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Canes Venatici
 
 
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Canes Venatici is a small northern constellation
Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that appear to have a physical proximity in the sky. The stars in a constellation are often vastly distant from each other, but they appear close to each other from the perspective of Earth....
 that was created by Johannes Hevelius
Johannes Hevelius

Johannes Hevelius , also called Johannes Hewel, Johann Hewelke, Johannes H?welcke in German language, or Jan Heweliusz , , was a Protestant councillor and mayor in History of Gdansk , As an astronomer he gained the reputation of "the founder of lunar topography" and invented ten new constellations, seven of which are still r...
 in the 17th century. Its name is Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 for hunting dog
Hunting dog

For the species known as the African hunting dog, Cape hunting dog, or painted hunting dog see African Wild DogA hunting dog refers to any dog who assists humans in hunting....
s and it represents the mythological dogs Chara and Asterion being held on a leash by Boötes
Boötes

Bo?tes Bo?tes was one of the 48 constellations described by the 1st century astronomer Ptolemy and is now one of the 88 modern constellations. It contains the List of brightest stars in the night sky, Arcturus....
 the herdsman, a neighboring constellation.

s Venatici contains some bright stars, but before the seventeenth century it was treated as part of the constellation of Bootes
BOOTES

BOOTES, the Burst Observer and Optical Transient Exploring System, is located in Southern Spain and makes use of two sets of wide-field astrographic cameras, 240 km apart....
 the herdsman.






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Canes Venatici is a small northern constellation
Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that appear to have a physical proximity in the sky. The stars in a constellation are often vastly distant from each other, but they appear close to each other from the perspective of Earth....
 that was created by Johannes Hevelius
Johannes Hevelius

Johannes Hevelius , also called Johannes Hewel, Johann Hewelke, Johannes H?welcke in German language, or Jan Heweliusz , , was a Protestant councillor and mayor in History of Gdansk , As an astronomer he gained the reputation of "the founder of lunar topography" and invented ten new constellations, seven of which are still r...
 in the 17th century. Its name is Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 for hunting dog
Hunting dog

For the species known as the African hunting dog, Cape hunting dog, or painted hunting dog see African Wild DogA hunting dog refers to any dog who assists humans in hunting....
s and it represents the mythological dogs Chara and Asterion being held on a leash by Boötes
Boötes

Bo?tes Bo?tes was one of the 48 constellations described by the 1st century astronomer Ptolemy and is now one of the 88 modern constellations. It contains the List of brightest stars in the night sky, Arcturus....
 the herdsman, a neighboring constellation.

History

Canes Venatici contains some bright stars, but before the seventeenth century it was treated as part of the constellation of Bootes
BOOTES

BOOTES, the Burst Observer and Optical Transient Exploring System, is located in Southern Spain and makes use of two sets of wide-field astrographic cameras, 240 km apart....
 the herdsman. Its identification with Bootes' dogs arose through a mistranslation. Some of its component stars were traditionally described as representing Bootes' cudgel (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
, ???????ß??). When the Greek astronomer Ptolemy
Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman Greek mathematics, Greek astronomy, geographer and astrologer. He lived in History of Roman Egypt, and was probably born there in a town in the Thebaid called Ptolemais Hermiou; he died in Alexandria around 168 AD....
's Almagest
Almagest

Almagest is the Latin form of the Arabic language name of a mathematical and astronomical treatise proposing the complex motions of the stars and planetary paths, originally written in Greek language as by Ptolemy of Alexandria, Egypt, written in the 2nd century....
 was translated from Greek to Arabic, the translator did not know the Greek word and rendered it as the nearest-looking Arabic word: dhat al-kullab (??? ??????, which means "having a hook
Hook

Hook may refer to:...
", probably thinking of a shepherd's crook. When the Arabic text was translated into Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
, the translator mistook the Arabic word ???? for kilab, meaning "dogs", writing hastile habens canes ("spearshaft having dogs").

These spurious dogs floated about the astronomical literature until Hevelius
Johannes Hevelius

Johannes Hevelius , also called Johannes Hewel, Johann Hewelke, Johannes H?welcke in German language, or Jan Heweliusz , , was a Protestant councillor and mayor in History of Gdansk , As an astronomer he gained the reputation of "the founder of lunar topography" and invented ten new constellations, seven of which are still r...
 decided to specify their presence in the sky. Hevelius named a CVn
Cor Caroli

Cor Caroli is the brightest star in the northern constellation Canes Venatici. The name Cor Caroli means Charles' heart, and was named by Sir Charles Scarborough in honour of Charles I of England, who was executed in the aftermath of the English Civil War, and otherwise associated to Charles II of England, his son, who was restored...
 Asterion (now known as 'Cor Caroli') and another Chara. These were sometimes regarded as an independent constellation or at least an asterism
Asterism (astronomy)

In astronomy, an asterism is a pattern of stars seen in Earth's sky which is not an official constellation. Like constellations, they are composed of stars which, while they are in the same general direction, are not physically related, often being at significantly different distances from Earth....
. Canes Venatici is now one of the 88 official modern constellations.

