http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090526.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050719.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021121.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010613.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000215.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070411.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080417.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071012.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000107.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070609.html
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Canes Venatici (from Wikipedia)
<<Canes Venatici is a small northern constellation that was created by Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. Its name is Latin for hunting dogs and it represents the mythological dogs Chara and Asterion being held on a leash by Boötes the herdsman, a neighboring constellation.
Canes Venatici depicted in an old star atlas.
Canes Venatici contains some bright stars, but before the seventeenth century it was treated as part of the constellation of Bootes the herdsman. Its identification with Bootes's dogs arose through a mistranslation. Some of its component stars were traditionally described as representing Bootes's cudgel (Greek, Κολλοροβος). When the Greek astronomer Ptolemy's Almagest was translated from Greek to Arabic, the translator did not know the Greek word and rendered it as the nearest-looking Arabic word, and wrote العصى ذات الكلاب in ordinary unvowelled Arabic text "al-`aşā dhāt al-kullāb", which means "the spearshaft having a hook", probably thinking of a shepherd's crook. When the Arabic text was translated into Latin, the translator (probably in Spain) mistook the Arabic word كلاب for kilāb, meaning "dogs", writing hastile habens canes ("spearshaft having dogs").
These spurious dogs floated about the astronomical literature until Hevelius decided to specify their presence in the sky. Hevelius named α CVn Asterion (now known as 'Cor Caroli') and another Chara; these names are Greek for "Little star" and "Bright female one". These were sometimes regarded as an independent constellation or at least an asterism. Canes Venatici is now one of the 88 official modern constellations.
The constellation's brightest star is Cor Caroli (α² CVn), named by Sir Charles Scarborough in memory of King Charles I, the deposed king of Britain. It is of magnitude 2.90.
La Superba (Y CVn) is a semiregular variable star that varies between magnitudes 4.7 and 6.2 over a period of around 158 days. It is a carbon star and is famous for being deep red. AM CVn, a very blue star of magnitude 14, is the prototype of a special class of cataclysmic variable stars, in which the companion star is a white dwarf, rather than a main sequence star. RS CVn is the prototype of a special class of binary stars of chromospherically active and optically variable components.
Canes Venatici contains five Messier objects, including four galaxies. One of the more significant galaxies in Canes Venatici is the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51, NGC 5194) and NGC 5195, a small barred spiral galaxy that is seen face on. This was the first galaxy recognised as having a spiral structure, this structure being first observed by Lord Rosse in 1845.
Other notable spiral galaxies in Canes Venatici are the Sunflower Galaxy (M63, NGC 5055), Messier 94 (NGC 4736), and Messier 106 (NGC 4258).
Messier 3 (NGC 5272) is a globular cluster. It is 18' in diameter, and at magnitude 6.3 is bright enough to be seen with binoculars.>>
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