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 media type="file" key="greetingsexcellentfriends.wav" width="300" height="50" Welcome to the 2009 Constellation Page!
 * [[image:jupe_tilt_clr_animado.gif width="161" height="155"]] [[image:planetes-04.gif width="247" height="180"]] [[image:neptune_clr_animado.gif width="166" height="156"]]

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Note: This page is under construction!

media type="file" key="backoff.mp3" width="240" height="20" You will use your wikispace to build a page on a specific constellation. Your page must include very specific information about your constellation. media type="file" key="yeeha.wav" width="300" height="50" **  **Your page must include:** 

 Here is a list of websites that you might use to collect your information: 
 * 1) A list of the stars associated with your constellation;
 * 2)  The temperature and star types of the stars of your constellation;
 * 3)  The approximate distance to the alpha star in your constellation;
 * 4)  A description/picture of any deep sky objects found within your constellation;
 * 5)  A narrative of the different mythologies or legends about your constellation;
 * 6)  <span style="color: #ff0015; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 144%;">A simple map that clearly shows the shape of your constellation.

http://www.dibonsmith.com/constel.htm http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/1364/Constellations.html http://www.astronomical.org/portal/modules/wfsection/index.php?category=1 http://www.comfychair.org/~cmbell/myth/myth.html http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/sowlist.html http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/stars/constellations.shtml http://www.astrofilitrentini.it/mat/costell_eng.html. http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/Milkyway.html <span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; msothemecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/ <span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; msothemecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">http://www.allthesky.com/constellations/const.html <span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; msothemecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">http://www.wingmakers.co.nz/The%20Universe.html <span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; msothemecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">http://my.hwy.com.au/~sjquirk/index.html <span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; msothemecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none; textunderline: none;">http://victoria.rasc.ca/gallery/John/Default.htm

Each constellation has boundaries, and some have lots more stars within those boundaries. Only include the stars that make up the obvious constellation outline. Below is the constellation Crux: my page would include a discussion about the 4 main stars of Crux.

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<span class="mw-headline" style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">Named Stars
 * <span style="color: #a315e5; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">α is named Acrux, a concatenation of "Alpha" and "Crux"
 * <span style="color: #a315e5; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">β is named Becrux and is also named after the Mimosa plant
 * <span style="color: #a315e5; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">γ is named Gacrux, an amalgamation of "Gamma" and "Crux"

<span style="color: #a315e5; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Alpha star, Acrux is a binary star system. The combined visual magnitude is 0.72 and the stars are 320 light years away. Both stars are about twice the size of our Sun. It is a B class star, white-blue subgiant with a surface temperature of about 28,000 Kelvin.



Mimosa, Becrux, is the brightest star in the group, is a blue-white supergiant with a diameter of 5 times our Sun. It has a magnitude of 1.25. It is also a variable star, which means its' brightness varies over time. It is a Cepheid variable star. Becrux is located approximately 353 lights away from Earth. It is a spectroscopic binary star whose pairing are too close together to seperate using a telescope. The pair of stars orbit each other every 5 years. It is a B class star, one of the hottest first magnitude stars in the heavens.

Gamma Crucis forms the top of the cross. It is an optical binary star system, meaning the stars don't actually orbit each other. It is a red giant M class star.

Delta crux is the western arm and is part of a nearby star cluster. It is an M class subgiant variable star. It's a cepheid variable star.



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I somehow thought this might give you some indication that white light, and energy from a sun, can be split into the colors of the spectrum using a prism. Astronomers look at different wavelengths of energy to gather different types of information.



Deep Sky objects for the constellation Crux include the Jewel Box, an open cluster of over a hundred stars. More than 50 of these stars are a mixture of colorful supergiants: reds and blues mixed with yellows and whites. It is also a very young cluster, perhaps no older than 10 million years old. Many of the stars are 100,000 times brighter than our Sun!



A positive and negative image of the Jewel Box star cluster.

The Coal Sack is a large dark nebula about 500 light years away, just south of the jewel box and it is visible to the naked eye. Of all dark nebulae, the Coal Sack is the largest one visible to the naked eye.

<span style="color: #b30f0f; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%; text-align: left;"> This is really cool! Here are some other deep sky objects often associated with the constellation Crux: There is a star in this constellation that apparently has a large planet in orbit around it. The planet, while large, has not yet been imaged but we know it's there because astrnonmers have noticed a wobble in the star's orbit that can only be produced by a large planet and its' gravitational affect.
 * NGC || 4755 || Open cluster || 4,2 ||
 * NGC || 4609 || Open cluster || 6,9 ||
 * Ru || 98 || Open cluster || 7 ||
 * Harvard 5 || || Open cluster || 7,1 ||
 * NGC || 4103 || Open cluster || 7,4 ||
 * NGC || 4349 || Open cluster || 7,4 ||
 * NGC || 4439 || Open cluster || 8,4 ||
 * NGC || 4052 || Open cluster || 8,8 ||
 * NGC || 4337 || Open cluster || 8,9 ||
 * Ru || 97 || Open cluster || 9,1 ||
 * Hogg || 14 || Open cluster || 9,5 ||
 * Tr || 20 || Open cluster || 10,1 ||
 * Hogg || 15 || Open cluster || 10,3 ||
 * PK || 298-0,1 || Planetary nebula || 11 ||
 * PK || 300-0,1 || Planetary nebula || 11,7 ||
 * PK || 298-1,2 || Planetary nebula || 12,4 ||
 * PK || 299+2,1 || Planetary nebula || 12,7 ||
 * PK || 300+0,1 || Planetary nebula || 12,9 ||
 * PK || 299-0,1 || Planetary nebula || 13,6 ||
 * PK || 300-1,1 || Planetary nebula || 13,8 ||





Mythology: Since Crux was once part of the constellation Centaurus, there is no specific mythology associated with it. It was seperated from Centaurus in the 16th century because the asterism of a cross was too powerful to overlook. Crux, or the Southern Cross, has been prominately displayed in many cultures where it is visible, south of the Tropic of Cancer.

The Southern Cross dictates the calendar in the Andes; it says when it is time to harvest and when it is time to start sowing. The Inca also regarded the Southern Cross as very important. There are many imperial buildings related to this constellation. As their stars pointed directly to the Celestial South Pole, they needed to know it in order to determine the different times of the year (seasons, time of sowing/harvest, solstices, equinoxes, etc) The Bolivian people celebrate on May 3 the Cross but, in this case, they talk specifically of the feast of the Southern Cross constellation. Their ancestors venerated this constellation with the name Achakana (Southern Cross). in ancient Hindu astrology, Crux was referred to as Trishanku. The Maori called it Te Punga, the Anchor. In Tonga, it is known as Toloa, the Duck. In Indonesia, it is known as Buruj Pari, the Stingray.

Amerigo Vespucci mapped the stars of Crux on his expedition to South America in 1501! Many countries have placed Crux on their flags, including Australia, New Zealand, New Guine, Samoa and Brazil.