Camelopardalis, the Giraffe, is a large but faint northern constellation that fills the empty sky between the Plough, Cassiopeia and Perseus.
At a glance
| stars in the figure | 8 |
|---|---|
| not placed by measurement | Alpha Camelopardalis (no usable parallax; left out of the depth below) |
| nearest star of the figure | HIP 29997, 175 light-years (53.6 pc) |
| farthest star of the figure | HIP 16228, 1,940 light-years (595 pc) |
| depth | the farthest is 11 × farther than the nearest |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Camelopardalis
Camelopardalis was introduced by the Dutch cartographer Petrus Plancius to fill a gap in the northern sky that the ancient figures had left empty. The name is the old Greek and Latin word for the giraffe, an animal imagined as part camel and part leopard. It is so faint that many people who know the northern sky well have never picked it out.
For observers at mid-northern latitudes it never sets, circling the pole all year. Its stars are dim and scattered, and even the brightest, Beta Camelopardalis, is a remote yellow supergiant rather than a nearby star. Among its sights is Kemble’s Cascade, a long straight chain of faint stars visible in binoculars, which ends at a small open cluster.
Alpha Camelopardalis is a hot, very luminous supergiant moving unusually fast through space, thought to have been thrown out of the cluster where it was born. It looks faint only because it is so far away.
What you see in the piece
With CONSTELLATIONS on, fly out and the giraffe falls apart more than most figures: HIP 29997 is close by while HIP 16228 lies far behind it. Alpha Camelopardalis has no measured distance, so the piece sets it at a stand-in distance only to keep its line drawn.
Measured or modelled
Alpha Camelopardalis has no usable parallax, so its distance is not measured: the card lists it as not placed by measurement and leaves it out of the nearest, farthest and depth.
Questions
Why are the stars of the Giraffe so faint?
Mostly because they are far away. Of the stars with a measured distance, the farthest is HIP 16228, 1,940 light-years (595 pc); the distance of Alpha Camelopardalis, a very luminous supergiant, is not measured.
How deep is the Giraffe?
Of the stars with a measured distance, the nearest is HIP 29997, 175 light-years (53.6 pc), and the farthest is HIP 16228, 1,940 light-years (595 pc): the farthest is 11 × farther than the nearest.