Bull

(astronomy) A northern constellation; right ascension 4 hours, declination 15° north; it includes the star Aldebaran, useful in navigation. Also known as Bull.

The Bull, in astronomy, a winter constellation. Taurus is the second sign of the zodiac. The group contains two notable star clusters, the Hyades and the Pleiades. The Hyades is a V-shaped cluster, the V forming the head of the charging bull, with the fiery bright star Aldebaran in the right eye (see illustration). This star has long been used in navigation. Farther west lies the compact, beautiful cluster of six stars, the famous Pleiades. See also Constellation; Hyades; Pleiades.

Line pattern of the constellation Taurus. The grid lines represent the coordinates of the sky. The apparent brightness, or magnitude, of the stars is shown by the sizes of the dots, which are graded by appropriate numbers as indicated.

(Bull Worldwide Information Systems, Billerica, MA, Group Bull, Paris, France, www.bull.com) A computer and information services company with offices in more than 100 countries. A leading advocate of open source software, Bull offers Intel-based servers running the GCOS operating system and PowerPC-based servers running AIX. One of its business units provides a complete line of networked storage products, while its Trustway appliance products are known for their open source security options for VPNs.

Bull was founded in France in 1933 and named after Norwegian engineer Fredrik Rosing Bull. Bull had created a revolutionary adding-sorting punch card machine in 1921, and his patents were purchased by the company. In the 1960s, Bull partnered with GE in computer development in France. When Honeywell took over GE's computer business in 1970, its French division became Honeywell Bull. In 1987, Honeywell turned all its computer business over to Bull. For a while, both Honeywell and NEC had ownership in the company, which was named Bull HN. Today, all operations, with particular focus in the manufacturing, banking, finance, and telecom sectors, are under the Bull name. See Honeywell.

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