Under the Ursa Major, near the Bootes, the Hounds of Dogs, a constellation associated with neighbors with a mythological plot, are located. This heavenly drawing has an interesting fate and includes many interesting space objects.
Canine Hound Constellation: legend
Today this celestial image is associated with the dogs of Arcade, forever wandering around the dome overhead in the form of Bootes. He was the son of Zeus and Callisto (the nymph of the goddess Artemis), turned by a jealous Hero into a bear. A born hunter, Arkad did not recognize his mother in a wild beast and set dogs on her. Zeus in memory of this event (according to another version, wishing to protect his beloved and son from his wife's revenge) placed his heroes in heaven. There, the constellation of the Hounds of the Dogs shone, as well as the Ursa Major and Bootes.
History
Hounds Dogs - a constellation that is not among the oldest. At Ptolemy, the luminaries that make up it belonged to Bootes and formed his club and some other parts. Actually, the name "Hounds Dogs" is likely to be associated with an erroneous translation of the Greek word, first into Arabic, and from it into Latin. As a result, the "club" turned into a "dog".
The author of the constellation is Jan Hevelius, who first introduced it into his heavenly atlas “Uranography” in 1690. Asterion and Chara (“small star” and “joy”) - that was the name of the Bootes dogs in the legend - in the image of the astronomer they are restrained by a long leash, the end of which is in the hands of Arcade.
Location
Hounds Dogs - a small constellation. In it, under good conditions, with the naked eye you can distinguish up to thirty stars. You can find a heavenly drawing, guided by Ursa Major, the discovery of which, as a rule, does not cause difficulties for anyone. Hounds Dogs are placed exactly under the bucket. The line drawn through the alpha and gamma of Ursa Major in a southeast direction indicates the brightest point of the constellation, the luminary called the Heart of Karl. East of the Hounds of the Dogs is Bootes, also clearly visible in the night sky.
Karl's heart
Alpha Hounds Dogs is the brightest star of this heavenly drawing. Such a poetic name was given to her by Charles Scarborough. In 1660, he proposed to apply the constellation Karl’s Heart, consisting of only one luminary, onto the maps of the sky. His wish came true. "Constellation" existed in this form until the end of the XIX century. Then the name went to Alpha Hounds Dogs. The star was dedicated to Charles I, executed in 1649 and the father of Charles II, whose court was Charles Scarborough.
Alpha Hounds Dogs - one of the most beautiful binary systems, according to many scientists. Its main component is a white-blue hot star of the main sequence. She is the prototype of the same class of variable luminaries. The reasons leading to a change in the brightness of a star are its rotation and a very strong magnetic field. The latter exceeds the similar parameter of the Sun by a hundred times. The star’s brightness with a period of 5.47 days varies from + 2.84 m to + 2.94 m. The luminous magnetic field , in addition to these oscillations, creates impressive spots and inhomogeneities in the photosphere of the described space object.
The second component of the system is a yellowish dwarf belonging to the main sequence.
Beta
The next brightest star in this celestial pattern is called Chara. It is a yellow dwarf and belongs to the spectral class G. In many ways, the star is similar to the Sun. Scientists mark it as one of the most interesting objects in the sky. In 2006, beta Hounds Dogs was identified as the most promising star for the search for extraterrestrial life. Together with the alpha of the Hounds of the Dogs, also called Asterion, Chara forms the "southern dog".
Interesting objects
Hounds Dogs - a constellation that boasts a sufficiently large number of curious space formations in addition to luminaries. These are galaxies, and nebulae, and globular clusters. One of them is the M51. This is a galaxy called the Whirlpool. About 23 million light-years separate it from Earth . The feature of the object is that it consists of two galaxies. Most of them, NGC 5194, have a pronounced spiral structure. One of the sleeves abuts against the companion galaxy NGC 5195. It will be interesting for amateur telescope owners to find out that Whirlpool is the only such object in which you can see the spiral structure without professional equipment.
Many astronomy fans are well aware of the globular cluster M3. It contains more than 500 thousand stars. Not bad, it is noticeable with binoculars, subject to distance from city lighting.
It is no coincidence that many telescopes are aimed at the constellation of the Hounds of the Dogs. Photos of objects from its territory, in addition to the above, contain such beautiful galaxies as M63 (Galaxy Sunflower), M106 or M94. In addition, astronomers are still not aware of the stars of this celestial pattern. It is likely that the Hounds Dogs have prepared for us a lot of surprises.