And then there's Lynx, another gathering of faint stars, stretched out between the Dig Dipper and Capella and Castor and Pollux. In all my years of stargazing, I don't know that I've ever actually picked Lynx out, identified it by its stars. And it's not because I haven't tried ... well, I take that back; I haven't tried. It's just that it ... um ... is dim and boring.
It turns out Lynx is one of seven constellations "created" by Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687). He was a Polish astronomer known for his charts of the lunar surface. He introduced Lynx to the world in 1687, in his catalogue of 1564 stars, Prodromus Astronomiae. Sadly, his wife published it three years after his death.
Hevelius acknowledged the dim stars of Lynx, writing that to see the constellation, observers would have to be "lynx-eyed." It is generally believed he named the constellation not for the nocturnal wildcat with superb eyesight, but was a reference to those "lynx-eyed" who might be able to spot its faint stars.
Though, to the naked eye, a star-poor constellation, Lynx is "home" to several binary star pairs. Alpha Lyncis, the woefully dim brightest star of the constellation, is part of a binary system. The star is a red giant, about 30 times as big as our sun, and glimmers at us from a distance of 170 light years.
12 Lyncis, about 200 light years away, is actually a triple system. (It is also known as Struve 948.) Companion B is 1.7" from the primary star, and has a nearly circular orbit that takes 699 years to complete. Companion C, 8.7" from the primary, is a fixed star.
The binary Kui 37 is interesting for its westward proper motion of .507". Also known as 10 Ursae Majoris, it has moved from Ursa Major to Lynx, but kept its old name. It is a close visual binary; the companion revolves around the primary once every 21.9 years. There is also a fairly bright and somewhat large spiral galaxy in Lynx, NGC 2683. It is seen edge on, and lies 10 northwest of sigma 2 Cancri, about 20 southwest of Lynx.
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