Finish the year by tracking down one of the oldest known constellations: Taurus, the bull. The chart shows the view looking south from London at 22.00 GMT on 30 December. The view will remain essentially the same all week.
According to Babylonian star charts from about 1000BC, the grouping of stars we now call Taurus was known as the bull of heaven. However, the pattern’s association with a bull could be much older: some believe that the constellation can be found embedded in the 17,000-year-old cave paintings of bulls at Lascaux in France.
