Lupus and Norma - Downloadable article
On the fringes of the southern Milky Way, planetary nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies liven up the modest Wolf and Carpenter's Square.
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.
"Lupus and Norma" is one of four articles included in Celestial Portraits Package 10.
The skies become more and more starry in the hours preceding the celestial arrival of the Milky Way's center. In this region, the narrow stream of the Milky Way pools into a wide lake whose edges extend some 20° away from the plane of the galaxy's disk. The stellar activity picks up in the constellation Lupus the Wolf. A modest-sized constellation spanning 334 square degrees, it contains 10 stars brighter than 4th magnitude among a preponderance of fainter naked-eye stars. Many of them share the same distance: Six of the seven brightest members of Lupus are about 500 light-years away. However, it's difficult to form a wolf or any other pattern out of this jumble of bright stars. To read the complete article, purchase and download Celestial Portraits Package 10. |
Deep-sky targets in Lupus and Norma
IC 4406, NGC 5643, NGC 5749, ESO 274-1, NGC 5882, NGC 5925, NGC 5927, Menzel 1, NGC 5986, Shapley 1, NGC 6067, SL 8, Menzel 2, NGC 6087, NGC 6134, NGC 6152, NGC 6167 |
Package 10 contains the following Celestial Portraits articles
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