Snake bearer

Serpent Bearer Constellation
Latin name	Ophiuchus
Latin genitive	Ophiuchi
Abbreviation	Oph
Right ascension	16 h 01 m 33 s to  18 h 45 m 50 s
declination	−30 ° 12 ′ 44 ″ to  + 14 ° 23 ′ 15 ″
surface	948,340 deg² rank 11
Completely visible	60.1 ° N to 76.0 ° S
Observation time for Central Europe	summer
Number of stars brighter than 3 mag	5
Brightest star (size)	Ras Alhague (2.08)
Meteor streams	Ophiuchids
Neighboring constellations ( clockwise from north )	Hercules Snake (head) Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Snake (tail) Eagle
swell	IAU ,

The snake- bearer ( Latin Ophiuchus , the snake- bearer [a star] ' ; from ancient Greek ὀφιοῦχος ophiouchos , German ' holding snakes [especially a constellation] ' , astronomical symbol: ⛎) is a constellation on the celestial equator .

description

The constellation of the Serpent Bearer as seen with the naked eye

The serpent bearer is a very extensive, but not very conspicuous constellation in the summer sky. Since his stars are far apart and not very prominent, it is not very easy to identify him between Hercules and Scorpio .

The serpent bearer has an annular shape, from which the stars of the serpent emanate to the west and east .

The band of the Milky Way runs through the western part .

Because the ecliptic partially runs through this constellation, the sun moves through this constellation from November 30th to December 18th. Although this is longer than the wandering through the neighboring Scorpio, the serpent bearer was ignored in the ancient canonization of the ecliptical constellations, as is still the case in astrology today, perhaps also to enable the in many respects more attractive division of twelve. It was not officially established until 1928 that those small stars that were still assigned to the constellation Scorpio in antiquity belong to the constellation of the Serpent Bearer. Thus, from a cartographic point of view, the sun currently runs through the constellation Serpent Bearer from November 30th to December 18th - a 30 ° section on the ecliptic directly before the point of the winter solstice.

history

The serpent bearer is one of the 48 ancient constellations described by Ptolemy .

The bright supernova 1604 lit up in the Serpent Bearer . Since October 2010 the snake bearer has been recorded in Unicode 6.0 under the code point: U + 26CE, since 2015 as an emoji .

The space probe Voyager 1 , the most distant and man-made object, is located approximately the same distance between α Herculis, α and κ Ophiuchi in the constellation of the Serpent Bearer at right ascension 17h 14m and declination + 12 ° 00 '(January 2019).

In February 2020, scientists discovered the remains of an eruption that originated from an active galaxy core . The gas ejected from X - and radio emission from which the scientists suspect that the explosion took place over millions of years, was, among other things by the Chandra X-ray Observatory of NASA and the XMM-Newton of the ESA discovered.

mythology

There are several interpretations of the mythological origin of the serpent-bearer, among other things he is equated with the hero Herakles (lat. Hercules), on Rhodes he was considered the lost Phorbas .

According to the most common tradition, the serpent bearer represents Asclepius (Latin Aesculapus), son of Apollo and his lover Koronis .

His birth was ill-fated. Koronis had taken another lover, whereupon the jealous Apollon killed her. Even as she was dying, she told him that she was carrying a child of his. Apollon managed to save the child. He had the boy raised by Cheiron , a wise Centaur . This instructed him in the art of healing and Asclepius soon became himself a great healer and benefactor of humanity. However, when he raised a dead person, Zeus found this presumptuous and struck him with a lightning bolt.

The Aesculapian staff, wrapped in snakes, is derived from Asklepios and became a symbol of the healing arts.

Celestial objects

Stars

Depiction of Johannes Kepler . The star marked with an "N" on the right foot of the snake bearer is Kepler's Supernova Supernova 1604

B.	F.	Names or other designations	Vmag	Lj	Spectral class
α	55	Ras Alhague	2.08	47	A5 III
η	35	Sabik	2.43	84	A2.5 Va
ζ	13	Han	2.54	458	O9.5 V
δ	1	Yed Prior	2.73	170	M1 III
β	60	Cebalrai	2.76	82	K2 III
κ	27		3.19	86	K2 IIIvar
ε	2	Yed posterior	3.23	106	G8 III
θ	42		3.27	563	B2 IV
ν	64		3.32	153	K0 III
	72	HR 6771	3.71	83	A4 IVs
γ	62		3.75	95	A0 V
λ	10	Marfik	3.8	166	A2 V
	67		3.93		B5 Ib
	70	70 Ophiuchi	4.03	17th	K0 V SB
	44		4.16	84	A3 IVm
χ	7th		4.2 to 5.0	489	B2 Vne
	45		4.28	111	F3 III
φ	8th		4.29	210	G8 / K0 III
		HR 6401	4.33	20th	K2 III
σ	49		4.34	1173	K3 IIvar
ι	25th		4.39	234	B8 V
ξ	40		4.39	57	F2 / F3V
	68		4.42	265	A2 Vn
ω	9		4.45	175	Ap
ψ	4th		4.48	178	K0 III
		HR 6493	4.53	98	F3 V
ρ	70		4.57	394	B2 V
μ	57		4.58	549	B8 II-III MNp
υ	64		4.62	122	A3m
	71		4.64	238	G8 III-IV
	20th		4.64	121	F7 IV
	41		4.72	218	K2 III
τ	69		4.77	170	F5 V
	51		4.78	426	A0 V
	66		4.79	677	B2 Ve
	30th		4.82	402	K4 III
	74		4.85	269	G8 III
	58		4.86	57	F6 / F7V
		HR 6196	4.91	391	G8 II / III
e			5.03	691	K4 II-III
ο	39		5.14	363	K
	23		5.23	248	K2 III
		HR 6128	5.24	507	M2 comp
	43		5.30	600	K4 / K5III
		HR 6516	5.31	54	G8 IV-V
	37		5.32	777	M2III
		HR 6985	5.38	127	F5 III
		HR 6136	5.41	423	K4 IIIp
		HR 6857	5.41	147	K2 III
		HR 6507	5.41	206	A8 V
		HR 6987	5.43	103	F3 V
		HR 6375	5.43	132	F5 IV
		HR 6686	5.44	426	G9 III
		HR 6800	5.50	412	K2 III
		Barnard's arrow star	9.5	5.9

Beta Ophiuchi is an orange shining star of the spectral class K2 III, 84 light-years away . The name Cebalrai comes from the old Arabic and means "shepherd dog".

