BAS Observer September 2017

22 BAS OBSERVER Meridian constellations Two commonly overlooked and tiny constellations in the northern sky are Equuleus (the Little Horse) and Delphinus (the Dolphin). Equuleus is the second-smallest constellation in the sky and looks like nothing more than a tiny triangle of stars – certainly not like a horse. Perhaps the sky mappers just had horses on their minds while scouring the stars for patterns in this region – the large constellation Pegasus (the Horse) is just to the east. Delphinus is also tiny, and resembles a tight and flattened diamond of stars with a few small stars as a tail – nothing at all resembling a dolphin. Equuleus There are many myths relating to Equuleus. Some say the little horse is the foal of another horse called Celeris (the offspring of Pegasus), while others say Equuleus is the shamed offspring of the Centaur and a horse called Hippe. However, the myths are more interesting than the astronomical objects in this constellation. There are a few very dim galaxies located over 140 million light-years away – but they will be hard to spot. DSO-Browser does not list a single observation object for this constellation. Delphinus Delphinus is another astro-desert; however, the asterism is still worth locating in the sky. You might also like to hunt for the very small and faint globular cluster NGC 7006, which is 137 000 light-years distant from our Sun. This makes it about 10 times farther away than the ‘show-stopper’ globular cluster Omega Centauri, and far across the other side of our Milky Way Galaxy. Equuleus Delphinus EQUULEUS DELPHINUS NGC 7006