Vulpecula, the Little Fox, is a faint constellation in the Summer Triangle, home to the Dumbbell Nebula and the place where the first pulsar was found.
At a glance
| stars in the figure | 2 |
|---|---|
| nearest star of the figure | Anser, 297 light-years (91.2 pc) |
| farthest star of the figure | 13 Vulpeculae, 335 light-years (103 pc) |
| depth | the farthest is 1.1 × farther than the nearest |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Vulpecula
Vulpecula was introduced by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius as the fox with the goose, a fox carrying a goose in its jaws. The goose survives as the name of its brightest star, Anser, a red giant. It lies along the Milky Way inside the Summer Triangle, between Cygnus and Sagitta.
Vulpecula holds the Dumbbell Nebula, M27, one of the brightest planetary nebulae: the glowing shell of gas thrown off by a dying Sun-like star around its exposed core. It also holds Brocchi’s Cluster, the Coathanger, an asterism of stars that is easy in binoculars. And it was here that Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish found the first pulsar, a spinning neutron star sweeping a beam of radio waves past Earth.
Vulpecula is best seen on summer evenings in the northern hemisphere, high overhead from mid-northern latitudes.
What you see in the piece
The figure is a single line between two stars. With CONSTELLATIONS (N) on and the HUMAN EYE view (E) left behind, they turn out to lie at nearly the same distance, so the fox’s line survives the flight better than almost any other.
Questions
What is in Vulpecula?
Vulpecula holds the Dumbbell Nebula, M27, a bright planetary nebula, and the Coathanger asterism. The first pulsar was discovered in this direction.
How far away are the stars of Vulpecula?
The figure joins Anser, 297 light-years (91.2 pc), to 13 Vulpeculae, 335 light-years (103 pc): the farthest is 1.1 × farther than the nearest.