Northern celestial hemisphere

Thenorthern celestial hemisphere,also called theNorthern Sky,is thenorthern halfof thecelestial sphere;that is, it liesnorthof thecelestial equator.This arbitrary sphereappears to rotatewestward around apolar axisdue toEarth's rotation.

At any given time, the entire Northern Sky is visible from the geographicNorth Pole,while less of the hemisphere is visible thefurther souththe observer is located. The southern counterpart is thesouthern celestial hemisphere.

Astronomy

In the context ofastronomicaldiscussions or writing aboutcelestial cartography,the northern celestial hemisphere may be referred to as the Northern Hemisphere.

Forcelestial mapping,astronomers may conceive the sky like the inside of aspheredivided into two halves by thecelestial equator.The Northern Sky or Northern Hemisphere is therefore the half of thecelestial spherethat is north of the celestial equator. Even if thisgeocentric modelis the idealprojectionof the terrestrialequatoronto the imaginary celestial sphere, the northern and southern celestial hemispheres are not to be confused with descriptions of the terrestrialhemispheresofEarthitself.

Observation

1515 map of the northern celestial hemisphere byAlbrecht Dürer.

Of the modern 88constellations,43 lie predominantly within the northern celestial hemisphere, with 28 completely on the northern hemisphere. The other 14 constellations (Aquarius, Aquila, Canis Minor, Cetus, Hydra, Leo, Monoceros, Ophiuchus, Orion, Pisces, Serpens, Sextans, Taurus, and Virgo) lie in some piece on the southern hemisphere. Eridanus has some piece within the northern celestial hemisphere.^[1]

Thepole starof the northern celestial hemisphere isPolaris,the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor. Thebrightest starin the northern celestial hemisphere isArcturus,the fourth-brightest star in the sky, closely followed byVega.^[2]

References

^"International Astronomical Union | IAU".www.iau.org.Retrieved2024-02-13.
^Byrd, Deborah; Earthsky Voices."Arcturus, the brightest star of the northern sky".EarthSky.Retrieved18 August2024.

Thisastronomy-related article is astub.You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it.

Thiscartographyormappingterm article is astub.You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it.

Northern celestial hemisphere

Contents

Astronomy

Observation

References

See also