Welcome to learn the sky! In this video I will be talking about Gemini, the famous
twins who can easily be identified in the night sky. Before we begin to take a
look at the shape of this constellation it's always good to review the legend
surrounding it. So Gemini is one of the few constellations that looks very
similar to what it represents if you use a little bit of imagination. This
constellation dates far back in time and has been referenced in many ancient
texts. The twins were most often referred to as Castor and Pollux of Greek
mythology. Both boys were supposedly hatched from an egg after their mother
Leda was seduced by the Greek king of the gods Zeus when he was disguised as a
swan. If you have heard of Helen of Troy the
beautiful woman who created a very large war, she was known as the sister to the
twins, but if you look at ancient Roman mythology the twins were thought to be
Romulus and Remus who are the founders of Rome, and if you look at this picture
here you can see that this is an ancient Roman coin and Romulus and Remus are
depicted on this coin. Here in these photos we can see some remains of the
Temple of Castor and Pollux from Greek mythology, but then here we have a
sculpture of Romulus and Remus the founders of Rome that is located in
Italy. So again we can see some lasting artifacts of this mythologies carried on
even today. If we look further in China Castor and Pollux were the stars that
were associated with Yin and Yang the dual forces of nature.
Gemini also appears in ancient Persian texts and as well as Babylonian
astronomy legends mention the twins as well. So again the twins are just one of
those last Legends that pervades all different
cultures and many different stories and as always at learn the sky I will always
say that these stories will vary from culture to culture and we just have to
remember that as we look at the constellation that the stories will
change as time goes on. Let's take a look at the patterns of Gemini and start
getting familiar with where it is situated in the night sky. So here we
have a star chart and note that this is within the northern hemisphere. I have
always lived in the northern hemisphere, so I only really feel comfortable
talking about the constellations from the Northern Hemisphere perspective and
that goes for all my videos on this channel. So Gemini is located in the
winter skies, right over here ,and it is also as a Zodiacal Constellation and if you
can find Orion, right here, you most certainly will be able to find Gemini
which is situated right here. Now this is not my most favorite depiction or the
shape of Gemini because I see something very different but you will notice I'm
hoping you'll notice is that the ecliptic or the path of the Sun which is
represented by this dashed line. This is the path of the Sun and Gemini passes
through it, therefore it is a zodiacal constellation. So here is our first
picture of Gemini that we're going to take a look at. So take a few moments to
just observe this photo and see where your eye is drawn to. Do you see the pair
of bright stars that are fairly close to each other? Do you see any star clusters
within here? So if you are you're starting to notice some of the patterns.
okay So let's take a look at where Gemini is
situated within this photograph. Here they are
this is Gemini and to me I clearly clearly see two stick figures and
they're kind of laying on their side in this photograph, okay, so you have the
head of the one twin, his body, two legs, and then you see that exactly
on the other side. So who is who in this picture?
