50Vulpecula, The Little Fox

NAME: Vulpecula (vul-PECK-you-luh)

SEASON: Summer

CULMINATION: midnight, 26 July

ABBREVIATION: Vul

GENITIVE: Vulpeculae (vul-PECK-you-lye)

NEIGHBORS: Cyg, Del, Her, Lyr, Peg, Sge

BINOCULAR OBJECTS: Cr 399, NGC 6823, NGC 6853 (M 27), NGC 6940

URBAN OBJECTS: Cr 399, NGC 6853 (M 27), NGC 6940

Vulpecula is an extremely faint, mid-size mid-northerly constellation that ranks 55th in size among the 88 constellations. Vulpecula covers 268 square degrees of the celestial sphere, or about 0.6%. Its brightest star is barely fourth magnitude, and all of its other stars are fifth magnitude or dimmer. The ancients considered the area of Vulpecula to be just a dark patch of sky, and included it in none of their constellations. ...

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