_`CANES VENATICINGC 4656NGC 4631 NGC 4395NGC 4214NGC 4244NGC 5033M 63M 51M (^94) NGC 4490
NGC 4449
M 106
5 °
NGC 5005
(^82)
1
3
13
10
6
11
4
5
12
7
9
14
54 ASTRONOMY • APRIL 2019
The Whirlpool Galaxy is just the start of
a fantastic tour through Canes Venatici. by Michael E. Bakich
Hunting Dogs
C
anes Venatici (pronounced KAY-neez
ven-ah-TEE-see) is one of seven
constellations still in use that
Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius
invented. In 1690, it was included in the
star atlas Firmamentum Sobiescianum, sive
Uranographia, published by his wife.
Canes Venatici is a constellation of the
mid-northern sky. Its center lies at right ascen-
sion 13h04m and declination 40°30'. It ranks
38th in size out of the 88 constellations, cover-
ing 465.19 square degrees (1.13 percent) of the
sky. Size doesn’t translate into visibility, how-
ever. It lies near the bottom of the constellation
ladder (84th) in terms of overall brightness.
The best date each year to see Canes
Venatici is April 7, when it stands opposite the
Sun in the sky and reaches its highest point at
local midnight. With respect to visibility, any-
one living north of latitude 37° south can see
the entire figure at some time during the year.
It’s invisible only to those hardy souls south
of latitude 62° south. From the Northern
Hemisphere, the wonderful deep-sky objects
in this constellation are easy to spot from
February through July.
Hunt the deep sky in the
2 The Silver Needle Galaxy (NGC 4244)
This magnitude 10.4 spiral measures a worthy 17' by 2.2'. Its disk appears almost
edge-on, tilting only 5° to our line of sight. Through the eyepiece, this galaxy’s
core appears only slightly brighter than the rest. What sets the Silver Needle
Galaxy apart, however, is its length-to-width ratio. View this object through a
4-inch scope, and you’ll understand why its name contains the word “needle.”
JOE NAUGHTON/STEVE STAFFORD/ADAM BLOCK/NOAO/AURA/NSF
1 M94 (NGC 4736)
At magnitude 8.2, M94 is the brightest galaxy in Canes Venatici. Through
an 8-inch scope, you’ll see the tiny nucleus surrounded by a bright disk
that measures only 30" across. A much fainter oval halo surrounds the disk.
Switch to a telescope of at least 16 inches aperture, and you’ll begin to see
the tightly wound spiral arms close to the nucleus. R. JAY GABANY
Michael E. Bakich is a senior editor of Astronomy.
His first book was The Cambridge Guide to the
Constellations.