning sky from July to the end of November, while in the evenings on the northern hemisphere it is less months visible between December and June, and on the southern hemisphere less months between July and November. In the tropics and southern hemisphere, this (then called "summer hexagon") can be extended with the bright star Canopus in the south.

Smaller and more regularly shaped is the Winter Triangle, an approximately equilateral triangle that shares two vertices (Sirius and Procyon) with the larger asterism. The third vertex is Betelgeuse, which lies near the center of the hexagon. These three stars are three of the ten brightest objects, as viewed from Earth, outside the Solar System. Betelgeuse is also particularly easy to locate, being a shoulder of Orion, which assists stargazers in finding the triangle. Once the triangle is located, the larger hexagon may then be found.

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Aldebaran in the context of Occultation

An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks from view (occults) an object in the background. In this general sense, occultation applies to the visual scene observed from low-flying aircraft (or computer-generated imagery) when foreground objects obscure distant objects dynamically, as the scene changes over time.

If the closer body does not entirely conceal the farther one, the event is called a transit. Both transit and occultation may be referred to generally as occlusion; and if a shadow is cast onto the observer, it is called an eclipse.

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Aldebaran in the context of J band (infrared)

In infrared astronomy, the J band refers to an atmospheric transmission window (1.1 to 1.4 μm) centred on 1.25 micrometres (in the near-infrared).

Betelgeuse is the brightest near-IR source in the sky with a J band magnitude of −2.99. The next brightest stars in the J band are Antares (−2.7), R Doradus (−2.6), Arcturus (−2.2), and Aldebaran (−2.1). In the J band Sirius is the 9th brightest star.

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Aldebaran in the context of Taurus (constellation)

Taurus (Latin, 'Bull') is one of the constellations of the zodiac and is located in the northern celestial hemisphere. Taurus is a large and prominent constellation in the Northern Hemisphere's winter sky. It is one of the oldest constellations, dating back to the Early Bronze Age at least, when it marked the location of the Sun during the spring equinox. Its importance to the agricultural calendar influenced various bull figures in the mythologies of Ancient Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Its traditional astrological symbol is (♉︎), which resembles a bull's head.

A number of features exist that are of interest to astronomers. Taurus hosts two of the nearest open clusters to Earth, the Pleiades and the Hyades, both of which are visible to the naked eye. At first magnitude, the red giant Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation. In the northeast part of Taurus is Messier 1, more commonly known as the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant containing the Crab Pulsar. One of the closest regions of active star formation, the Taurus-Auriga complex, crosses into the northern part of the constellation. The variable star T Tauri is the prototype of a class of pre-main-sequence stars.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Occultation ← Winter Hexagon ← J band (infrared) ← Taurus (constellation)
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Arabic language → Literal translation → Star → Zodiac → Constellation → Taurus (constellation) → Bayer designation → Latinisation of names → Apparent visual magnitude → List of brightest stars → Light-year → Hyades (star cluster) → Red giant → Kelvin → Solar radius → Solar luminosity → Giant star → Stellar evolution → Main sequence → Hertzsprung–Russell diagram → Stellar core →