This here is Pollux that's the name of this star right here and it's slightly
brighter than Castor and I always remember Castor because he has a cast on
his leg. That is how I help remember what the difference is between these two
constellations. So what are some of the other things that you might see in this
photo. There definitely some other bright stars and star clusters here. So here
this is where canis minor is and canis minor is a small dog of Orion and it
only has two stars within it so if you can find Gemini you can definitely find
canis minor because it's right next door to it and then you might also notice
this small cluster right here. This is a beehive cluster in cancer and I have
another whole video on this particular constellation which is very interesting
but again if you can find a Gemini you should be able to find cancer which is
right next door and the way I always find cancer is by looking for this
beehive cluster within it. Let's again get some more practice with Gemini. Here
is Gemini again with a different perspective. So as you're looking at this
can you see two stick figures? One of the stick figures may kind of stand out to
you a little bit more as well and can you see the companion constellation
that's right next to Gemini which is Canis minor only two stars? Also are you
noticing the Beehive cluster in here? If you're starting to notice these things
this is what will help you identify Gemini when you go outside and look for
them. So here is where Gemini is, you have Pollux on the left, and castor on the
right. Castor has a cast on his leg that's just my little memory charm to
help me remember. We also have Canis minor down here towards the bottom legs
of Pollack and then we have the Beehive cluster in
cancer. All right here's a different picture. Are you able to point out Gemini
looking at this picture? First thing your eyes would probably be drawn to are the
two bright stars towards the upper left-hand corner. That would be Pollux
and Castor. Are you starting to remember the difference between the two? Which
one's brighter? Which one's a little bit more dim? Here we go, this is how I see
the twins and then here is another way to look at the constellations as well. So
remember that anything within this rectangular piece is a part of Gemini
okay constellations are just not the patterns
within them it's really everything within the rectangular space and this is
really meant for astronomers to make sure that they're talking about the same
thing across the globe and it helps us to keep track of the sky and what's in
it and you'll also notice the ecliptic going through it as well let's continue
to get more practice observing Gemini. Taking a look at this beautiful photo at
sunset we want to see if we can find Gemini using Orion. So see if you can
notice where Orion in this photo. If you want to draw your eyes towards the lower
right hand corner of the sunset that's where a Ryan is located and you can use
the shoulders over Ryan to kind of help point you out. If you draw an imaginary
line from here up in this direction you might come across
Gemini right here. If we point this out there's where Gemini is lying on its
side and this right here this would be a planet, I believe this is Jupiter
traveling through Gemini, and the other constellations we're seeing here are
Taurus the Bull and Auriga the Charioteer right here. So let's practice
using Orion again to find Gemini. Now when you're
looking at this night sky photo look for Orion towards the upper right hand
corner. You're not seeing the entire constellation but a part of it. You
should notice the belt stars, okay, and see if you can notice where Gemini is in
relation to Orion, okay. If Orion were standing straight up, here's Orion right
here, I'll point this out for you, if Orion were standing straight up Gemini
would always be laying on its side. We have Castor right here and Pollux, or I'm
sorry, Pollux and Castor right here with the cast on his leg.
Both Gemini and Orion are part of the winter hexagon, with it, which is an
asterism to help you identify where certain constellations sit. So here is Orion
on a star chart and here is Gemini. Each of their bright stars are a part of the winter hexagon and if you use the bottom part of Orion moving up through
the shoulder this will lead you right into the area of Gemini. So use Orion to
help you find the other constellations, and this is where I point this out for
you as well Orion if you go from the bottom leg up to the shoulder it'll lead
you in the general direction of where Gemini will be. So let's practice this,
okay. Here are you able to see where Orion is? So what you want to do is
here's Orion if you draw an imaginary line from leg to shoulder it should
point out where Gemini is as well. You can also use Orion the belt stars right
here to point down to serious and Canis Major and you can also use a belt stars
to help you point out Taurus. Here is a v-shaped face of Taurus right here and
the Pleiades as well. You can use the other side of Orion to help guide you
up into Auriga now remember this is um we have a 2d picture but in reality the
earth is in three dimensions so remember you can
use Orion to help you find many other constellations, oh I forgot one, you can
use the shoulders of Orion to help you find Canis Minor as well. So remember it
is very important to know what Orion looks like so it can help you find not
only Gemini but Taurus Auriga and a few of the other constellations as well. Now
that you're familiar with the pattern of Gemini and how to find it let's review
some of the bright stars that are within this constellation. So first we're going
to look at Castor because this has a designation of the Alpha star and each
star in a constellation has a Greek lettering system and they usually named
it based upon its brightness. So even though Castor is identified as the Alpha
star it's actually the second brightest star of Gemini. It's a bluish white star
and it's really a system of six stars even though that's too faint for you to
see with the naked eye or even a pair of binoculars. It is 46 light-years away and
that's one of the reasons it's so bright in the sky. Moving on we have Pollux and
this is a brightest star of Gemini despite its beta designation. Its
spectral class is that of an orange star spectral Class K and it is 36
light-years away. The third brightest star of Gemini is Alhena and it has
the gamma designation. Its spectral class is that of a it's a bluish white in
color and it's 85 light-years away. Taking a look at some of the celestial
objects of Gemini here is a picture of Gemini and notice you should be able to
see the ecliptic pass through it. So the Sun will pass through this constellation
making it a zodiac or constellation and you'll notice right here is where one of
those celestial objects are located. So m35 is a large elongated open cluster
and it has about a magnitude of 5 so you can see it with the naked eye on a
pretty dark night. It's about the area of the same size area of the full moon
so it's visible with the unaided eye but of course you want to take a look at it
with a pair of binoculars and you will be able to see it a little bit more.
