Planet Grouping Photo Page

Planet Grouping Photo Page May 7th, 2002

This 8 second photo was taken on May 7, 2002 at 10:07 pm EDT. Stars names come from their brightness and their constellation. The brightest star in a constellation is "alpha", the second brightest is "beta" and so on through the Greek alphabet. So, the brightest star in Taurus is Alpha Tauri. There are exceptions to this rule though. The brightest star in Orion is Rigel. It gets the designation of beta Orionis. Some stars also have proper names. The proper name of alpha Orionis is Betelgeuse. Many proper names for stars have come from Arabia. Betelgeuse is an Arabic name. It roughly translates to "arm pit of the giant". Some star names are Greek in origin such as Propus which means foot.
star names

This photo was taken at 9:44pm EDT.
Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury

Photos by:
John French
Planetarium Production Coordinator
Abrams Planetarium
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan, USA

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