SAGITTARIUS

(Abbreviation: Sgr).

The southernmost of the Zodiacal constellation, and not wholly visible from England, Mythologically it has been associated with Chiron, the wise centaur who was tutor to Jason and many others; but it would certainly be more logical to associate Chiron with Centaurus, and another version states that Chiron merely invented the constellation Sagittarius to help in guiding the Argonauts in there quest of the Golden Fleece. The centre of the Milky Way lies behind the star-clouds here, and the whole area is exceptionally rich; it abounds in Messier objects. It is worth commenting that the stars lettered a and b are relatively faint. There are 16 stars above the fourth magnitude:

m is a algol binary with a very small range (3.8 to 3.9).

BRIGHTEST STAR

STAR	R.A.			DAC			MAG.	ABS.MAG.	SPEC	DIST.PC
STAR	H	M	S	o	‘	“	MAG.	ABS.MAG.	SPEC	DIST.PC
3 X	17	47	33.4	-27	49	51	var	-2.0	F7	200
W	18	05	01.1	-29	34	48	var	var	F8	400
10 g	18	05	48.3	-30	25	26	2.99	0.2	KO	36 ALNASR
HD 165634	18	08	04.8	-28	27	25	4.57	1.0	Gp	52
13 m	18	13	45.6	-21	03	32	3.86v	-7.1	B8	1200 POLIS
h	18	17	37.5	-36	45	42	3.11	-2.4	M3	130
HD 167818	18	18	03.0	-27	02	33	4.65	-0.3	gK5	84
19 d	18	20	59.5	-29	49	42	2.70	-0.1	K2	25 KAUS MERIDIONALIS
20 e	18	24	10.2	-34	23	05	1.85	-0.3	B9	26 KAUS AUSTRALIS
22 l	18	27	58.1	-25	25	18	2.81	-0.1	K2	30 KAUS BOREALIS
27 f	18	45	39.2	-26	59	27	3.17	-1.2	B8	75
34 s	18	55	15.7	-26	17	48	2.02	-2.0	B3	64 NUNKI
37 x²	18	57	43.6	-21	06	24	3.51	0.0	K1	44
38 z	19	02	36.5	-29	52	49	2.59	0.6	A2	24 ASCELLA
39 o	19	04	40.8	-21	44	30	3.77	0.3	gG8	43
40 t	19	06	56.2	-27	40	13	3.32	0.0	K1	40
41 p	19	09	45.6	-21	01	25	2.89	-2.0	F2	95 ALBALDAH
44 r¹	19	21	40.2	-17	50	50	2.93	1.7	FO	28
46 n	19	21	43.5	-15	57	18	4.61v	3.0	F2	21
b¹	19	22	38.1	-44	27	32	3.93	-0.2	B8	67 ARKAB
b²	19	23	12.9	-44	47	59	4.29	0.6	FO	52
a	19	23	53.0	-40	36	58	3.97	-0.2	B8	36 RUKBAT
52 h	19	36	42.3	-24	53	01	4.60	0.9	B9	55
i	19	55	15.5	-41	52	06	4.13	0.2	KO	55
58 w	19	55	50.2	-26	17	58	4.70	5.2	dG5	11
59	19	56	56.6	-27	10	12	4.52	-0.2	gK3	69
q¹	19	59	44.0	-35	16	35	4.37	-2.3	B3	210
62 c	20	02	39.4	-27	42	35	4.58	-0.5	M4	100

IN ADDITION, m AND n ARE ECLIPSING BINARIES WITH RANGE ABOUT 0.1 MAG.

DOUBLES

STAR	R.A.			DAC			MAGS.	P.A.	DIST”
STAR	H	M	S	o	‘	“	MAGS.	P.A.	DIST”
h	18	17	37.5	-36	45	42	3.1,9.0	104	SLOW BINARY
b¹	19	22	38.1	-44	27	32	3.9,8.0	077	FIXED
38 z	19	02	36.5	-29	52	49	3.5,3.5	-	VERY CLOSE BINARY. PEROID 21 YEARS. SEPARATION NEVER GREATER THAN 0”.4

