Post by glactus on Feb 17, 2008 10:24:40 GMT
Canes Venatici is one of three constellations that represent dogs, along with Canis Major and Canis Minor. The constellation's brightest star is Cor Caroli (á2 CVn), named by Edmund Halley in memory of the king Charles I, King of England, or his son, Charles II. It is of magnitude 2.90.
La Superba (Y CVn) is a semiregular variable star that varies between magnitudes 4.7 and 6.2 over a period of around 158 days. It is a carbon star and is famous for being deep red.
AM CVn a very blue star of magnitude 14, is the prototype of a special class of cataclysmic variable stars, in which the companion star is a white dwarf, rather than a main sequence star.
Notable deep sky objects
The famous whirlpool galaxy M51, and NGC 5915
Canes Venatici contains five Messier objects, including four galaxies. One of the more significant galaxies in Canes Venatici is the Whirlpool Galaxy(M51, NGC 5194) and NGC 5195, a small barred spiral galaxy that is seen face on. This was the first galaxy recognised as having a spiral structure, this structure being first observed by Lord Rosse in 1845.
The sunflower galaxy M63
Other notable spiral galaxies in Canes Venatici are the Sunflower Galaxy (M63, NGC 5055), Messier 94 (NGC 4736), and Messier 106 (NGC 4258).
Messier 3 (NGC 5272) is a globular cluster. It is 18° in diameter, and at magnitude 6.3 is bright enough to be seen with binoculars.
credits:
Map and text: Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canes_Venatici
images: Esa science and technology
images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://sci.esa.int/science-e-media/img/
Images: Britannica
cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=91551&rendTypeId=4