6/12/2023 0 Comments Hydra constellation![]() It has also been suggested that the Sphinx represents both Leo and Virgo, each of which hosts the sun during the Nile's crucial annual flooding. In Greek and Roman tradition, Virgo was identified with the goddess of justice, Astraea, who ruled the world during the fabled Golden Age. Unlike most of the ancient constellations, Virgo presents no distinctive pattern of stars to attract attention most star maps show it resembling the letter Y written in cursive style. Occupying much of the southern sky these early evenings is the large, faint constellation Virgo (the Maiden). Thereupon the angry Apollo put Snake, Cup and Crow in the sky. Sent by the god to fetch a drink of water in the Cup, the Crow dallied under a fig tree until the figs were ripe to eat, then came home without the Cup but in the fangs of the Snake as an alibi. Hydra, Crater and Corvus are connected by a myth: Corvus was the messenger of the god Apollo. Add a fainter adjoining star, and the pattern resembles the battened mainsail of a Chinese junk. This is Corvus (the Crow), which, like most constellations, bears little resemblance to the object it was supposed to represent it's a small, moderately bright, quadrilateral-shaped pattern of stars. Farther east is a little four-sided figure of fairly bright stars. Farther south, though, where it rises higher, its graceful shape can be traced on a dark, clear night. Crater (the Cup) is a small, rather faint group. ![]() Resting on the back of the Snake are two smaller constellations. Hydra's brightest star is the second-magnitude Alphard, an orange giant about 177 light-years away and sometimes called "The Solitary One." Once you've found it, you'll understand why it's so named: It seems brighter than it is, because it's in a large, dull region and has no competition nearby. ![]() Related: What's the story behind the stars? From there, if the sky is clear and dark, you can follow the remaining scraggly stream of the snake's body its zigzagging procession of faint stars leads south and east for more than an additional 90 degrees across the sky. That head is a pretty little group of five stars worth looking for, about halfway between the bright stars Regulus and Procyon. Yet our celestial Hydra has only one head, near the sickle of Leo. Some also say, however, that Hydra commemorates the fabled multiheaded serpent that gave the mighty Hercules so much trouble. and may be related to a more important beast: the dragon Tiamat of the Euphratean epic about the hero Gilgamesh. ![]() Observers in an area with a dark sky and a wide-open view toward the southern part of the sky will enjoy tracing out the great length of Hydra, sometimes called the Water Serpent or the Snake. June's warmer evenings inspire many of us to spend more time under the sky, perhaps to seek out the smaller and less-conspicuous constellations. Let's take a closer look at these three big patterns that currently dominate our late-spring evening sky.Ī view of Hydra, Virgo and Ursa Major as seen from Los Angeles near 10 p.m. Hence, the one-time picturesque patterns of people, animals and objects have evolved into arbitrarily defined areas of the sky. Hydra covers 1,304 square degrees, or about 3% of the entire sky, which isn't surprising considering the linear extent of this beast.īut it is far less obvious that Virgo is the second-largest constellation, with an area of 1,294 square degrees, followed by Ursa Major, at 1,280 square degrees. This tremendously long creature is not only the longest constellation but also the largest based on its area in square degrees, according to official boundaries established by the IAU. Overall, Hydra spans over 100 degrees of the sky and takes nearly seven hours to rise into full view. Soon after darkness falls on these early June evenings, the "Big Three" - that is, the three largest constellations in our sky, Hydra (the Water Serpent), Virgo (the Maiden) and Ursa Major (the Great Bear) - will be in full view.
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