FlamariX, a ''new'' old asterism

[Mircea]

I invite you to observe a naked eye asterism.

Camille Flammarion published in 1882 his book '' Les etoiles et les curiosites du ciel''. It is a sequel, the observation guide to his famous ''L' astronomie populaire''.

There, on page 244 he is giving instructions to the wanna be astronomer how to find the constellation Ophiucus, namely her lucida , Alpha Oph.

There is available, for these purpose, a drawing. It consist of an alignment of four of the brightest stars of our starry vault: Vega and Altair to the East and Arcturus and Antares to the West.

Close to the intersections of the imaginary lines Altair- Arcturus with Vega - Antares it is Alpha Oph.

 

 

As soon as I saw the drawing I was struck by the desire to see this asterism on the sky. I done it.  It is a very large asterism but this is a good time of the year to try to see it.

Even with naked eyes you will need ''to pan'' a bit to see the whole asterism. I'm proposing the name of FlammariX for this asterism, because is related to Flammarion and because of the ''X'' shape, a huge one.

I'm looking forward to your feedback.

 

Clear sky, Mircea