Constellations · Constellation · Camelopardalis · Cam
Constellation
Camelopardalis
A giraffe, invented in 1612 to fill the empty sky between the pole and Perseus. It is large, faint, and full of surprises.
- Genitive
- Camelopardalis
- Area
- 757 square degrees · 18th of 88
- Brightest star
- · magnitude 4.03
- Naked-eye stars
- 157 brighter than magnitude 6.5
- Highest at midnight
- mid December
History
Dutch theologian and mapmaker Petrus Plancius introduced it, perhaps as the camel Rebecca rode to meet Isaac. The Latin for giraffe was literally “camel-leopard”.
Look for
Kemble’s Cascade is a straight chain of about twenty faint stars, tumbling into a small cluster — spotted by a Franciscan friar and amateur astronomer, Lucian Kemble, in the 1980s.