Canes Venatici
The International Astronomical Union has classified 88 constellations. Canes Venatici is one of them (IAU). It is a small northern constellation formed in the 17th century by Johannes Hevelius. The constellation's name is Latin for 'hunting dogs,' and it is sometimes shown in pictures as depicting the dogs of Boötes the Herdsman, a nearby constellation. With an apparent magnitude of 2.9, Cor Caroli is the brightest star in the constellation. La Superba (Y CVn) is one of the brightest and reddest carbon stars visible to the naked eye. The Whirlpool Galaxy is a spiral galaxy that is turned face-on to observers on Earth and was the first spiral galaxy discovered. Quasar TON 618 also boasts one of the most enormous black holes in the universe, with a mass of 66 billion solar masses. |
History
Canes Venatici's stars aren't particularly brilliant. They were recorded as unfigured stars underneath the constellation Ursa Major in Claudius Ptolemy's star catalogue in classical times. The association of these stars with Boötes' dogs stemmed from a mistranslation in mediaeval times: certain of Boötes' stars were usually described as representing Boötes' club (Greek: o, kollorobos). When the Greek astronomer Ptolemy's Almagest was translated from Greek to Arabic, the translator Hunayn ibn Ishaq didn't know the Greek word and instead wrote لعصا ذات الكُلاب al-'aşā dhāt al-kullāb,' which means 'the staff with a hook.' The translator, Gerard of Cremona, mistaken kullb ('hook') for kilb ('dogs') when translating the Arabic text into Latin. In the Arabic language without diacritics, both written words appear to be the same, prompting Gerard to write it as Hastile habens canes ('spearshaft-having dogs'). (Allen 1963) Boötes was represented with two dogs by the German astronomer Peter Apian in 1533. Apianus 1533) These fictitious canines circulated in astronomical literature until Hevelius decided in 1687 to create their constellation. In his star atlas, Hevelius named the northern dog Asterion and the southern dog Chara as Canes Venatici, 'the hunting dogs.' (Ridpath 2017) Antonn Bevá, a Czech astronomer, awarded the designations Asterion and Chara to CVn in his star catalogue. (Bečvář 1951) Canes Venatici survived to become one of the 88 IAU named constellations, despite the International Astronomical Union dropping various mediaeval and Renaissance improvements in 1930. (Delporte 1930) |
Deep sky Objects
M51 – Whirlpool Galaxy
NGC 5195 – Dwarf galaxy which is being consumed by M51
M63 – Sunflower Galaxy
M94 – Spiral Galaxy
NGC 4631 – Barrel Spiral Galaxy
M3 – Globular Cluster
M94 – Spiral Galaxy
Main stars – 2
Bayer stars – 21
Stars with planets – 4
Stars brighter than Magnitude 3.0 – 1
Stars which is closer than 32ly – 2
Bordering
constellations
M51 – Whirlpool Galaxy
NGC 5195 – Dwarf galaxy which is being consumed by M51
M63 – Sunflower Galaxy
M94 – Spiral Galaxy
NGC 4631 – Barrel Spiral Galaxy
M3 – Globular Cluster
M94 – Spiral Galaxy
Main stars – 2
Bayer stars – 21
Stars with planets – 4
Stars brighter than Magnitude 3.0 – 1
Stars which is closer than 32ly – 2
Bordering
constellations
- Ursa Major
- Boötes
- Coma Berenices