Taurus Poniatovii Constellation

Taurus Poniatovii Constellation [Bode]

The obsolete constellation Taurus Poniatovii, Poniatowski’s Bull, is a northern constellation bordering Ophiuchus, Serpens, Aquila and Hercules. It was introduced by Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt in 1777, and its stars now belong to Ophiuchus and Aquila. Taurus Poniatovii spans 23 degrees of the zodiac in the Signs of Sagittarius and Capricorn.

Abbreviation: TaP
Genitive: Tauri Poniatovii ^[1]

Taurus Poniatovii Constellation Stars

2000	2050	Star	Name	Sp. Class	Mag.	Orb
00♑10	00♑43	67 Oph		B5	3.93	1°30′
00♑29	01♑11	68 Oph		A2	4.42	1°10′
01♑31	02♑13	70 Oph		K0	4.03	1°20′
02♑09	02♑51	72 Oph	Phorbaceus	A4	3.71	1°30′

Taurus Poniatovii Astrology

Robson

TAURUS PONIATOVII. Poniatowski’s Bull.

History. Formed by the Abbé Poczobut of Wilna in honour of Stanislaus Poniatowski, King of Poland.

Influence. It is said to give obstinancy and changeability, emotion, honour and renown. ^[2]

Taurus Poniatovii Constellation [Urania’s Mirror]

Allen

Taurus Poniatovii, Poniatowski’s Bull,
It was made up from unformed stars of Ophiuchus, Smyth writes,

in 1777 by the Abbé Poczobut, of Wilna, in honour of Stanislaus Poniatowski, King of Poland; a formal permission to that effect having been obtained from the French Academy. It is between the shoulder of Ophiuchus and the Eagle, where some stars form the letter V, and from a fancied resemblance to the zodiac-bull and the Hyades, became another Taurus. Poczobut was content with seven component stars, but Bode has scraped together no fewer than eighty, —

of course chiefly telescopic, for only 20 to 25 are visible to the unaided eye; but as a distinct constellation it is not generally recognized by astronomers, and its stars have been returned to Ophiuchus.

We have no individual names for any of these, but sundry small ones in the head were the Chinese Tsung Ting, or Tsung Jin, a Relative.

A century and a half before Poczobut’s time these stars, with those of our Vulpecula, had been introduced by Bartsch into his plates as the River Tigris, although this probably had previously been a recognized constellation. Its course was from β and γ, in the right shoulder of Ophiuchus, onwards between Aquila and the left hand of Hercules; thence between Albireo (β Cygni) and Sagitta to Equuleus and the front parts of Pegasus, ending at the latter’s neck. This Tigris continued until as late as 1679 with Royer, but has long since disappeared from the maps, and indeed from the memory of most observers; while the Royal Bull itself seems to be lapsing into similar obscurity.

Three or four centuries before all this the Arabian engraver of the Borgian globe appropriately represented the stars of this constellation by a triangular figure.

Although it has no named star, its “70 Ophiuchi,” the middle one in the eastern leg of the V, is a celebrated binary, with a period of about ninety years, the components 2″ apart, at a position angle, in the year 1897, of 276°.58. A third invisible companion is suspected. ^[3]