The constellation Camelopardalis is an obscure grouping of faint stars that lies above the horizon every night for observers in the Northern Hemisphere.
Is It a Camel or a Giraffe?
That's not a question you would have to ask yourself if you were looking at an animal in real life. But this faint smattering of stars known as Camelopardalis is actually supposed to represent a giraffe, regardless of what the name tricks you into thinking. Its name in Latin does indeed mean giraffe.
Locating Camelopardalis
This region of sky is so empty of bright stars that it was not given any constellation name by the ancients. Its modern boundaries were simply drawn up to encircle the vast territory of stars that were not part of another constellation. It lies between Ursa Minor and Cassiopeia on one side and Ursa Major on the other. It can also be described as the nearly empty space off the end of Draco's tail.
The Stars of Camelopardalis
There are no bright stars in Camelopardalis. All the stars in this region of sky are 4th magnitude or dimmer. In a light polluted city, one would have trouble making out a single point of light here.
Alpha Camelopardalis lies halfway between Capella and Polaris. It is magnitude 4.26 and lies a tremendous 6,940 light-years distant. Beta Camelopardalis is bit brighter and lies six degrees away in the direction of Capella. Beta Camelopardalis is magnitude 4.03 and lies 997 light-years away.
Deep-Sky Targets in the Giraffe
Camelopardalis lies on the edge of the Milky Way but does not hold many notable objects. One moderately bright cluster is NGC 1502, also called Kemble's Cascade. It can be found forming a triangle with Alpha and Beta Camelopardalis, about six and a half degrees away in the direction of Cassiopeia. This magnitude 5.7 grouping is named after its discoverer and makes a pretty trail that can be picked up easily in binoculars.
In the opposite direction from Alpha and Beta Camelopardalis and 18 degrees away (it is closer to the nose star of Ursa Major, separated by almost eight degrees) lies NGC 2403. This magnitude 8.4 spiral galaxy can be seen with a pair of binoculars. It lies approximately eight million light-years away.
