Camelopardalis

Coordinates: Sky map 06h 00m 00s, +70° 00′ 00″
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Camelopardalis
Constellation
10
°.
Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of February.

Camelopardalis is a large but faint constellation of the northern sky representing a giraffe. The constellation was introduced in 1612 or 1613 by Petrus Plancius.[3][1] Some older astronomy books give Camelopardalus or Camelopardus as alternative forms of the name, but the version recognized by the International Astronomical Union matches the genitive form, seen suffixed to most of its key stars.[1]

Etymology

First attested in English in 1785, the word camelopardalis comes from Latin,[4] and it is the romanization of the Greek "καμηλοπάρδαλις" meaning "giraffe",[5] from "κάμηλος" (kamēlos), "camel"[6] + "πάρδαλις" (pardalis), "spotted",[7] because it has a long neck like a camel and spots like a leopard.

Features

The constellation Camelopardalis as it can be seen by the naked eye.

Stars

See also: List of stars in Camelopardalis

Although Camelopardalis is the 18th largest constellation, it is not a particularly bright constellation, as the brightest stars are only of fourth magnitude. In fact, it only contains four stars brighter than magnitude 5.0.[8]

  • α Cam is a blue-hued supergiant star of magnitude 4.3, over 6,000 light-years from Earth. It is one of the most distant stars easily visible with the naked eye.[1]
  • β Cam is the brightest star in Camelopardalis with an apparent magnitude of 4.03. This star is a double star, with components of magnitudes 4.0[9] and 8.6. The primary is a yellow-hued supergiant 1000 light-years from Earth.[1]
  • 11 Cam is a star of magnitude 5.2, 650 light-years from Earth. It appears without intense magnification very close to magnitude 6.1 12 Cam, at about the same distance from us, but the two are not a true double star; they have considerable separation.[1]
  • Σ 1694 (Struve 1694, 32H Cam) is a binary star 300 light-years from Earth. Both components have a blue-white hue; the primary is of magnitude 5.4 and the secondary is of magnitude 5.9.[1]
  • CS Cam is the second brightest star, though it has neither a Bayer nor a Flamsteed designation. It is of magnitude 4.21 and is slightly variable.[9]
  • Z Camelopardalis variable stars
    .

Other variable stars are U Camelopardalis, VZ Camelopardalis, and Mira variables T Camelopardalis, X Camelopardalis, and R Camelopardalis.[9] RU Camelopardalis is one of the brighter Type II Cepheids visible in the night sky.

In 2011 a supernova was discovered in the constellation.[11]

Deep-sky objects

Camelopardalis is in the part of the celestial sphere facing away from the galactic plane. Accordingly, many distant galaxies are visible within its borders.

Meteor showers

The annual May meteor shower Camelopardalids from comet 209P/LINEAR have a radiant in Camelopardalis.

History

Tarandus and Custos Messium.[16]

Camelopardalis is not one of Ptolemy's 48 constellations in the Almagest.[17] It was created by Petrus Plancius in 1613.[1] It first appeared in a globe designed by him and produced by Pieter van den Keere. One year later, Jakob Bartsch featured it in his atlas. Johannes Hevelius depicted this constellation in his works which were so influential that it was referred to as Camelopardali Hevelii or abbreviated as Camelopard. Hevel.

Part of the constellation was hived off to form the constellation Sciurus Volans, the Flying Squirrel, by William Croswell in 1810. However this was not taken up by later cartographers.[18]

Equivalents

In

Purple Forbidden Enclosure
(紫微垣 Zǐ Wēi Yuán).

See also

  • Camelopardalis (Chinese astronomy)

References

Citations
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Ridpath 2001, pp. 92–93.
  2. ^ a b "Camelopardalis, constellation boundary". The Constellations. International Astronomical Union. Archived from the original on 4 June 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  3. ISBN 9780241245347. Archived
    from the original on 10 November 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles. "camelopardalis". A Latin Dictionary. Perseus Digital Library. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  5. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert. "καμηλοπάρδαλις". A Greek-English Lexicon. Perseus Digital Library. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  6. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert. "κάμηλος". A Greek-English Lexicon. Perseus Digital Library. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  7. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert. "πάρδαλις". A Greek-English Lexicon. Perseus Digital Library. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  8. ^ Staal 1988, p. 241.
  9. ^ a b c Norton 1973, pp. 118–119.
  10. ^ "American Association of Variable Star Observers". Archived from the original on 10 September 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  11. ^ Boyle, Rebecca (3 January 2011). "10-Year-Old Canadian Girl Is The Youngest Person Ever to Discover a Supernova". Popular Science. Archived from the original on 18 March 2020. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  12. ^ a b c Wilkins & Dunn 2006.
  13. ^ Revised NGC/IC Data 2013. Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke.
  14. ^ Levy 2005, p. 89.
  15. ^ Levy 2005, p. 91.
  16. ^ "The constellations Camelopardalis, Tarandus and Custos Messium". National Museums Scotland. Archived from the original on 25 November 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  17. ^ Ley, Willy (December 1963). "The Names of the Constellations". For Your Information. Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 90–99.
  18. ISBN 978-0-387-71668-8. Archived
    from the original on 10 November 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
References
Look up camelopardalis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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