It has about 200 stars here and you'll actually notice there's another open
cluster right nearby, okay, so Messier 35 is right here
it's about 2,800 light-years away from Earth and then you have NGC 21:58 it's a
little bit more compact and it's more it's farther away so it's 12,000
light-years away. So this smaller more compact star cluster is one that you'll
most likely need a telescope to see as opposed to pair of binoculars. When I
look at this with my binoculars they just kind of blend in with each other. So
again just to point out where you will see this it's by Castor's leg ,that has a
cast, again that's just my own little way of remembering it, but that's where m35
is so take a look at it and see if you can point it out and just to remember to
give a throwback to Charles Messier he was a French astronomer and he created
these catalogues of fixed celestial objects because he was a really a vyd
comet hunter and he was coming across these diffused nebulous objects and
thought they were comment so in order to distinguish the comets from the objects
he started creating a catalog and many many amateurs astronomers still use his
catalog of Messier objects to help find and locate these different deep sky
objects. The Eskimo nebula is also another another deep sky object that is
within Gemini and this planetary nebula was discovered by William Herschel in
1787 and you can kind of see how you might be able to see a head and then
surrounded by a parka hood so that's how I got the name Eskimo nebula and planetary
nebula does not have planets in it it just has a circular shape which
some astronomers thought were planets but it's really a star that is towards
the end of its life it's throwing off the last layers of gas that were inside
the star but no longer so you've got a little white dwarf here and these layers
are starting to just be thrown off from the star okay now fusion is really
happening in here it's just glowing from incandescent heat and if we were to
locate where the Eskimo Nebula is you want to find Pollux
go down towards the hip area and right here is where you would find the Eskimo
Nebula there's also a beautiful Reflection Nebula right near m35 okay
it's very faint but it's a diffuse Reflection Nebula located right towards
the heel of Castor. The Medusa Nebula is also very interesting it's a large
planetary nebula that borders right near Canis Minor and it's used to be a
supernova remnant or that's how it was classified but with further study it was
found to be a planetary nebula. So you can just see and if we take let's take a
closer look of the Medusa Nebula it was named after the Greek mythological
creature from Greek mythology because the filaments of glowing gas really look
like the serpent hair from Medusa so again another beautiful picture and an
object for you to look for. Also William Herschel discovered Ranas in 1781 when
it was near this star in Castor's foot, right here, so just another interesting
tidbit tidbit and Clyde Tombaugh also discovered Pluto when he exposed his
photographic plates towards the hip of Pollux and he was able to find Pluto. So
lots of history surrounding Gemini very very interesting and I've given you a
lot to look for either with your telescopes, with your
binoculars, or even with the unaided eye. So to conclude our video about Gemini
the famous twins it's best to remember that in the northern hemisphere it's
best during seen in the winter months and it is a zodiacal constellation which
means that the Sun does pass through it. The best way to find it is using Orion,
you want to trace a line from Rigel to Betelgeuse to find Gemini. The bright
stars we have our Pollux and castor and there's lots of different cool celestial
objects you can find such as Messier number 35, ok, the Eskimo nebula and
Medusa nebula are in this general area and a few other reflection nebulas as
well. So be sure if you have a pair of binoculars take a look at it and scan
through this awesome constellation thank you so much for watching if you have any
questions please leave them in the comments for me to answer and I hope to
see you back soon thank!