Vela the Sails
Formerly
part of the ancient constellation of Argo Navis, which represents the
ship that Jason and the Argonauts sailed on looking for the golden
fleece. It was broken up by the French astronomer Nicolas De Lacaille
in the 1750s, into three parts Carina the Keel, Puppis the Poop and
Vela the Sails.
Since
Vela is only a sub division of a once larger constellation it has no
stars labelled alpha or beta. Vela lies in a rich part of the Milky
Way with faint nebulosity which is visible on long exposure
photographs.
Gamma
or Suhail al Muhlif which means the oath taker has a magnitude of
1.8 and is one of the brare wolf rayetv stars with a spectrum of WC8,
the temperature is around 55,000’C and lies at a distance of 336
light years. This star one of the closest WR stars to us.
Delta
or Alsafinah which means the ship is a magnitude 2.0 star with a
temperature of 9,000’C and is 80 light years away.
Kappa
magnitude 2.5 is a B2 class star and is 570 light years away
Mu
magnitude is a binary star of magnitude 2.7 the stars are of class
G5 giant and a G2 star take 138 light years yo orbit each other. They
can be seen with the naked eye. Mu Is 117 light years away and both
stars have surface temperatures of around 5,000’C
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