VARIABLES

STAR	R.A.		DEC		RANGE	PERIOD,D	SPEC	TYPE
STAR	H	M	o	‘	RANGE	PERIOD,D	SPEC	TYPE
X	17	46.2	-27	50	4.4---5.1	7.01	F-G	CEPHEID
W	18	03.6	-29	35	4.0---5.2	7.59	F-G	CEPHEID
VX	18	05.0	-22	14	7.7---11.0	732	M	MIRA
AP	18	10.0	-23	08	6.8---7.5	5.06	F-G	CEPHEID
Y	18	18.4	-18	53	5.3---6.0	5.77	F-G	CEPHEID
RV	18	24.6	-33	21	7.2---14.0	318	M	MIRA
V.1017	18	28.9	-29	26	6.2---14.0	RECURRENT NOVA (1901, 1919, 1973)
U	18	28.9	-19	10	7.0---8.2	6.7	F-G	CEPHEID
YZ	18	46.6	-16	47	7.1---7.9	9.55	G	CEPHEID
UX	18	52.0	-16	35	7.6---8.4	100	M5	SEMI-REGULAR
ST	18	58.7	-12	50	7.6---15	395	S	MIRA
RY	19	13.3	-33	37	6.5---14.0	-	G	R CORONÆ TYPE
R	19	13.8	-19	24	6.7---12.8	269	M	MIRA
S	19	16.5	-19	07	9.3---15	231	M	MIRA
T	19	13.3	-17	04	7.6---12.7	392	M	MIRA
AQ	19	31.4	-16	29	6.6---7.7	200	N	SEMI-REGULAR
RR	19	52.8	-29	19	5.7---14.0	334	M	MIRA
RU	19	55.3	-41	59	6.3---14.0	240	M	MIRA
RT	20	14.4	-39	16	6.2---14.0	305	M	MIRA

CLUSTERS AND NEBULÆ

OBJECT	R.A.		DEC		TYPE	NOTES
OBJECT	H	M	o	‘	TYPE	NOTES
NGC 6440	17	45.9	-20	21	GLOBULA	MAG. 10.4
NGC 6494 M.23	17	54.0	-19	01	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG. 6.9. ABOUT 20 STARS
NGC 6514 M.20	17	58.9	-23	02	NEBULA	MAG.9 TRIFID NEBULA
NGC 6520	18	00.3	-27	54	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG. 8. RICH
NGC 6523 M.8	18	01.6	-24	20	NEBULA	LAGOON NEBULA MAG.6
NGC 6531 M.21	18	01.8	-22	30	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG. 6.5. ABOUT 50 STARS
NGC 6567	18	10.8	-19	05	PLANETARY	MAG. 11.7.( CENTRAL STAR MAG. 15)
NGC 6603 M.24	18	15.5	-18	27	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG. 4.6. RICH SOME 50 STARS
NGC 6613 M.18	18	17.0	-17	09	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG. 7.5. SPARSE
NGC 6618 M17	18	17.9	-16	12	NEBULA	MAG. 7. OMEGA NEBULA
NGC 6626 M.28	18	21.5	-24	54	GLOBULA	MAG. 7.3
NGC 6629	18	22.7	-23	14	PLANETARY	MAG. 10.4. ( CENTRAL STAR MAG. 14.)
NGC 6638	18	27.9	-25	32	GLOBULA	MAG. 9.8
NGC 6637 M.69	18	28.1	-32	33	GLOBULA	MAG. 8.9
I 4725 M.25	18	28.8	-19	17	OPEN CLUSTER	MAG. 6.5. CONTAINS U Sgr
NGC 6644	18	29.5	-25	11	PLANETARY	MAG. 12.2
NGC 6656 M.22	18	33.3	-23	58	GLOBULA	MAG. 5.9. FIRST GLOBULA TO BE DISCOVERED
NGC 6681 M70	18	40.0	-32	21	GLOBULA	MAG. 9.6
NGC 6715 M.54	18	52.0	-30	32	GLOBULA	MAG. 7.3
NGC 6723	18	56.2	-36	42	GLOBULA	MAG. 6
NGC 6809 M.55	19	36.9	-31	03	GLOBULA	MAG. 7.6
NGC 6818	19	41.1	-14	17	PLANETARY	MAG. 10. . . (CENTRAL STAR MAG. 15)
NGC 6 822	19	42.1	-14	53	GALAXY	MAG. 9. ELLIPTICAL
NGC 6864 M.75	20	03.2	-22	04	GLOBULA	MAG. 8.0