Observing the Constellation Lynx
A Wild Cat with an Intergalactic Wanderer
The constellation of the Lynx has few bright stars but its deep-sky objects include pretty galaxies and one of the most remote globular clusters known.
The constellation of the Lynx, named after the animal of the same name, lies in a rather empty region of space. This constellation is best viewed in the winter or early spring when it is positioned high in the sky and away from obscuring trees and buildings of the horizon.
The Creation of the Lynx
The Lynx is yet another constellation, similar to Lacerta and Leo Minor, that was created out of the vast darkness between major constellations by astronomer Johannes Hevelius in the late 1600s. Hevelius supposedly named this smattering of dim stars a lynx because of their fine eyesight, and it would take someone with equally fine eyesight to discern the form of a lynx here.
Finding the Constellation of the Lynx
The location of the Lynx places it between well-known constellations. It can be found in front of the nose and front paws of the Great Bear, Ursa Major. On the opposite side of Lynx from Ursa Major, Lynx is bordered by Castor and Pollux the Twins and Auriga the Charioteer with its brilliant star Capella. If you can find Ursa Major and Auriga, the quiet dark space between is the home of the Lynx.
The Stars of the Lynx
The only two stars brighter than 4th magnitude are found in the very corner of the constellation, under Ursa Major's front paws and above the head of Leo the Lion. The star closer to Leo is Alpha Lynx at magnitude 3.14. It lies 222 light-years away. The star above it, at magnitude 3.82, was given the designation 38 Lynx. It lies 122 light-years away.
Deep-Sky Observing Targets
The brightest galaxy in Lynx can be found a bit six degrees from the two 3rd magnitude stars in Lynx in the direction of Castor and Pollux in Gemini. It also lies straight up from the constellation Cancer. If you extend a line from the Beehive Cluster at the center of Cancer through the star Iota Cancri, you will come to NGC 2683 just across the border into Lynx. NGC 2683 is magnitude 9.69 and 16 million light-years away. It is a spiral galaxy seen from a nearly edge-on perspective.
Another galaxy of note is found near the center of the constellation. The Bear Paw Galaxy, NGC 2537, is magnitude 11.7. Can you detect its irregular shape? It consists of a half circle shape with a line sticking out of it, similar to the icon for a power button on a computer.
The last deep-sky target in Lynx is known as the Intergalactic Wanderer, NGC 2419. It is located seven degrees from the star Castor, when heading north in the direction of Polaris. The Intergalactic Wanderer is a globular cluster at magnitude 10.4. It will require a telescope to see. An unnamed magnitude 7.2 star lies beside NGC 2419.
The globular cluster got its name because it is such a tremendous distance from us, approximately 300,000 light-years distant. Normal globular clusters are huge groupings of stars that are gravitationally bound to a galaxy and rotate around it, outside of the central region of a galaxy (its spiral arms, for example).
The Intergalactic Wanderer is farther away from the Milky Way than some of our galaxy's satellite galaxies, such as the Magellanic Clouds. Therefore the Intergalactic Wanderer seems to be near the theoretical limit for globular clusters bound to our galaxy.
