Carter (constellation)

Auriga is a redirect to this article. For the former British car brand Auriga, see Espero Limited .

Constellation Carter
Latin name	Auriga
Latin genitive	Aurigae
Abbreviation	Aur
Right ascension	04 h 37 m 54 s to  07 h 30 m 56 s
declination	+ 27 ° 53 ′ 29 ″ to  + 56 ° 09 ′ 53 ″
surface	657,438 deg² rank 21
Completely visible	90 ° N to 34.1 ° S
Observation time for Central Europe	Partly circumpolar. Full visibility (approx.): Reference point 50 ° 27 N, 11 ° 31 ′ E Beginning 5th July Start 12 hours or all night November 6th End of 12 hours or all night January 26th The End June 5th
Number of stars brighter than 3 mag	5
Brightest star (size)	Capella (0.08)
Meteor streams	Alpha aurigids Delta aurigids
Neighboring constellations ( clockwise from north )	giraffe Perseus bull Twins lynx
swell	IAU ,

The carter ( Latin / technical language Auriga ) is a constellation of the northern sky. Its main star Capella is a star of the 1st magnitude and part of the eye-catching winter hexagon .

description

The Carter constellation as seen with the naked eye

The Carter is an expansive, easily recognizable constellation. It borders directly to the east on the bull (lat .: Taurus). Together with the star Elnath (β Tauri), which belongs to Taurus, the carter forms an almost regular hexagon. The main star Capella is with 0.1 mag the third brightest star in the northern sky.

The northern part of the wagoner is circumpolar in our latitudes , i.e. i.e. visible all year round. It reaches its highest position in the night sky in winter. In about 13,000 years it will mark the celestial equator due to the precession .

The star-rich ribbon of the Milky Way runs through the carter , so several interesting objects, such as star clusters and nebulae, can be seen here.

history

The constellation was known to the Babylonians as the carter (Rukubi). The Latin name Auriga means something like charioteer or helmsman.

The Romans identified the constellation with the Greek king Erichthonios , who invented the four-horse chariot.

The carter is one of the 48 constellations of ancient Greek astronomy described by Ptolemy .

According to an earlier interpretation, the constellation is a shepherd who carries a goat over his shoulder. The name of the main star Capella means (lat. :) "kid". In older star atlases, such as the Uranometria by Johann Bayer or the works of Johannes Hevelius and JE Bode , the carter is depicted as a bearded man with a goat on his back or arm.

In the past, the southernmost star Elnath was assigned to the carter as γ Aurigae. After the constellation boundaries were determined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), it now belongs to Taurus.

mythology

King Erichthonios I of Athens was the first to harness four horses to his wagon. With the Romans he was considered the son of the god Vulcan , with the Greeks as the son of Hephaestus and Athena .

According to Eratosthenes , Hippolytus , son of Theseus, is transferred to heaven as a constellation after his death.

According to Greek mythology , the goat is said to be the nymph Amalthea , whom Zeus looked after as a boy. Zeus was a son of the titan Kronos , who was prophesied that one day he would be overthrown as ruler by one of his descendants. Kronos then devoured all of his children immediately after they were born. After Zeus was born, a stone was pushed under him instead, which he also swallowed. Zeus was hidden in a cave and raised by Amalthea with the milk of a goat.
According to other mythological interpretations, Amalthea was a goat herself. Her horn later belonged to the goddess of luck Fortuna and was her " cornucopia ".

Celestial objects

Stars

B.	F.	Names or other designations	m	M.	Lj	Spectral class
α	13	Capella , Alhajoth	0.08	−0.48	42	G5 III + G0 III
β	34	Menkalinan	1.9	−0.1	82	A2 V
θ	37	Mahasim	2.7		173	A0p
ι	3	Hassaleh , Kabdhilinam, Al Kab	2.7	approx. −3	about 500	K3 II
ε	7th	Almaaz , Al Num	2.9 to 3.8	−5.9 to −4.8	2000	F0 Ia
η	10	Haedus	3.18	−0.96	219	B3 V
ζ	8th	Saclateni , Hoedus I, Haedus I, Sadatoni, Saclateni	3.7 to 4.0	−3.2 to −2.5	790	K4 II + B8 V
δ	33	Delta Aurigae	3.72	0.55	140	K0 III
ν	32		3.97	−0.13	215	K0 III
π	35		4.24 to 4.34		840	M3 II
κ	44		4.32		169	G8 IIIb
τ	29		4.51		213	G8 III Fe-1
	16		4.54
λ	15th		4.69		41	G1 IV
χ	25th		4.71		2000	B5 Iab
υ	31		4.72		475	M0 III
	2		4.79
ψ 2	50		4.80		433	K3 III
μ	11		4.82
	63		4.91
ψ 1	46		4.92
	4th		4.93
ξ	30th		4.96
	9		4.98
ψ 7	58		4.99
	14th		5.01
σ	21st		5.02
ψ 4	55		5.04
	19th		5.05
φ	24		5.08
ρ	20th		5.22
		AE Aurigae	5.78-6.08	−2.3	1460	O9.5 V

Due to the modern definition of the constellation borders, Gamma Aurigae belongs to the constellation Taurus and is listed as β Tauri .

