Vulpecula, which is Latin for fox is a modern-day constellation that can be challenging to find
even in the darkest skies. Its stars are a fourth, fifth, and sixth magnitudes.
So in order to see this constellation skies free of light pollution are preferred,
but even though this star pattern is faint it's really easy to find it
using the Summer Triangle. Once you locate the Summer Triangle find where Cygnus is, right here,
and from there you want to find the head of the swan, find the next brightest star and this is
Anser, the brightest star of Vulpecula, which is right here. That's that star pattern there.
So there you're going to find the two-star pattern, and the borders of this constellation
expand a little bit beyond its pattern. So in this video we will explore the
little fox constellation, how to find it, and unique celestial objects within its borders.
Welcome to Learn the Sky! My name is Janine and I'll be your guide as we
explore the night sky together one constellation at a time.
Let's get a broad overview of Vulpecula, the little fox. It is a modern-day constellation
that was first named by Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in 1684. The name Vulpecula
is latin for little fox and it's the 55th largest constellation. So it's not a very big one. It's
also very faint. All the stars are between fourth and fifth, even six magnitudes. So you really
need dark skies to see this constellation. What it's known for is the Dumbbell Nebula within its
boundaries, as well as the Coat Hanger asterism, which is a new find for me and I'm fascinated by
it because it's so easy to find in the sky. So when can you see it? It's best seen in the
northern and southern hemispheres in this range of latitudes and it can be seen in the summer months,
but I find I can also see it in the autumn months because it gets darker earlier, so you're still
seeing a little bit of the summer sky. The best way to find it is to use that Summer Asterism
Triangle to find Cygnus, which I'm circling right here. From there you find the head of the swan,
this star is called Albireo, I've got a whole video on it it's one of my favorite stars,
and there you want to find the next nearest, brightest star and this is the constellation
Vulpecula, but here is some of the boundaries of the constellation which we'll explore
later in this video. So it's really between Cygnus and Sagitta the arrow. Which do I have it pointed
out? There it is. So here you have Cygnus, here you have Sagitta, this is Lyra right here,
down here is Aquila, and then this is Vulpecula. So within this boundaries there's some really
cool things to find and there again is that Coat Hanger Asterism, which we'll talk about a
little bit later in the video. Before we get some practice with how to find Bulpecula in the sky,
let's touch quickly on its origin. It is a modern-day constellation that was
named by Johannes Hevelius. He was a Polish astronomer who also worked closely with his wife
Elizabeth Koopman-Hevelius. She's considered to be the first female astronomer and she really
helped him catalog many of the things that he saw in the sky, including 10 new constellations,
seven which are used today. He's considered to be the founder of lunar topography. He spent over
four years mapping the moon. He was patronage of four kings of Poland. He observed sunspots,
discovered comets, and of course that close relationship with his wife allowed him
to discover more, and the constellations that were named by Hevelius are still recognized by the
IAU, or the International Astronomical Union. These are the seven that are still used today,
while these three are obsolete. Now let's review the pattern that Vulpecula makes across the sky.
It is represented as a fox, and it's known as a seasonal constellation. So it's best seen in the
summer months in the northern hemisphere. You want to look for Cygnus and Sagitta, and Vulpecula is
in between those two constellations. The best way that I find it is right here using Albireo,
which is the head of the swan and then looking for this very faint star nearby. You definitely
need dark skies to see this constellation, and there are a few celestial objects that we can view
inside the borders. So let's get some practice how to find it. This is the first picture I
showed you. This gives you a good view of quite a few constellations in the summer sky.
First you want to locate the Summer Triangle, those are the three brightest stars that make
this pattern in the summer sky, and then you from there you want to find the other constellations.
So Lyra has the brightest star with Vega, and then go ahead and find Cygnus. The tail of the swan is
Deneb and that's the brightest star of that pattern, but so you want to go to the head of
the constellation. The head of the swan, and right there is where you will find Vulpecula. It's very
challenging to find unless you have dark skies. So you really have to seek those out if you're
going to find it, and of course my new obsession is the Coat Hanger asterism. Now that I know what
this is I'm like seeing it in all my pictures, and if we were to zoom in on this area a little bit
this is what this star pattern looks like. You can see it does look like a coat hanger, and
it was named after an American astronomer, that's where it got its name, Brocchi's cluster. I hope
I'm saying that properly, but really Al Sufi was the first one that recorded it back in
934 I believe, and he was a Persian astronomer that recorded many of,
many things in the sky at the time constellations stories that go along with them. So this is a
really cool star pattern to see, it's mostly known in the modern times as the Coat Hanger
asterism. So let's get another vantage point of Vulpecula, well sort of. At least I can
show you other ways how to find them. So here we're actually looking at Aquila, and all my
other pictures so far kind of have Aquila cut out, but you can point out some other constellations.
This is Scutum, right here, I've got a video coming up on this eventually still working on it,
and then here we have Delphinus, and here is Sagitta. Can you find the Coat Hanger asterism?
It's right there, and then this, right here, that is where the alpha star of Vulpecula is. So just
another way to help you find it by using Aquila and Sagitta, and if we were to name everything
in here, just to help us out, so we're not really seeing the full constellation of Vulpecula, but at
least you can see one of the stars there. Let's go ahead and get some more practice. Here can
you find the Summer Triangle? Right there, that's where the Summer Triangle is, and then you want to
find Cygnus. I can easily find it, it makes that big cross across the sky. Here is the head of the
swan, so right there is where Vulpecula will be. So there's where Aquila is in reference.
