Suspended above that mighty hunter Orion you will find the constellation of Auriga

Suspended above that mighty hunter Orion you will find the constellation of Auriga, known as the charioteer. Auriga is clearly seen on any crisp winter's eve as a large ring of bright stars of about the same size as Orion. The myths surrounding Auriga are numerous, as with so many of the other constellations. One of the most popular of the stories states that this is actually the king of Athens, Erichthonius, who became a master charioteer. His skill and innovations earned him the praise and adoration of Zeus, who honored him with a position among the stars.

Another and more entertaining story states that Auriga was Myrtilus, who was employed as charioteer for the king, Oenomaus. As is so often the case, this king had a beautiful daughter with the unwieldy name of Hippodamia. Despite her name, she was the subject of much interest among the young men (which the king was opposed to, not wanting to lose her). So he established a chariot race wherein the winner would receive the hand of Hippodamia. The losers? Well. . ., they would have their heads removed from their bodies. Since the king had the speediest chariot in the realm, he could not lose. One day, spying the handsome Pelops readying his chariot, Hippodamia plead with Myrtilus (Auriga) to fix the race so Pelops would win. Myrtilus obliged, never telling her that he was secretly in love with her. He sabotaged the king's vehicle, causing the wheels to fall off and throwing the king to his death. Upon learning of his interest in Hippodamia, Pelops threw Myrtilus into the sea, drowning him. To honor his son, Hermes placed Myrtilus into the skies for all eternity.

Auriga is home of the sixth brightest star in the sky, Capella, the "she-goat", Capella is a mere 40 light years distant and is actually a multiple star, two large stars rotating in tandem around each other (10 million and 5.6 million miles in diameter and a couple of small ones. They perform their slow dance once every 104 days separated by only 70 million miles, closer than the Earth is to the Sun. Imagine what a view that must be from a nearby planet! She is, also, an ancient spiritual life provider, as described by Com. Edgard Armond, on his work " Exilados da Capela" and your oppinion is sustented by many other sky and phylosophic researchers.

Auriga is also the home of several small star clusters, M36, M37 and M38. You might want to try and see them for yourself, now using your binoculars and/or using Distant Suns program (download it, it´s fun!) to locate just where they are.

Alpha Aurigae, Capella (the Goat Star) is the 6th brightest star in the sky. This is a spectroscopic binary with a 104.02 day period and 70 million mile separation.

Beta Aurigae, Menkhalinan, is a short period eclipsing binary. Two, almost equal stars, rotate around a central gravitacional point with a period of 3.96 days. We can observe only parcial eclipses in wich about 25% of the companion star is covered. This causes the magnitude to drop by about .08.

Beta Tauri, El Nath is the closest bright star to the Milky Way's "anti-center". This is the point directly opposite the galactic center in Sagittarius.

Zeta Aurigae, Sadatoni, is an eclipsing binary with a period of 972 days. The major component is 160 times the diameter of the Sun, and the other a mere 4 times. Visually, the brightness drops only about .15 magnitudes. The actual eclipse os the small star is 38 days.

7 Epsilon Aurigae, is one of most curious eclipsing binaries. It has an apparent period of 26.06 years, and changes between magnitudes of 3.0 and 3.85. It´s light curves contains patterns wich current models can't quite explain. The brightest member in the system is 60.000 times the luminosity of the Sun with an absolute magnitude of - 7.1.

For further information, see the topics available below:

Magnitude:

The brightness of a star or other object in the sky. The lower the magnitude the brighter the object. Each magnitude represents an intensity of about 2.5 times less than the next lower value. So a fourth magnitude star is 2.5 times dimmer than a third magnitude star. The dimmest stars visible to the naked eye under the best conditions are around 6.5 rendering up to 3000 total stars visible at any one time. We call binary (or multiple, or "double") stars, when two or more stars orbiting around each other. Sometimes called "double" stars.

Eclipsing Binaries:

Just as the Moon can move in between us and the Sun, giving us an eclipse so one star can cover another. And with binary stars, two stars orbiting together, this becomes a fairly common event, as the dimmer star obscures the brighter one, there is a visible decrease in the total light output. These are also called "eclipsing variables".

Globular Cluster:

A round, concentrated cluster of old stars which usually form into halos around galaxies. They contain between 100,000 to 10 million stars and are typically 100 light years across. Globulars are wonderful objects in small telescopes due to their perfectly rounded shape and the delicate glistening of the nucleus.

Light Year ("ly") :

The distance light travels in a year. At 186,000 miles/second, this comes to 5,878,000,000,000 miles, approximately. The closest star next to the Sun is Alpha Centauri at about 4.2 light years away. So close in Universal dimentions, so far to our actual technology.

Big Bang :

The most commonly accepted theory of the creation of the Universe. According to this, the Universe got its start in one cataclysmic explosion about 12 to 20 billion years ago. Of course it must to be compreended like part of universal mechanical phenomena and does not explain the born of the organizated and intelligent life, just confirm the creation of material plan, when the concetrated energy explodes, becoming materia and evolves untill the human being.

God:

Beloved omnipresent and superior inteligence that placed life and spirit in a tridimensional, individual, self sufficient organic shape, created by using the Big Bang mechanical structures, and some adjustments along the billion of years. The only beginning and the non-ending one

Gambling and guessing:

The choice of this passed without God or other centralizated intelligence and order power is available around: 10.000.000.000.000 times against one, or in other words, is quite almost impossible to the human being itself generate lifeforms. So how his own evolution would be right conducted if the beginning was started by a lucky atomic random combination? If you see the number was wrong I got a question: Ok, it was created by accident, but created from what substance? and for what purpose? Do you think that chaos have any kind of goals? If you hesitate in this answer, why not try to think about a middle way into science and religion?

Global Understanding

The future's path is waiting for you. Be happy and self protected doing the same for the others. Even you just are a peaceful citizen, acting with lealty, respect and responsability you must incclude a new consideration: Love, Reason and Justice are good but Charity is better. The first ones could be appropriated for this world, the last one is the biggest power on Universe.