Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders

30Lynx, The Lynx

NAME: Lynx (LINKS)

SEASON: Winter

CULMINATION: midnight, 20 January

ABBREVIATION: Lyn

GENITIVE: Lyncis (LINN-cis)

NEIGHBORS: Aur, Cam, Cnc, Gem, Leo, LMi, UMa

BINOCULAR OBJECTS: none

URBAN OBJECTS: none

Lynx is a very faint, mid-size, mid-northerly constellation that ranks 28th in size among the 88 constellations. Lynx covers 545 square degrees of the celestial sphere, or about 1.3%. Lynx is the dark area that lies between the bright constellations Ursa Major to the northwest and Auriga to the southwest. Lynx has one third magnitude star, and only five of the fourth magnitude.

Lynx is one of the “modern” constellations, defined by Johannes Hevelius in 1687. No mythology is associated with Lynx, because the ancients considered ...