Columba (constellation)

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Columba
Constellation
Columba IAU.svg
AbbreviationCol
Genitive Columbae
Pronunciation /kəˈlʌmbə/ ,
genitive /kəˈlʌmb/
Symbolismthe dove
Right ascension 05h 03m 53.8665s06h 39m 36.9263s [1]
Declination −27.0772038°–−43.1116486° [1]
Area 270 sq. deg. (54th)
Main stars 5
Bayer/Flamsteed
stars
18
Stars brighter than 3.00m1
Stars within 10.00 pc (32.62 ly)0
Brightest star α Col (Phact) (2.65 m )
Messier objects 0
Meteor showers 0
Bordering
constellations
Lepus
Caelum
Pictor
Puppis
Canis Major
Visible at latitudes between +45° and −90°.
Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of January.

Columba is a faint constellation designated in the late sixteenth century, remaining in official use, with its rigid limits set in the 20th century. Its name is Latin for dove. It takes up 1.31% of the southern celestial hemisphere and is just south of Canis Major and Lepus.

Contents

History

The constellation Columba as it can be seen by the naked eye. Constellation Columba.jpg
The constellation Columba as it can be seen by the naked eye.
The constellation seen as "Columba Noachi" in Urania's Mirror (1825). Sidney Hall - Urania's Mirror - Canis Major, Lepus, Columba Noachi & Cela Sculptoris.jpg
The constellation seen as "Columba Noachi" in Urania's Mirror (1825).

Features

Stars

Columba is rather inconspicuous with the brightest star, Alpha Columbae, being only of magnitude  2.7. This, a blue-white star, has a pre-Bayer, traditional, Arabic name Phact (meaning ring dove) and is 268 light-years from Earth. The only other named star is Beta Columbae, which has the alike-status name Wazn. It is an orange-hued giant star of magnitude 3.1, 87 light-years away. [9] The constellation contains the runaway star μ Columbae. Exoplanet NGTS-1b and its star NGTS-1 are in Columba.

General radial velocity

Columba contains the solar antapex – the opposite to the net direction of the Solar System. [10]

Deep-sky objects

The globular cluster NGC 1851 appears in Columba at 7th magnitude in a far part of our galaxy at 39,000 light-years away - it is resolvable south of at greatest latitude +40°N in medium-sized amateur telescopes (under good conditions). [9]

See also

Citations

  1. 1 2 "Columba, constellation boundary". The Constellations. International Astronomical Union . Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  2. Ridpath, Ian., Star Tales online edition
  3. Brenda Deen Schildgen (2016). Heritage or Heresy: Preservation and Destruction of Religious Art and Architecture in Europe. Springer. p. 63. ISBN   978-0-230-61315-7.
  4. Ridpath & Tirion 2001, pp. 120–121.
  5. Ley, Willy (December 1963). "The Names of the Constellations". For Your Information. Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 90–99.
  6. Canis Maior and Columba in Bayers Uranometria 1603 (Linda Hall Library) Archived 2007-04-27 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Richard H. Allen (1899) Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, pp. 166–168
  8. "NASA's OSIRIS-REx Students Catch Unexpected Glimpse of Newly Discovered Black Hole". NASA. 28 February 2020.
  9. 1 2 Ridpath & Tirion 2017, p. 122.
  10. Madore, Barry F. (14 August 2002). "Astronomical Glossary". NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database. Retrieved 31 January 2023.

References