Lupus (constellation)
- Scale
- (Water snake)
- Centaur
- Circle
- Square
- Scorpio
The wolf (Latin lupus, sumerian UR.DIM ) is a constellation of the southern sky.
Description
The wolf is between the striking constellations Scorpio and Centaur. Three of its stars are brighter than the third magnitude. Through the southern part of the Milky Way pulls, so it contains a number of foggy objects. Because of its southern location can range from southern Europe and the southern Mediterranean Europe from only the northern part of the wolf to be seen.
History
The wolf is one of the classic 48 constellations of the ancient world, described by Ptolemy. 2,000 years ago, he was completely visible from southern Europe. Due to the precession of the earth's axis has shifted its location to the south over time.
In 1006 glowed in the wolf on an extremely bright supernova that is now called SN 1006.
Mythology
For the Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians, the constellation was also called Wolf ( UR.DIM ) and was considered as the embodiment of God Kusu, which in turn was counted as one of the 12 celestial objects of Enki.
The ancient Greeks called him Therion ( an unspecified designated ravenous beast ). The animal was sacrificed on an altar of the centaur.
Celestial objects
Stars
β Lupi is a 500 light-years distant, bluish shining star of spectral type B2 IV
Double stars
κ Lupi is a double star system 200 light-years away. The two components belong to the spectral classes B9 and A2. Due to the angular spacing of 27 arc seconds they can already be resolved with smaller telescope into individual stars.
The ξ Lupi system is 250 light years away. It consists of two whitish shining stars of spectral types A0 and A2.
μ Lupi is 250 light years distant quadruple star. Even with the naked eye are two stars visible. To observe all four components are telescope.
Variable Stars
α Lupi, the brightest star in Wolf, is a 548 light-years distant star of spectral type B1 III. It has 10 times the mass and 10 times the diameter of our sun. Its brightness changes over a period of 6 hours and 14 minutes to the low amount of 0.03 magnitudes. It is a variable star of type beta Cephei.
NGC objects
In Wolf are the open clusters NGC 5749 and NGC 5822nd
NGC 5822 is about 2,500 light-years away and consists of about 100 stars. With a diameter of 40 arc minutes in the sky he takes a larger area than the full Moon. In prism binoculars it appears as a vast misty spot.
The globular cluster NGC 5824, NGC 5927 and NGC 5986 can also be spotted with binoculars.
NGC 5986 is about 35,000 light years away. With a telescope of 15 cm aperture, the edge region can be resolved into individual stars.
The open star cluster NGC 5822 has an extent of only 6 arc seconds.