Camelopardalis

Camelopardalis /kəˌmɛləˈpɑrdəlɨs/ or the Giraffe constellation is a large, faint grouping of stars in the northern sky. The constellation was introduced in 1612 (or 1613) by Petrus Plancius. Some older astronomy books give an alternative spelling of the name, Camelopardus. ... Stars. Although Camelopardalis is the 18th largest constellation, it is not a particularly bright constellation, as the brightest stars are only of fourth magnitude. In fact, it only contains four stars above magnitude 5.0. α Cam is a blue-hued supergiant star of magnitude 4.3, 5000 light-years from Earth. Its distance is unusual for a naked-eye star. β Cam is the brightest star in Camelopardalis with an apparent magnitude of 4.03. This star is a double star, with components of magnitudes 4.0 and 8.6. The primary is a yellow-hued supergiant 1000 light-years from Earth. 11 Cam is a star of magnitude 5.2, 650 light-years from Earth. It is very close to magnitude 6.1 12 Cam, also 650 light-years from Earth, but the two stars are not a true double star because of their separation. Σ 1694 (Struve 1694, 32 Cam) is a binary star 300 light-years from Earth. Both components have a blue-white hue; the primary is of magnitude 5.4 and the secondary is of magnitude 5.9. CS Cam is the second brightest star, though it has neither a Bayer nor a Flamsteed designation. It is of magnitude 4.21 and is slightly variable. ... Deep-sky objects. Camelopardalis is in the part of the celestial sphere facing away from the galactic plane. Accordingly, many distant galaxies are visible within its borders. NGC 2403 is a galaxy in the M81 group of galaxies, located approximately 12 million light-years from Earth with a redshift of 0.00043. It is classified as being between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy because it has faint arms and a large central bulge. ... NGC 1502 is a magnitude 6.9 open cluster about 3,000 light years from Earth. ... NGC 2655 is a small galaxy. IC 342 is one of the brightest two galaxies in the IC 342/Maffei Group of galaxies. The dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 1569 is a magnitude 11.9 starburst galaxy, about 11 million light years away. MS0735.6+7421 is a galaxy cluster with a redshift of 0.216, located 2.6 billion light-years from Earth. ... Meteor showers. The annual May meteor shower Camelopardalids from comet 209P/LINEAR have a radiant in Camelopardalis. [Camelopardalis. Wikipedia]