Lacerta

Look up at the night sky.

You can find a group of stars. It looks like a small lizard. Its name means lizard.

The stars make a shape like the letter W. This makes it look like a tiny version of another shape. It sits near the Milky Way.

One star in this group is blue and white. Another star is a big yellow star. There is even a planet there. That planet is light like cork. It is a very special part of the sky.

Lacerta is a group of stars in the sky. Its name is Latin for lizard.

An astronomer named Johannes Hevelius made this group in 1687. He first called it Stellio. This was a name for a lizard. Some people gave it other names later. Now, we only use the name Lacerta.

The brightest stars make a shape like a W. This makes it look like a small version of Cassiopeia. Lacerta sits near the Milky Way. It is between three other star groups.

There are many interesting things in Lacerta. One star is blue-white. It is called Alpha Lacertae. Another star is a large yellow star. We call it Beta Lacertae. There is also a planet named HAT P-1. This planet is very light. It has a density like cork.

You can also find an open cluster there. This is a group of stars. It is called NGC 7243. It is 2500 light-years away from Earth. It has many stars that are spread out.

Lacerta is a group of stars in the northern sky. Its name is the Latin word for lizard.

This constellation is quite small and faint. It sits between the star groups Cygnus, Cassiopeia, and Andromeda. The northern part of it lies on the Milky Way. Its brightest stars form a shape like the letter W. Some people call it "Little Cassiopeia" because of this shape.

Many different things live in this part of space. You can find open clusters like NGC 7243 there. This cluster is 2500 light-years away from Earth. It has a few dozen stars that look scattered. There is also a faint object called IC 5217. This is a planetary nebula. You can also find the object BL Lacertae. It is a type of blazar. This object is actually the moving center of an elliptical galaxy.

People have given this area many different names. An astronomer named Johannes Hevelius created it in 1687. He first called it Stellio. This was a name for a Mediterranean lizard. Later, Augustin Royer called it Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae. Johann Elert Bode called it Frederici Honores in 1787. Those names are now obsolete. Only the name Lacerta remains in use today.

There are many unique stars to study here. Alpha Lacertae is a blue-white star. It is 102 light-years away from us. Beta Lacertae is a yellow giant star. It is 170 light-years away. There is also a star system called ADS 16402. A planet named HAT P-1 orbits this system. This planet is the size of Jupiter. It is very light, with a density like cork.

Different cultures have seen this group in different ways. Ancient Western astronomers did not use it as a constellation. However, early Chinese astronomers saw these stars as a "Flying serpent." The Chumash people of California also call this area "Lizard." They include it in many of their stories. Even the United States Navy used the name. They named an attack cargo ship the USS Lacerta.

Lacerta is one of the 88 modern constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Its name is the Latin word for lizard.

This constellation is relatively small and faint. It is located on the northern celestial sphere. You can find it positioned between the constellations Cygnus, Cassiopeia, and Andromeda. The northern section of Lacerta lies along the path of the Milky Way. Because its brightest stars form a "W" shape, some people call it "Little Cassiopeia."

Lacerta is a typical Milky Way constellation. It does not contain bright galaxies or globular clusters. Instead, it features open clusters and several interesting deep-sky objects. One example is NGC 7243, which is an open cluster located 2,500 light-years from Earth. This cluster contains a few dozen scattered stars. The brightest stars in this group have a magnitude of 8. The constellation also contains the faint planetary nebula IC 5217.

Many unique stars reside within this constellation. Alpha Lacertae is a blue-white main-sequence star. It has a magnitude of 3.8 and sits 102 light-years away from Earth. This star is an optical double star with a spectral type of A1 V. Beta Lacertae is much dimmer with a magnitude of 4.4. It is a yellow giant star located 170 light-years away. There is also a multiple star system called Roe 47. It consists of five different components with magnitudes ranging from 5.8 to 10.1.

Some objects in Lacerta are quite unusual. The binary star system ADS 16402 is orbited by a planet named HAT P-1. This planet is about the size of Jupiter. However, it has an unexpectedly low density. Its density is roughly the same as cork. Another interesting star is EV Lacertae. It is a magnitude 10 red dwarf that spins very rapidly. It is a flare star with a strong magnetic field. It can emit powerful flares that are thousands of times more energetic than those from our sun.

One of the most significant objects is BL Lacertae. This object is the prototype for a whole class of celestial bodies called BL Lacertae objects. These are a subtype of blazars. While they may appear to be dim variable stars, they are actually the variable nuclei of elliptical galaxies. They are similar to quasars. The object varies irregularly between magnitudes 14 and 17 over a period of a few days. This discovery helped scientists name an entire category of cosmic objects.

Lacerta was not recognized by ancient Western astronomers. The constellation was defined in 1687 by the astronomer Johannes Hevelius. He originally named it "Stellio," which refers to a lizard with star-like spots. Other people tried to give the constellation different names later. In 1670, Augustin Royer created "Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae" to honor Louis XIV. In 1787, Johann Elert Bode named it "Frederici Honores" to honor Frederick the Great. Both of these names are now obsolete, while Lacerta remains the official name.

Different cultures have viewed these stars in their own ways. Early Chinese astronomers combined these stars with parts of Cygnus to create a "Flying serpent." The Chumash people of California also refer to this area as "Lizard." They include the lizard in many of their traditional stories. Even the United States Navy used the name for a ship. They named an attack cargo ship the USS Lacerta (AKA-29) after this constellation.