All the constellations that are part of the Summer Triangle. There's Scutum,
there's Sagitta, oops I went too far, and there's Vulpecula, and again Coat Hanger asterism right
there. My eye is instantly drawn to it, I love it. We'll try one more picture. This is a
really large wide view of the summer sky. So here on the left side you should see
the Summer Triangle. From there that's where Vulpecula is. So I like this picture because it
kind of gives you an idea of like, it kind of leans more towards the Aquila side of, or you
know vertex of the triangle. I don't know if i'm saying that right, the angle of the triangle, I'm
not a strong math person, but here we go this is where Aquila i.s There's all the constellations of
the Summer Triangle. There's Sagitta, Delphinus, Scutum, and then Vulpecula is right here, but keep
in mind this area is also classified, or within the borders of Vulpecula as well. I can still
see that Coat Hanger asterism, right there, and if we were to name some of the other things we have
Ophiuchus, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Corona Australius. Ophiuchus is holding the serpent, and
here is everything we talked about so far. So I hope these are helpful for you in order to find
Vulpecula. It's not very bright, but if you know the surrounding constellations which are
pretty easy to find, and if you have dark skies you should be able to find this one.
In the last portion of this video we're going to take a look at some of the celestial objects that
are located in the constellation of Vulpecula the little fox. So we're going to focus on these two
areas, and this one down here is known as M27, the Messier 27 called the Dumbbell nebula, and then
this is a small star cluster known as NGC 6885. So let's dive in. Messier 27, as I said earlier,
is known as the Dumbbell nebula, and it's a very popular observing target for amateur astronomers,
especially using telescopes. You could see it with a pair of binoculars as well. Its
magnitude is 7.5, and it's pretty easy to find with magnification, and this was
really the first type of nebula like this to be discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. I have
a different viewpoint of it here for you, this shows you this is just using a different filter
and it allows you to see different structures, and some of this color here... yes it is artificial
color, but it helps us see the structure of what we're looking at, and this right here is a white
dwarf star in the center of it. A white dwarf star is like the leftover core of a dying star,
and it's no longer fusing any gases together, but it's rather shedding its outer layers. So you
can kind of see it looks like a bubble here, and then matter is ejected out kind of from the core,
and there's another planetary I'm going to show you that's within this constellation, and you
can see that the structure is very similar, and this is what will happen to our own sun.
It will expand into a red giant star, and then it will no longer fuse its gases and start to eject
its outer layers. Here's another viewpoint from the Spitzer Telescope, and this is an infrared
image, and you can just see that's you're kind of looking at the heat and you can see the different
structures here. It's kind of emanating from the core and it's almost symmetrical the way it looks,
and if we would compare visible light with infrared, you can see those similar cone-like
structures that are emanating, you know the point being from the center and out. I've got one more
shot for you. I really love this picture, probably because all the stars in it are so beautiful,
but right there that's the Dumbbell nebula. So I hope you're able to find it in the future.
The other object of interest is an open star cluster located in this region of
Vulpecula. It's estimated to be 1950 light years away, and it's an open star cluster,
which means it doesn't have a definitive shape, unlike globular star clusters. I do have a video
on the different types of the star clusters, so if you want to learn more you can go see that video,
and then one other object that you were not able to see because it's too faint,
but it's still there and I wanted to share it with you because this image looks so gorgeous,
and this again is another planetary nebula. Its name is Hen 2-437. I'm not sure if you say hen
2-4-3-7, but it's a fairly recent discovery in 1946, and this was taken by the Hubble telescope.
So you're not going to be able to see this in the sky, but just know that it's there when you're
looking towards the direction of Vulpecula, and again this right here is where that white
dwarf star would be, leftover core of a star, and it's just emanating all this energy out from the
core. Again it has that symmetrical look, and it's gorgeous to look at so I had to share it
with you. So we've come to the end of our video about Vulpecula. I hope this was helpful for you
in order to help you find it in the sky, however I think many of us will be challenged to find it.
We have that that light pollution problem, where there is just so much artificial light out there
that we're not able to see the natural light of the sky. So if you're going to try to find this
you have to seek out dark skies. It can be seen in both the northern and southern hemispheres,
and it's mostly seen in the summer, however it's autumn as I'm filming this,
and I can still see it because it gets darker earlier, and I'm still seeing
the summer sky before it gets to too late at night, and the best way to find it is using
the Summer Triangle. Find Cygnus, find the head of the swan, and then look for that two-star pattern
nearby. It is in between Cygnus and Sagitta, and Delphinus makes its little appearance down here
as well as Lyra. It's known for the Dumbbell nebula, as well as the Coat Hanger nebula,
that's not nebula it should be asterism. I've never corrected a video as I film it, but there's
a first for everything. There we go. I have to be correct don't I? But the Coat Hanger asterism is
right there, and I don't know if I mentioned this earlier in the video, but there's debate as to
whether this really is a star cluster. I think the latest data out on this little region right here
is that they just happen to be positioned like that in the sky. I'll bring my video up, but yeah
that's that's what's really interesting. It's not really considered to be a star cluster anymore,
rather that they're just a chance alignment of these stars, but you know that that was published
back in 1997, so however that information could change. So remember anytime you go outside it
takes patience and practice. So be consistent with it. Go outside, bring a friend with you and
whether it's a human or a pet and just enjoy that time in nature, and as always keep looking up.