This page describes an image Vulpecula Constellation Map
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Diagram caption:
The constellation Vulpecula with its brighter stars and surrounding constellations. Vulpecula is surrounded by (going clockwise from the top): Cygnus, Lyra, Hercules, Sagitta, Delphinus and Pegasus.
Vulpecula is a northern constellation and thus the whole constellation is visible at some point in the year throughout the northern hemisphere. The whole constellation is also visible in equatorial and temperate regions of the southern hemisphere. Vulpecula is best viewed in the evening in the northern hemisphere early autumn and southern hemisphere early spring.
The planetary nebula M27, commonly known as the Dumbbell Nebula lies in Vulpecula and is marked here with a green cross superimposed on a plus sign. The open cluster NGC 6885 also lies in Vulpecula and is marked here with a yellow circle.
The y-axis of this diagram is in degrees of declination with north as up and the x-axis is in hours of right ascension with east to the left. The sizes of the stars marked here relate to the star's apparent magnitude, a measure of its apparent brightness. The larger dots represent brighter stars. The Greek letters mark the brightest stars in the constellation. These are ranked by brightness with the brightest star being labeled alpha, the second brightest beta, etc., although this ordering is not always followed exactly. The dotted boundary lines mark the IAU's boundaries of the constellations and the solid green lines mark one of the common forms used to represent the figures of the constellations. Neither the constellation boundaries, nor the lines joining the stars appear on the sky.
Diagram credit: Adapted by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education from the original by the IAU and Sky & Telescope. Credit Link
Related glossary terms:
Apparent Magnitude
, Celestial Coordinates
, Constellation
, Declination
, Open Cluster
, Planetary Nebula
, Right Ascension (RA)
Categories:
Naked Eye Astronomy
Diagram license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
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