Monoceros (Mon) is a faint constellation on the celestial equator, meaning it can be seen from both hemispheres¹². Its name means \"unicorn\" in Greek, but there is no clear mythological origin for the constellation¹². It was created by the Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius in the late 16th century, based on the observations of Dutch navigators¹².
Monoceros contains many interesting deep-sky objects, such as the Cone Nebula, a dark pillar of dust that resembles a cone; and the Christmas Tree Cluster, a young open cluster of stars that forms the shape of a Christmas tree¹². It also contains several variable stars, such as V838 Monocerotis, a red supergiant that had a spectacular outburst in 2002; and S Monocerotis, the brightest star in the NGC 2264 cluster¹².
Monoceros also contains one of the nearest known black holes to Earth, A0620-00, which is part of a binary system with a K-type main-sequence star³. The black hole has a mass of about 6.6 times that of the Sun and is located at a distance of about 3,300 light years from Earth³.
Monoceros has no stars brighter than magnitude 3.0, making it difficult to see with the naked eye¹². The brightest star in Monoceros is Beta Monocerotis, a triple star system with an apparent magnitude of 3.76¹². The second brightest star is Alpha Monocerotis, a yellow-white giant with an apparent magnitude of 3.93¹².
Monoceros is bordered by Orion to the west, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south, and Hydra to the east. Other bordering constellations include Canis Minor, Lepus, and Puppis¹². It is best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of February¹.
Kilde: Samtale med Bing, 18.6.2023
(1) Monoceros - Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoceros.
(2) V838 Monocerotis - Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V838_Monocerotis.
(3) A0620-00 - Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A0620-00.
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