Delta Ophiuchi is a reddish star belonging to the spectral class M1 III at a distance of 170 light years. The name Yed Prior is a combination of Arabic and Latin and means "front hand".

The yellow shining star Epsilon Ophiuchi is just over 100 light years away. His proper name Yed Posterior means "back hand".

Barnard's arrow star is the star with the highest measured proper motion. He covers a distance of 10 arc seconds per year . In a hundred years these are about 15 minutes of arc , which corresponds to half the full moon diameter in the sky. Barnard's star is only 5.9 light-years away and the closest neighbor of the Sun according to the Alpha Centauri system. It continues to move towards our solar system and in about 10,000 years will pass it at a distance of four light years. Barnard's star is an extremely faint reddish dwarf star, the luminosity of which is only 1/2500 of our sun.

Double stars

system	Sizes	distance
α	2.08 / 7
λ	4.2 / 5.2	1.5 "
τ	5.2 / 5.9	1.8 "
61	6.2 / 6.6	7.1 "
70	4.2 / 6.0	4.3 "

Alpha Ophiuchi is a binary star system 47 light-years away. The main star is a white-blue shining star of the spectral class A5 III with 26 times the luminosity of our sun . He has a companion 7th magnitude who orbits him in 8.7 years.

The old Arabic name Ras Alhague is derived from "head of the snake charmer".

The Eta Ophiuchi system is 84 light years away. Two whitish glowing stars orbit each other so closely that they can only be observed with larger telescopes. The Arabic name Sabik means "the preceding one".

Variable stars

star	size	period	Type
χ	4.2 to 5.0		irregularly variable
RS	4.5 to 12.5		recurring nova

χ Ophiuchi is an irregularly variable star 489 light years away.

RS Ophiuchi is a variable of the type "recurring nova ". At irregular intervals of about 20 to 30 years it shows dramatic outbursts of brightness, for example in 1898, 1933, 1958, 1967, 1985 and 2006. On February 13, 2006, it reached a brightness of 4.5 mag and was clearly visible to the naked eye. Its distance has not yet been precisely determined and is estimated to be 2000 to 5000 light years.

In 1919 the Nova Ophiuchi 1919 was observed with a maximum brightness of 7.5 mag.

Messier and NGC objects

Messier (M)	NGC	other	size	Type	Surname
9	6333		8th	Globular clusters
10	6254		6.5	Globular clusters
12	6218		6.5	Globular clusters
14th	6402		7.5	Globular clusters
19th	6273		7.5	Globular clusters
62	6266		7.4	Globular clusters
107	6171		8th	Globular clusters
	NGC 6240			Galaxy
	NGC 6293		8.2	Globular clusters
	NGC 6304		8.4	Globular clusters
	NGC 6356		8.4	Globular clusters
	NGC 6366		10	Globular clusters
	NGC 6384		10.4	Galaxy
	NGC 6572		8th	Planetary nebula
	NGC 6633		4.6	Open star cluster
	IC 4665		6.5	Open star cluster
	IC 4604	ρ Oph	4.6	Reflection fog
		Mel 186	3.0	Open star cluster

In the serpentine carrier there is a series of globular clusters that the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier added to his catalog of foggy objects ( Messier catalog ).

The closest to the Sun is M 10 at a distance of 15,000 light years.

M 12 and M 107 are each 20,000 light years away.

M 9 and M 14 are 25,000 and 40,000 light years away, respectively.

IC 4665 is an open star cluster about 1,200 light years away. It can be resolved into single stars with prism binoculars .

The open star cluster Mel 186 with a total brightness of 3.0 mag is easy to find with the naked eye. The star cluster is the unrecognized constellation Royal Taurus by Poniatowski .

Other objects

In 1997 the planetary nebula JaFu 1 was discovered by George H. Jacoby and L. Kellar Fullton et al. discovered.

See also

• List of constellations

Web links

Commons : Constellation Serpent Bearer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Astronomie.de: The snake bearer

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Ernst Georges : Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary . 8th, improved and increased edition. Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hanover 1918 ( zeno.org [accessed October 17, 2019]).
2. ^ Wilhelm Pape , Max Sengebusch (arrangement): Concise dictionary of the Greek language . 3rd edition, 6th impression. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig 1914 ( zeno.org [accessed October 17, 2019]).
3. ↑ Jürgen Hamel : Concepts of Astrology . Scientific publishing house Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main 2010. S. 509f., Keyword snake bearer .
4. ↑ Coordinates available at The Sky Live .
5. ↑ ^{a b} p Giacintucci, M. Markevitch, M. Johnston-Hollitt, DR Wik, QHS Wang: Discovery of a Giant Radio Fossil in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster . In: The Astrophysical Journal . tape 891 , no. 1 , February 27, 2020, ISSN  1538-4357 , p. 1 , doi : 10.3847 / 1538-4357 / ab6a9d ( iop.org [accessed February 28, 2020]).