Constellations

The Deep Photographic Guide to the
Constellations

The constellation of the month
JANUARY

Gemini

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Mark the Deep Sky Objects

Names:

Latin: Gemini (Gem)
English: Heavenly Twins Spanish: Géminis
German: Zwillinge French: Gemeaux

The bright constellation of Gemini is centered in the above photography (see lines). It is circumscribed (clockwise from north over west) by the constellations of Auriga, Taurus, Orion, Monoceros, Canis Minor, Cancer, and Lynx.

In mid of January the above field culminates at about 23:30 LT (11:30 pm). The declination of this constellation ranges from +10 to +35 degrees. The most prominent stars of Gemini are Castor and Pollux, the "heads" of the twins in the upper left of the image. Castor (right hand side) has a visual brightness of 1.6 mag and Pollux (left and below of Castor) a brightness of 1.2 mag.

The winter milky way is crossing the lower right part of Gemini. A few galactic deep sky objects are visible in the above field. Impressive is the rich open star cluster M 35 near the feet of the twins.

© all photographs taken by Till Credner and Sven Kohle