This is the nearest I can get, at this time of year, to showing you both of the heavenly Crowns.
See the end note about enlarging illustrations.
You can lie on your back to see Corona Borealis, the northern crown, virtually ocerhead, between Boötes and Hercules. It’s a neat semicircle, with the jewel star, Gemma, in the middle.
The southern crown, Corona Australis, lies immediately south of the “Teapot” formation of Sagittarius, so it has just risen into the sky. But it consists of dim stars, is in bright twilight, and will be in daylight when it gets a little higher, so you’ll have to imagine it.
I wish I could also show you the heavenly Cruise Ship, Argo. As is the way with such monstrosities, it is vast, has many regions – the constellations of the Poop, Sails, Keel, and Compass. It has no doubt been fitted with swimming pools, dance halls, and thousands of cabins. But it, too, is southerly, the ports over which it towers, guided by its helmsman Canopus, are around the southern ocean, its sails barely break our horizon even when it is highest, around three hours after sunset.
Corona is the Latin word from which , through French coroune (later couronne) Engluish gets crown. Guests from overseas came to see the coronation of queen Elizabeth II, and one of them asked: “When is she going to be coronayed?” A melodious word; it sounds like a kind of cordial drink, “coronade.”
The coronavirus is so called because it produces a rash reminiscent of a crown. It wouldn’t be quite true to say that I can imagine few things worse than being quarantined on a cruise ship. We came close to it because of a disease called norovirus, on the ship we had to take to get to the Arctic eclipse of 2015.
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Many think that viruses and bacteria are like evil spirits lurking in the shadows waiting to prey on unsuspecting passers-by. The Corona virus, like any other virus will be fought off by most people if they take care of themselves with proper exercise and chiropractic care. The media hypes these “plagues” to scare us into buying poisonous drugs and vaccines, since the pharmaceutical companies are the media’s main advertisers.
Tony Flanders wrote a marvelous article on Argo Navis for the March 2020 Sky and Telescope magazine. The constellation has a fascinating history. Ptolemy’s original ship was much smaller than the huge swath of sky which Plancius designated as Argo Navis in his 1595 atlas and Lacaille later cut up into Puppis, Pyxis, Vela, and Carina. In addition to telling the convoluted story of how Jason’s ship has been represented in the sky, Flanders provides a detailed observing guide which makes me want to journey to the southern hemisphere. “By amazing good luck, the Eta Carinae nebula lies directly behind one of the densest concentrations of naked-eye star clusters in our own arm of the Milky Way, and those clusters are embedded in an extremely rich star field. The overall effect of bright-on-bright-on-bright is unlike anything else in the sky. To my eye, this area outshines the star clouds in Cygnus, Scutum, and Sagittarius by a large margin.”
I’ve read that the class of corona viruses was so named because under an electron microscope the surface of the virus is studded with proteins that look like the spikes on a crown. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/types.html
Like Anthony, I read Tony Flanders’ article on Argo Navis with great interest ~ it has me contemplating a spring break trip to the Florida Keys in March to see as much of the deep southern Milky Way as possible. With clear skies down to the horizon, one should be able to see most of Argo, Eta Carinae, the Southern Cross, and alpha / beta Centauri floating over the waterline.
Eric, I hope you have clear skies! Please let us know how it goes.
Anthony, as it turns out, I decided to cancel the trip because of the coronavirus situation. Back in mid-February, we could not foresee the impact this pandemic would have on all of us, and as of March 16, I would guess the situation is about to get much worse. I’ll have to do my astronomy from my driveway! In the meantime, all we can do is follow Rick’s advice to keep up our immune systems by taking Vitamin C, get out in the fresh air and Sun to make Vitamin D, and remain active. Fortunately, I can still see the planets in the morning sky:
http://www.starvergnuegen.com/astropix/m_j_s_sag_mar_8_2020_1.jpg
My information is the name “coronavirus” refers to the characteristic appearance of virions (the infective form of the virus) by electron microscopy, which have a fringe of large, bulbous surface projections creating an image reminiscent of a crown or of a solar corona.
Correct. Some pictures of the virus are here … https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/coronavirus?sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=coronavirus
I’ve seen all the messier objects in Argo narvis,as was, from the latitude of Oxford, England (about 51.5 north).m46/7 are fairly easy given a dark horizon but m93 rather more tricky.my last sighting of canopus was from ruwi, Oman, about 2 years ago.