Lynx (constellation)

See also: Lynx

The Lynx is a Constellation of the northern hemisphere located at the south and the west of the Grande Ourse.

In spite of its big size (larger than the Gemini for example), it contains only few brilliant stars because it cuts out a side of the sky opposed to the center of the Milky Way, in a direction clearly above the celestial equator.

History

This constellation was introduced by Johannes Hevelius in 1687 to fill the vacuum between Large Ourse and the Cocher. Its name would come owing to the fact that one would need very good eyes to see stars of this constellation.

The limits of this constellations changed during time and the stellar nomenclature which is referred to it lends sometimes to confusion: 10  UMa, for example, is in the Lynx and not in Large Ourse, whereas the reverse is true for 41  Lyn.

Observation of stars

Principal stars

See also: List of stars of the Lynx

α  Lyncis

Only one star of the Lynx has a Greek letter in the Désignation from Bayer: α  Lyncis is logically the most brilliant star of the constellation (Magnitude connects 3,14). Located at 220 light-years of our Solar system, it is a red giantess 210 times more luminous than our Sun and 40 times broader.

Other stars

The constellation of the Lynx has only one star having a proper name and it is not indexed in the Designation of Bayer: Alsciaukat (31  Lyncis), of Arab origin meaning spine , magnitude 4,25. It is however only about the fifth most brilliant star of the constellation. It is almost identical to α  Lyncis.

Celestial objects

The Objet of the deep sky most notable of the constellation of the Lynx is NGC 2419, the globular Amas most distant that one knows since with the distance of 300.000 light-years, it is more remote than the Nuages of Magellan. It moves more quickly than the Escape velocity at this distance, even if it seems to traverse long a elliptic Orbite around our Galaxie, the Milky Way, and one thus does not expect that it escapes from the latter.

Two spiral galaxies in the constellation: NGC 2537, known as Galaxy of the Claw of bear , and NGC 2683.

See too

  • List of stars of the Lynx

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