Constellation Data

Name: CARINA Translation: Keel of the Argonauts' ship Abbreviation: Car Genitive: Carinae Size: 34 Regions: Southern RA: 9 hours Decl: -65 degrees Season: Summer Midnight Culmination: 31 January

What is the Genitive form? What is Right Ascension (RA)? Is this constellation ever visible from my latitude? What is Declination? Where should I look for a constellation on a date before or after its midnight culmination? What is Midnight Culmination?

Skylore

See the constellation page for Argo.htm">Argo Navis.

Description

Locate Canopus by drawing a line from the easternmost star of Orion's belt down through Rigel, Orion's left foot. Canopus lies about twice as far from Orion's belt as Sirius.

Legend: In the constellation chart above...
• Star colors represent their spectral types (even for double stars).
• Bright star labels are yellow; significant other stars are labelled in magenta.
• The size of each star indicates its relative magnitude.
• Constellation names are light blue.
• Grid lines represent either 10 degree intervals of declination above or below the equator, or intervals of one hour (=15 degrees) of right ascension (measured along the equator).
• Messier object numbers are pink.
• Galaxies are ovals: blue if spiral, yellow if elliptical, light blue if irregular.
• Globular clusters are gold starbursts.
• Open clusters are dotted white circles.
• Planetary nebula are green diamonds.
• Bright nebula are magenta squares.
• Dark nebula are grey rectangles.
• Green x's are x-ray sources.
• Purple O's with a diagonal slash through them are quasars.

Asterisms

Between Canopus and Crux are the False Cross (nearer Canopus, shared by Carina and Vela) and the Diamond Cross (nearer Crux, in Carina). These are fainter than Crux and were once part of Argo.htm">Argo Navis.

What is an Asterism?

Special Stars

Canopus is the second brightest nighttime star. Distance: 1200 LY. Magnitude: -0.7. Canopus is 200,000 times brighter than the Sun. Although it appears slightly less bright than Sirius, it is 7,500 times as bright as Sirius. Declination: -52 degrees 42 minutes south. Canopus is visible from Alexandria, Egypt, but not Greece, a fact often cited to show that the Earth is spherical. Canopus was named by Eratosthenes ca. 250 B.C, working in Alexandria. Some people claim to see a trace of yellow in Canopus.

Table of 25 Brightest Stars.
What is apparent stellar magnitude?

Nebulae

In 1843, Eta-Carina was brighter than Canopus! It is a nova-like irregular variable star found within a diffuse interstellar gas cloud known as NGC 3372.

A 3-D photo is available on the Internet from NASA, as described on the north gallery wall inside the planetarium (get your 3-D glasses ready!).

Glowing clouds of gas make this nebula one of the most spectacular sights in the Milky Way. The Eta Carinae nebula is believed to be a stellar nursery, where stars are forming from the obscuring clouds of dust and the luminous gaseous material.

"To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

What are Nebulae?
Table of Messier Objects.
What is apparent Magnitude?

Galaxies

Between Canopus and the south pole lies the Large Magellenic Cloud (LMC), located in the constellation Dorado the Swordfish.

What are Galaxies?
Table of Messier Objects.
What is apparent Magnitude?

Discussed in these Shows

• Cowboy Astronomer

©1997 Welcome to the Basic Celestial Phenomena web site. To provide explanations of basic observational astronomy to students, teachers, families, and visitors to planetariums these pages have been written by an ex-OBU Planetarium Director, Kerry Magruder; the OBU Natural Sciences Coordinator, Mike Keas; and some of the students who work in the OBU planetarium.

The source for the logo is not a medieval woodcut!

These web pages may be printed, copied, and distributed for educational use by any non-profit educational group so long as they are not edited or altered in any way, nor distributed for profit, nor repackaged or incorporated into any other medium or product, and so long as full credit is given to Kerry Magruder.

If you find a link that does not work, please tell us which link does not work--and which page you are on. Contact us by Email with general inquiries or suggestions. Thank you.

Basic Celestial Phenomena	Constellations	Not a Medieval Woodcut	Planetarium pages
EarthVisions.net	Geology	History of Science