Camelopardalis
- Little Dipper
- Cepheus
- Cassiopeia
- Perseus
- Carter
- Lynx
- Big Dipper
- Dragon
The giraffe ( Camelopardalis in Latin ) is a constellation of the northern sky.
Description
The giraffe is an extensive but very faint constellation and can be observed throughout the year.
Between the distinctive constellations Ursa Major and Cassiopeia and the bright stars Polaris ( the Little Bear ) and Capella ( in Fuhrmann ) extends a large area that contains no conspicuous stars. In this area, the Giraffe, which is composed only of stars of the fourth, fifth or sixth size class extends. The brightest star, β Camelopardalis, has an apparent magnitude of 4.0 m.
History
In ancient times, the stars of the giraffe were not associated with a constellation. Only the Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius led Camelopardalis in 1612 one, obviously to close the supposed "gap " in the sky.
The German astronomer Jacob Bartsch, a son of Johannes Kepler, took over the Constellation in his 1624 published Planisphaerium Stellaris. However, he saw it as a mentioned in the Bible mount on which Rebekah rode to her wedding. Obviously Bartsch believed that it constitutes a camel.
Celestial objects
Stars
α Camelopardalis is, with an apparent magnitude of 4.26 m, the third brightest star in the giraffe. Measurements of the Hipparcos satellite yielded a distance of 7000 light years. Since the parallax associated with distant stars with large inaccuracies, the distance could also be "only" 4,000 light years. When the star is a massive bluish- white supergiant.
Double stars
β Camelopardalis is a double star system 1,500 light years away. It consists of a yellowish main star of spectral type G0 and a white luminous companion star of spectral type A5. The main star has 7 times the mass and the 32- times brighter than our sun.
The 11 Camelopardalis system is 600 light years away. It consists of a bluish- white star of spectral type B3 and an orange star of spectral class K0.
Both systems can easily be resolved with a small telescope into individual stars.
Variable Stars
Messier and NGC objects
NGC 1502 is an open cluster in 6,800 light years away, which was discovered by William Herschel. In a larger binoculars, a loose collection of stars are discovered. In a telescope reveals a myriad of stars.
NGC 2403 is a galaxy about 10 million light years away. It can already be detected in binoculars as a misty spot. In a larger telescope you can see hints of spiral arms.