Augiga the charioteer
Augiga the charioteerAuriga, the Charioteer is the last of the autumn
constellations with a right ascension of six hours and a
declination of 41.73 degrees. Auriga is an ancient Northern
Hemisphere constellation featuring one of the brightest
stars in the sky: Capella. Auriga is usually shown as a
charioteer; the young Auriga wields a whip in one hand and
holds a goat (Capella) and her two/three kids in the other.
To find Auriga, first locate Orion. Taurus is to the
right (west) and just above these two, much higher in the
sky, you will see Capella. While this star marks roughly the
mid-point of the constellation, north to south, most of the
more interesting aspects of the constellation are found to
the south of the star, all the way down to El Nath, the
second brightest star (gamma Auriga) which is actually
shared with Taurus, and also known as beta Taurus.
Auriga's stars are fairly bright; five are second
magnitude or brighter. Alpha Auriga (Capella) is the sixth
brightness star, at a visual magnitude of 0.08. The star is
43.5 light years away, and is about ten times the size of
our Sun. Capella's visual magnitude is really the combined
brightness of the primary star and another star that
revolves every 104 days. This star is also known as
Menkalina. The star name derives from the Arabic name Al
Mankib dhi'l Inan, "The Shoulder of the One Who Holds the
Reins," that is, "The Shoulder of the Charioteer." Several
open clusters are found in Auriga. Each contains about 100
stars and is about 2,700 light years away. The main part of
Auriga is a five-sided figure of first, second, third
magnitude stars. The Charioteer has two strange variable
stars. Epsilon is usually a third magnitude star, then once
every twenty-seven years it undergoes an eclipse, dimming by
almost a magnitude for nearly two years. The next scheduled
eclipse is in the late summer of 2010.
The Charioteer may be the legendary King Erichthonius
of Athens. He was the son of Hephaestus, the God of Fire,
which the Romans called Vulcan. Like his father Erichthonius
he was also crippled. Erichthonius was raised by Athene, the
patron goddess of Athens, and from her he learned how tame
horses. He was the first to harness four horses to one
chariot, in imitation of the Chariot of the Sun. For this he
was honored by Zeus by being placed among the stars as the
constellation of Auriga.
Others say that The Charioteer represents Hippolytus,
the son of the...
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