Lepus and Columba - Downloadable article
Admire the stars, nebulae, and galaxies in the habitats of the Hare and the Dove.
By
Tom Polakis —
Published:
March 3, 2009This downloadable article is from an Astronomy magazine 45-article series called "Celestial Portraits." The collection highlights all 88 constellations in the sky and explains how to observe each constellation's deep-sky targets. The articles feature star charts, stunning pictures, and constellation mythology. We've put together 11 digital packages. Each one contains four Celestial Portraits articles for you to purchase and download.
"Lepus and Columba" is one of four articles included in Celestial Portraits Package 9.
Winter evenings usher in the bright, nearby stars of the constellations Orion, Gemini, and Auriga. The band of the Milky Way opposite our galaxy's center shines brightly. Tucked away directly south of Orion are two small constellations that are far enough off the galactic plane to show galaxies, but still contain clusters and nebulae in our home galaxy.
Lepus the Hare holds eight stars brighter than 4th magnitude, and you can indeed make out a rabbit's foot with some imagination. More than 1,000 light-years away, Alpha (α) Leporis is both the brightest and most distant of the constellation's naked-eye stars. Diagonally opposite in the constellation's central four-star pattern, Gamma (γ) Leporis is an ordinary, sunlike star only 29 light-years away. Lying in the southwest corner of the constellation, Epsilon (ε) Leporis is a spectral type K4 giant that appears orange to the naked eye. To read the complete article, purchase and download Celestial Portraits Package 9. |
Deep-sky objects in Lepus and Columba
R Leporis, NGC 1744, Abell 7, NGC 1792, NGC 1808, NGC 1832, NGC 1851, ADS 3954, M79 (NGC 1904), IC 418, NGC 1964, NGC 2017, NGC 2090, NGC 2188, NGC 2196 |
Package 9 contains the following Celestial Portraits articles
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