Template:POTD/2016-05-21
Taurus is a large and prominent constellation in the northern hemisphere's winter sky, and one of the oldest constellations. Taurus marked the location of the Sun during the spring equinox and thus influenced various bull figures in the mythologies of Ancient Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Taurus hosts two of the nearest open clusters to Earth, the Pleiades and the Hyades, both of which are visible to the naked eye; it also hosts the red giant Aldebaran (the brightest star in the constellation) and the supernova remnant Messier 1, more commonly known as the Crab Nebula.
This illustration comes from Urania's Mirror, a set of 32 astronomical star chart cards first published in November 1824.Lithograph: Sidney Hall; restoration: Adam Cuerden