Star Hopper.

Explaining the wonders of the night sky.

Auriga

Location and Best Viewing times.

Auriga is a constellation which lies in the Milky Way between the contstellations Perseus and Gemini, nearly directly north of Orion, laying roughly half way between the celestial north pole and the equator.

It is highest in the evening skies between December and Febuary, where it is a prominnent highlight of the winter sky, rich in deep-sky objects. You will need to be north of 30 degrees southern latitude to see it.

Constellation Guide.

Interesting Stars.

Deep Sky Objects.

Also see:-

Auriga on Wikipedia.

Auriga on Monthly Sky Guide.


These lists and guide are by no means exhaustive, but I hope they help in finding something to look at.I am determined to keep them up to date and as accurateas possible so any mistakes or additions you would like, let me know.

Constellation Guide.

Links to the above image:

 

 

Interesting Stars.

Alpha Aurigae (Capella): Is the 6th brightest star in the night sky at a magnitude of 0.1. It is the "head" or the constallation, north west from the "kids" forming the northernmost point of the pentagon.
  • A spectroscopic binary with 2 other companion stars, both yellow giants of approximately 2.5 solar masses, orbiting eachother every 104 days, too close togehter to be split by amateur telescopes.
  • The binary pair are 42 lightyears away.
  • One of them is slightly larger and further along its stellar evolution.
  • There are 2 other companion stars, both red dwarves approximately onelightyear from the main binary pair, taking millenia to complete one orbit, they are observable in moderate sized telescopes.
Epsilon Aurigae (Almaaz): Is an eclipsing binary with a period of 27 years, the next ecclipse occuring in 2009.
  • The magnitude reduces from 2.9 to 3.8.
  • The duration of each eclipse is 18 months.
  • The main component is a White Supergiant, the other companion star class is unknown, but it is hypothesized to be accompanied by a cloud of gas and dust.
  • Located around 2000 light-years away, the main component is 20,000 times more luminous than the sun.
RT Aurigae: RT aurigae is a Cepheid variable found to the north east of Kappa Aurigae.
  • The magnitude varies between 5.0 and 5.8 every 3.7 days.
Theta Aurigae: Located in the middle of the three stars in a line towards celestial north, Theta Aurigae is a binary system.
  • The component starts have a magnitude of 2.6 and 7 requiring a telescope of an apateur greater that 100mm to distinguish.
Omega Auriga: Located roughly equidistant between Iota and Zeta Aurugae, Omega is a binary pair ideal for smaller apateurs.
  • The pair consists of a 5th and 8th magnitude star.
Zeta Aurigae (Haedus I): Is the eastern star of the bottom pair if the "kids" and the dimmest of this miniature asterism. And consists of 2 very close stars.
  • The components are not seperable by amateur telescopes.
  • The components are an orange giant, and a feinter blue-white star with a perion of 2.7 years.
  • The stars orbit eachother at approximately the same distance between the Sun and Jupiter, when eclipsed the reduction in magnitude is only 0.15 which is visible to the trained eye, despite the small change.

Deep Sky Objects.

Auriga is host to 3 dazzling open clusters, as well as a host of NGC and an IC DSO.
IC Items in Auriga.
IC 405 (Caldwell 31/Flaming star nebula): Is roughtly two thirds of the distance between M36 and Iota Auriga.
  • It consists of an emission and reflection nebulae around the blue star AE Aurigae.
  • It has a magnitude of 6.
  • It is around 5 lightyears across and 1,500 light-years away.
NGC Items in Auriga.
NGC 1907: An open cluster located in the vicinity north of M 38.
  • Consists of approximately 30 stars
  • Is 500 million years old.
  • Overall magnitude is around 8.2
NGC 2281: Is an open cluster around the same distance to the west of the line linking Beta and Theta Aurigae as Haedus I is to the east.
  • Consists of approximately 30 blue stars.
  • Magnitude of 5.4
  • Distance of 1820 light-years.
NGC 1664: An open cluster immediately east of Epsilon Aurigae.
  • Has less than 50 stars.
  • Magnitude approximately 7.6
  • Located 3908 light-years from Earth.
Messier Objects in Auriga.
M 36 (Pinwheel cluster): An open cluster ideal for binoculars, located slightly north east of the midpoint of the aserism between Theta Aurigae and Elnath.
  • Consists of 60 stars.
  • Magnitude of approximately 6.3
  • Located 4100 light-years away.
M 37: An other open cluster located as the mirror of M 36, the other side of the midpoint of the asterism between Elnath and Theta Aurigae.
  • The richest cluster of the three Messier objects in Aurga with 150 stars.
  • Magnitude of 6.2
  • Approximately 300 million years old.
  • Located 4400 light-years from Earth.
M 38: The third of the Messier open clusters, Located roughly half the distance between Theta Aurigae and Iota Aurigae.
  • Lies north of the feinter NGC 1907.
  • A loose cluster ideal for binoculars of around 100 stars.
  • 4.4 light-years distant.