Notable features


Stars

The constellation's brightest star
Star

A star is a massive, luminous ball of Plasma that is held together by its own gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth....
 is Cor Caroli
Cor Caroli

Cor Caroli is the brightest star in the northern constellation Canes Venatici. The name Cor Caroli means Charles' heart, and was named by Sir Charles Scarborough in honour of Charles I of England, who was executed in the aftermath of the English Civil War, and otherwise associated to Charles II of England, his son, who was restored...
 (a² CVn), named by Sir Charles Scarborough
Charles Scarborough

Sir Charles Scarborough, Member of Parliament, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians , was an England physician and mathematician....
 in memory of King Charles I
Charles I of England

Charles I was List of English monarchs, List of monarchs of Scotland and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his capital punishment on 30 January 1649....
, the deposed king of Britain. It is of magnitude
Apparent magnitude

The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measurement of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, normalized to the value it would have in the absence of the Earth's atmosphere....
 2.90.

La Superba
La Superba

La Superba is a star in the constellation Canes Venatici, well-known for its strikingly red appearance....
 (Y CVn) is a semiregular variable star
Semiregular variable star

Semiregular variable stars are Red giant or supergiants of intermediate and late spectral type showing considerable periodicity in their light changes, accompanied or sometimes interrupted by various irregularities....
 that varies between magnitudes 4.7 and 6.2 over a period of around 158 days. It is a carbon star
Carbon star

A carbon star is a late type giant star similar to a red giant whose atmosphere contains more carbon than oxygen; the two elements combine in the upper layers of the star, forming carbon monoxide, which consumes all the oxygen in the atmosphere, leaving carbon atoms free to form other carbon compounds, giving the star a "sooty" atmosphere an...
 and is famous for being deep red. AM CVn
AM Canum Venaticorum

AM Canum Venaticorum is a cataclysmic variable star in the constellation of Canes Venatici. It is the type star of its class of variables, the AM CVn stars....
, a very blue star of magnitude 14, is the prototype of a special class of cataclysmic variable star
Cataclysmic variable star

Cataclysmic variable stars are stars which irregularly increase in brightness by a large factor, then drop back down to a quiescent state. They were initially called novae, from the Latin 'new', since ones with an outburst brightness visible to the naked eye and a quiescent brightness invisible appeared as new stars in the sky....
s, in which the companion star is a white dwarf
White dwarf

A white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a small star composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. Because a white dwarf's mass is comparable to that of the Sun and its volume is comparable to that of the Earth, it is very density....
, rather than a main sequence star. RS CVn is the prototype of a special class of binary stars
RS Canum Venaticorum variable

RS Canum Venaticorum variables are a type of variable star. They are close binary stars having active chromospheres which result in variations in their observed luminosity....
 of chromospherically
Chromosphere

The chromosphere is a thin layer of the Sun's celestial body's atmosphere just above the photosphere, roughly 2,000 kilometers deep. The chromosphere is more visually transparent than the photosphere....
 active and optically variable
Variable star

A star is classified as variable if its apparent magnitude as seen from Earth changes over time, whether the changes are due to variations in the star's actual luminosity, or to variations in the amount of the star's light that is blocked from reaching Earth....
 components.

Deep sky objects

Canes Venatici contains five Messier object
Messier object

The Messier objects are a set of astronomical objects first listed by France astronomy Charles Messier in his "Catalogue des N?buleuses et des Amas d'?toiles" included in the Connaissance des Temps for 1774 ....
s, including four galaxies
Galaxy

A galaxy is a massive, gravitation system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and cosmic dust, and an important but poorly-understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter....
. One of the more significant galaxies in Canes Venatici is the Whirlpool Galaxy
Whirlpool Galaxy

The Whirlpool Galaxy is an Interacting galaxy Grand design spiral galaxy spiral galaxy located at a distance of approximately 23 million light-years in the constellation Canes Venatici....
 (M51, NGC 5194) and NGC 5195
NGC 5195

NGC 5195 is a dwarf galaxy that is interacting with the Whirlpool Galaxy . Both galaxies are located approximately 25 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici....
, a small barred spiral galaxy
Spiral galaxy

A spiral galaxy is a galaxy belonging to one of the three main galaxy morphological classification originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ?The Realm of the Nebulae? and, as such, forms part of the Hubble sequence....
 that is seen face on. This was the first galaxy recognised as having a spiral structure, this structure being first observed by Lord Rosse
William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse

William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse Order of St Patrick built several telescopes including the world's largest telescope in 1845 and it remained the world's largest for the rest of the century....
 in 1845.

Other notable spiral galaxies in Canes Venatici are the Sunflower Galaxy
Sunflower Galaxy

The Sunflower Galaxy is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the Canes Venatici constellation. It is a flocculent spiral galaxy, consisting of a central disc surrounded by many short spiral arm segments....
 (M63, NGC 5055), Messier 94
Messier 94

Messier 94 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre M?chain in 1781,and catalogued by Charles Messier two days later....
 (NGC 4736), and Messier 106
Messier 106

Messier 106 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre M?chain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth....
 (NGC 4258).

Messier 3
Messier 3

Messier 3 is a globular cluster in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764, and resolved into stars by William Herschel around 1784....
 (NGC 5272) is a globular cluster
Globular cluster

A globular cluster is a sphere collection of stars that orbits a Galactic Center as a satellite. Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, which gives them their spherical shapes and relatively high stellar densities toward their centers....
. It is 18' in diameter, and at magnitude 6.3 is bright enough to be seen with binoculars
Binoculars

Binocular telescopes, or binoculars , are two identical or mirror-symmetry optical telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point accurately in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes when viewing distant objects....
.

Citations


External links