Particulars:
General:
This large southern constellation lies in one of the most
beautiful parts of the sky. The Milky Way passing trough Carina
and the neighbouring constellation Vela (north of Carina) makes
this field worth for random scanning through the sky. The star
field is extremly rich and a pleasure to observe even with
binoculars or small scopes.
Also it is notable for it contains the second brightest star in
the sky, alpha Car, called Canopus.
Stars and other objects
There are lots of star clusters in this area. One of the more
famous is IC 2602, sometimes called the Southern
Pleiades. It is a large and bright cluster. In the center of
the cluster sits the 3rd mag, blue-white star theta Car.
To the naked eye six stars are visible, but viewed with
binoculars or small scopes many more stars of this cluster can be
seen in field of about 1 degree of the sky.
The large open cluster NGC 2516 is best viewed with
binoculars. It contains about 100 stars. Interesting are its 5th
mag red giant and its three double stars of 8th and 9th
magnitude. To view them you will need a small telescope.
Containing about 150 stars NGC 3532 is another large
binocular cluster. The stars are of 6th mag and fainter. In small
scopes it appears wonderfully rich and reveals a markedly
elliptical shape. The one orange star of 4 mag at one edge is not
a real member of that cluster, but much more distant. The cluster
distance is estimated to be about 1300 lightyears.
The globular cluster NGC 2808 is a faint naked-eye object.
The brightest stars of Carina are alpha Car, Canopus,
a yellow-white supergiant of -0.7 mag (about 300 lightyears
distant), beta Car, Miaplacidus, a
blue-white star of 1.7 mag, gamma Car,Almuhlif
with 1.8 mag and epsilon Car, She
(sometimes called Avior), which is a yellow giant
with a brightness of 1.9 mag.
Eta
Car with the surrounding the Eta Carinae Nebula is
one of the most peculiar objects in the sky. The variable star eta
Car behaves most erratically: In 1843 it flared up to a
maximum brightness of -1 mag (which comes close to Sirius (alpha
CMa)), but nowdays it shines as a 6th or 7th mag star. It is
thought, that eta Car is a unstable supergiant having a
mass of more than 100 times of that of our sun. In irregular
intervals it throws of shells of gas. This star is a candidate to
become a supernova somewhen in the next 10000 years. Because it
is embedded in the Eta Carinae Nebula it gives a most
glorious view for the observer (with a large telescope). This
nebula is visible to the nakes eye and even larger than the
famous Orion Nebula. It is bisected by a dark V-shaped
lane of dust. Eta Car lies in the center of the nebula
next to a dark patch called Keyhole because of
its shape.
Epsilon Car is a double star which is easy to observe in a
two inch telescope (the second star is a blue one). The
brightness of the components are 4.9 and 7.7, respectively.
The double star upsilon Car is a white star of 3 mag with
a 6th mag companion. This system can be viewed with small scopes.
The star b22 (or t2 Car) reveals in scopes to be a
wide orange-green pair.
The Eta Carinids meteor shower can be observed from
january 14 to january 27. The maximum occurs around the 21st of
january. More information about the Eta Carinids can be found
in Gary Kronk's database about meteor showers.
Mythological Background:
The name is derived from the Argo Navis, the ship of the Argonauts, of which Carina, the keel, is thought to be a part of.