Canes Venatici the hunting - Northern Hemisphere
This constellation
was added to the sky by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius who
was not only an astronomer but the major of Danzig. Hevelius invented
10 new constellation in the northern sky, astronomers today still use
seven of them. It was in 1687, that Canes Venatici or the hunting
dogs were created. According to myth the hunting dogs were being held
by the Herdsman Bootes and it is suggested that this may be to
prevent them from chasing the two bears around the celestial pole.
Before Hevelius this
area of sky was part of Ursa Major The Great Bear, there are only two
stars of note they used to be known as Asterion or the northern dog
and Chara or the southern dog, these 2 will become alpha and beta
Canes Venatici.
Alpha or Cor Caroli
which means ‘Charles Heart’ and there is some confusion as to who
this refers to. Some references says it honours Charles I, while
other sources suggest that it shone particularly brightly in 1660 on
the arrival of Charles II and the restoration of the monarchy.
You can find Cor
Caroli below the tail of the Great Bear it is a fairly bright star,
and is an A class indicating it is hotter than the Sun with a
magnitude of 2.8 and is 115 light years away.
Beta or Chara which
means the ‘Southern Dog is a G0 class star just slightly hotter
than the Sun. It has a brightness of magnitude 4.2, and is 27
light-years distant from the Sun.
No comments:
Post a Comment