Taurus constellation from Johannes Hevelius' Prodromus astronomiae, Firmamentum Sobiescianum, sive Uranographia, 1687. Taurus is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is a Latin word meaning bull. It is one of the 48 constellations described b
Taurus constellation from Johannes Hevelius' Prodromus astronomiae, Firmamentum Sobiescianum, sive Uranographia, 1687. Taurus is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is a Latin word meaning bull. It is one of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union. Taurus is a large and prominent constellation in the northern hemisphere's winter sky. It is one of the oldest constellations, dating back to at least the Early Bronze Age when it marked the location of the Sun during the spring equinox. Taurus came to symbolize the bull in the mythologies of Ancient Babylon, Egypt and Greece. Taurus is the second astrological sign in the Zodiac. It spans the 30-60th degree of the zodiac, between and degree of celestial longitude, which the Sun transits this area on average between April 20 to May 20 each year. The Hevelius Firmamentum was the first star atlas to rival Bayer's Uranometria in accuracy, utility, innovation, and influence. Hevelius was perhaps the most active observational astronomer of the last half of the seventeenth century. His star atlas is notable for many reasons. It contains 56 large, double page engraved star maps. The star positions for the charts were derived from his own star catalog, based on his own observations, which was first published along with the atlas. It is unique among the Grand Atlases in choosing to depict the constellations as they would appear on a globe, that is, from the outside looking in, rather than from a geocentric point of view, as Bayer and most others adopted.
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