Constellation Chart

The Charioteer

Auriga is an ancient Northern Hemisphere constellation featuring one of the brightest stars in the heavens: Capella. Auriga is usually pictured as a charioteer; the youth Auriga wields a whip in one hand and holds a goat (Capella) and her two kids in the other.

Capella means "small goat". A previous name of this star was Amalthea, which was the goat that suckled the baby Zeus. There are many ancient stories relating to the star, as every culture in antiquity found a place for this bright companion to Taurus, its closest neighbour. 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 Aurigae) which is actually shared with Taurus, and also known as beta Tauri. Auriga's stars are fairly bright; five are second magnitude or brighter. Alpha Aurigae (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 brightnesses of the primary star and a close companion, that revolves every 104 days. There is another companion, much fainter: a red dwarf which is itself a close binary.

The constellation of Auriga looks 'outwards' along the plane of the Milky Way, towards the edge of our Galaxy.

Open Clusters In Auriga

M36 (NGC1960)

At about the zenith in winter sky, a trio of open clusters is bathed in the faint Milky Way of Auriga. They are paralleled M37 (NGC2099), M36 (NGC1960), and M38 (NGC1912) from east to west. M38 has a bit sparser star-density than other two, only

M37 (NGC2099)

M38 is classified in type f, M36 and M37 have a type of e. Both appearances and real scales of all three are very alike. A telescope is preferred but you can at least locate these objects with binoculars. It'll be very interesting to compare their distributions of stars and/or detailed structures with telescopes. They have sizes of about 20 arc minutes and distances of 3500 to 4700 light years approximately.

M38 (NGC1912)

M38 is a bright open cluster in Auriga. It is nestled inside the winter Milky Way, so there are a lot of field stars in the image also

Ngc1907

Ngc1970 is a small cluster of stars in auriga

NGC2281

NGC2281 is a normal open cluster in east of the pentagon of Auriga. Although there are no good guide stars nearby, you will be able to catch the cluster with binoculars by estimating midway of beta Aurigae and Castor. The cluster has a size of about 15 arc minutes and about 30 member stars or so. And the distance is estimated about 5400 light years.

Diffused Nebula's In Auriga

IC405

There is a bluish variable star "Auriga AE" with 6th magnitude at the center of IC405, known as "The Runaway Star". The variable has born in The Great Orion Nebula (M42) and jumped from the nebula. The star is just passing through IC405 by chance, and brightening the nebula by giving energy and activating the hydrogen molecules. When Auriga AE goes away from IC405 in far future, the nebula will lose its glitter and become a dark nebula.

IC410

And very faint gaseous nebulosities are distributed around between IC410 and M38.

IC417

IC417 with an apparent diameter of about 15 arc minutes. The dimmed and vast nebula has occupied almost whole of upper part of this photograph, a single filament structure is stretching toward just west (right in picture) of M38.

Galaxies In Auriga

NGC1931

NGC1931 is a small spiral galaxy in auriga

Planetary Destinations In Auriga

HD 40979

Parent Star: HD 40979 (F8 V) in the constellation of Auriga is located at a distance of 108.61 Light Years from our Solar system. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 06 04 29.9431 & Declination: 44 15 37.599. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 6.746. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.69 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 2.17 AU. Orbiting around HD 40979 is planet HD 40979 bthe planet is believed to be a Sulfurous Cloud Jovian, Eccentric and its existence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is Sulfur stained clouds of water or H2SO4 . Planet at inner edge of Habitable Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 0.811 AU and the estimated mass of the planet is Mass 3.32 Jupiters. The planet Orbits around the star every 267.2 ± 3 Days and was discovered by Fischer et al. on 13 Jun 2002.

GM Aurigae

Parent Star: GM Aurigae (K5 V:e) in the constellation of Auriga is located at a distance of 456.62 Light Years from our Solar system. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 04 55 10.2 & Declination: +30 21 58. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 5.07. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is -.-- AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: --.--AU. Orbiting around GM Aurigae is planet GM Aurigae b the planet is believed to be a Jovian and its existence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is Water Cloud Jovian, Eccentric . The planet maybe positioned out side the of the Habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 2.5 AU and the estimated mass of the planet is Mass 1.7 Jupiters. The planet Orbits around the star every 4 years and was discovered by RICE W., WOOD K., ARMITAGE P., WHITNEY B. & BJORKMAN J. in 2003.

HD 45350

Parent Star: HD 45350 (G5 IV) in the constellation of Auriga is located at a distance of 159.82 Light Years from our Solar system. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 06 28 45.7103 & Declination: +38 57 46.667. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 7.88. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.58 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 1.82 AU. Orbiting around HD 45350 is planet HD 45350 b the planet is believed to be a Water Cloud Jovian, Eccentric and its existence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is a White water ice clouds. Planet is at outer edge of Habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 1.77 AU and the estimated mass of the planet is Mass 0.98 Jupiters. The planet Orbits around the star every 890.76 ± 37.42 Days and was discovered by Marcy et al. in 2005.

HD 49674

Parent Star: HD 49674 (G5 V) in the constellation of Auriga is located at a distance of 132.74 Light Years from our Solar system. Co-ordinates of Right Ascension: 06 51 30.5164 & Declination: 40 52 03.923. The apparent Magnitude of the star is 8.1. The Inner Edge of Habitability Zone is 0.46 AU & the Outer Edge of Habitability Zone: 1.44 AU. Orbiting around HD 49674 is planet HD 49674 bthe planet is believed to be a Dark Hot Jupiter and its existence has been confirmed. The planets appearance is a Dark sodium haze. The planet is out side of the Habitability Zone at Mean Orbital Distance of 0.056 AU and the estimated mass of the planet is Mass 0.12 Jupiters. The planet Orbits around the star every 4.948 Days and was discovered by Butler et al on 13 Jun 2002.