Observable multiple stars

system	m	distance
θ	2.7 / 7.2 / 9	4/50 "
δ	3.72 / 9.7 / 9.7	115.4 / 197.1 "
ω	4.9 / 7.8	5 "
ν	4.0 / 9.5	54.6 "
λ	4.69 / 13.4	29 "
14th	5.1 / 7.5	14.6 "
26th	5.4 / 8.0	12.4 "
41	6.2 / 7.0	7.6 "

θ Aurigae is a potential binary star system with an angular distance of just under 4  arc seconds ; a third, optical component is about 50 arc seconds away. To observe all three stars you need a medium telescope with an aperture of 8 cm or more.

ω Aurigae is a binary star system 250 light years away, with two whitish shining stars of the spectral classes A0 and F5. Due to the wide angular distance of 5 arc seconds , the system can be resolved into single stars with a smaller telescope.

Variable stars

star	m	period	Type
β	1.85 to 1.93	47.5 hours	Coverage variable
ε	2.9 to 3.8	9883 days	Coverage variable
ζ	3.7 to 4.0	972.16 days	Coverage variable
π	4.24 to 4.34	972.16 days	irregularly variable
RT	5.0 to 5.8	3.7281 days	Cepheid
AE	5.78 to 6.08		irregularly variable

The second brightest star, β Aurigae, is 82 light years away. Like Capella, it is a spectroscopic binary star and, moreover, an eclipsing star , i.e. That is, two stars of different luminosity orbit each other. When the darker component moves in front of the lighter one, the apparent brightness decreases.
The name Menkalinan is of Arabic origin and means something like "the shoulder of the rein-holder (carter)".

Epsilon Aurigae is an eclipse-changing star of the Algol type about 2,000 light years away. Of all known eclipsing variables, it has the largest period at around 27 years, with the phase of minimum brightness being around 18 months.

Saclateni is also an eclipse variable of the Algol type. The system consists of a red supergiant of the spectral class K4, which is orbited by a smaller bluish companion star of the spectral class B. The system has the second longest known period: every 2.66 years the bluish star moves in front of the main star and the observed brightness decreases. The system is about 790 light years away.

The stars ε and ζ Aurigae are also referred to as Haedus I and II ( Greek "the children").

RT Aurigae is a pulsation-variable Cepheid- type star at a distance of 2,500 light years. The star changes its brightness rhythmically in 3 days, 7 hours and 28 minutes.

AE Aurigae is a variable star about 1460 light-years away, the brightness of which fluctuates irregularly between 5.78 and 6.08 mag. On a dark night it is barely visible to the naked eye. Measurements of the proper motion showed that the star moves at an extraordinarily high speed of 100 km / s. Together with 53 Arietis in Aries and μ Columbae in Dove, he belongs to the class of runaway stars (outliers). Possibly they were once members of a multiple star system and were thrown out of the Orion Association as a result of a supernova explosion or the near passage of another system two to three million years ago.

Messier and NGC objects

Messier (M)	NGC	other	m	Type	Surname
36	1960		6.5	Open star cluster
37	2099		6.0	Open star cluster
38	1912		7.0	Open star cluster
	1664		7.2	Open star cluster
	1778		7.7	Open star cluster
	1857		7.0	Open star cluster
	1883			Open star cluster
	1907		8.2	Open star cluster
	1931		10	Emission nebula
	2126			Open star cluster
	2192			Open star cluster
	2281		5.4	Open star cluster
		IC 405		Emission nebula
		IC 2149	10.6	Planetary nebula

In the Fuhrmann there are three open star clusters that the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier included in his catalog of foggy objects ( Messier catalog ). All three star clusters are about 4,000 light years away and are a beautiful sight in binoculars or telescopes. They can be found relatively easily by looking for them in the Milky Way in the area of ​​the carter.

M36 can be resolved into 20 to 30 individual stars with larger binoculars. It contains a total of about 60 stars of the 9th to 14th magnitude.

M37 is the most impressive star cluster in the Fuhrmann. In the binoculars, however, you can only see a foggy spot. In the telescope, the cluster can be resolved into an impressive number of individual stars. It contains a total of 150 single stars from 9 mag to 12.5 mag

M38 can also only be seen in the binoculars as a foggy spot. About 100 single stars from 8 mag to 12 mag are visible in the telescope, which are arranged in an interesting way.

NGC 1931 is an emission nebula just east of M36. A gas cloud is excited to glow by neighboring stars. The nebula is already visible in a smaller telescope. In a larger telescope, four closely spaced stars can be seen in the nebula.

NGC 2126 is a loose star cluster with 20 stars 11 to 14 ^m .

NGC 2281 was discovered by Wilhelm Herschel in 1788 . He's a long way west of the carter, almost halfway to the twins . It is also an interesting open cluster made up of brighter, scattered stars. In terms of its size and brightness, it is comparable to Messier objects.

See also

• List of constellations

Web links

Commons : Auriga  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Cross reference for 69 stars in the constellation.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eratosthenes Katasterismoi 6. Pausanias 2,32,1