CORONA  BOREALIS
The Northern Crown
(CrB)


Generalities: it is a beautiful constellation of the northern sky, of small dimensions, but well distinguishable for its peculiar semicircular form. It transits at midnight in May.

Origins and mythology: the Northern Crown represents the crown offered by Bacchus to Arianna, the daughter of Minosse, the king of Crete.

Stars: the Northern Crown shows a quite bright star, Alphecca or Gem, of magnitude 2.23, even if slightly varying. This star is  75 light-years far and is of white color. Among the stars of this constellation, other two are under  magnitude 4. The star beta (m=3.68) is called Nusakan.

Table of stars brighter than magnitude 3.5
 
Star Proper name Magnitude Spectrum Colour Distance (light-years) Notes
Alpha Alphecca  2.23 (variable) A0 white 78

Other objects: in the Northern Crown objects of the deep sky of particular interest don't appear.


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