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Ophiuchus

Definition: Ophiuchus

Ophiuchus

Noun

1. A large constellation in the equatorial region between Hercules and Scorpius.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 


Specialty Definitions: Ophiuchus

DomainDefinitions

Aerospace

See constellation.Abbreviation Oph, Ophi. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Ophiuchus

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Ophiuchus

larger image
AbbreviationOph
GenitiveOphiuchi
Meaning in Englishthe Serpent Bearer
Right ascension17 h
Declination0°
Visible to latitudeBetween 80° and -80°
On meridian9 p.m., July 25
Area
 - Total		Ranked 11th
948 sq. deg.
Number of stars with
apparent magnitude < 3		5
Brightest star
 - Apparent magnitude		Ras Alhague (α Oph)
2.1
Meteor showers
  • Ophiuchids
  • Northern
    May Ophiuchids
  • Southern
    May Ophiuchides
  • Theta Ophiuchids
Bordering constellations
  • Hercules
  • Serpens Caput
  • Libra
  • Scorpius
  • Sagittarius
  • Serpens Cauda
  • Aquila

Ophiuchus (the serpent bearer) is one of the 88 modern constellations, and was also one of the 48 listed by Ptolemy. Of the 13 modern zodiac (constellations of the ecliptic), Ophiuchus is the only one which is not counted as an astrological sign.

Ophiuchus is depicted as a man supporting a snake, Serpens; the interposition of his body divides the snake into two parts, Serpens Caput and Serpens Cauda, which are nonetheless counted as one constellation.

Notable features

The brightest stars in Ophiuchus include α Ophiuchi, called Rasalhague, at the figure's head; and λ Ophiuchi, a triple star, at his elbow.

RS Ophiuchi, a star too faint to interest amateur skywatchers, is part of a strange class called recurrent novas, whose brightness increases at irregular intervals by hundreds of times in the space of a few days.

Barnard's Star, the fifth-nearest star to the Solar System, lies in Ophiuchus.

Notable deep-sky objects

Ophiuchus contains several star clusters, such as IC 4665, NGC 6633, M9, M10, M12, M14, M19, M62, and M107, as well as the nebula IC 4603-4604. The unusual double galaxy NGC 6240 is also in Ophiuchus.

Mythology

The figure is supposed to represent the legendary physician Asclepius, who learned the secrets of life and death from serpents. In order to avoid the human race becoming immortal under Asclepius's care, Zeus killed him with a bolt of lightning, but placed him in the heavens to honour his good works.

It is not, however, easy to find the figure of a man in these stars without some diligence.

History

This constellation, known from antiquity, is one of the 48 constellations described by Ptolemy. It has also been known as Serpentarius, a Latin form of its name.

The most important historical event in Ophiuchus was the supernova whose explosion appeared on October 10, 1604, near θ Ophiuchi. It was observed by Johannes Kepler, whence comes its name Kepler's Star. Kepler published his findings in a book entitled De stella nova in pede Serpentarii (On the New Star in Ophiuchus's Foot). Galileo used its brief appearance to counter the Aristotelian dogma that the heavens are changeless.

It occurred only 32 years after another supernova in Cassiopeia that had been observed by Tycho Brahe; the last supernova before then had occurred in 1054, and after Kepler's no further supernovae were observed until 1987 (see Supernova 1987a.)

Astrology

Although it is found on the plane of the ecliptic, Ophiuchus, unlike the other twelve constellations of the zodiac, did not give its name to one of the twelve equal-sized regions of sky through which astrologers reckon the planets, Sun, and Moon to travel. It is therefore not one of the twelve signs of the zodiac in modern astrology.

Constellations of the zodiac : Aries -- Taurus -- Gemini -- Cancer -- Leo -- Virgo -- Libra -- Scorpius -- (Ophiuchus) -- Sagittarius -- Capricornus -- Aquarius -- Pisces

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Ophiuchus."

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Crosswords: Ophiuchus

English words defined with "Ophiuchus": Serpens, Serpentarius. (references)
Specialty definitions using "Ophiuchus": Oph, Ophi. (references)

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Ophiuchus

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

ophiuchus

9

ophiuchus rho

2

constellation ophiuchus

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Ophiuchus

Language Translations for "Ophiuchus"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Japanese Kanji 

  

蛇遣い座 (the Serpent Bearer). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

へびつかいざ (the Serpent Bearer). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

ophiuchusay

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Anagrams: Ophiuchus

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "c-h-h-i-o-p-s-u-u"

-3 letters: choush.

-4 letters: chips, chops, coups, cuish, hocus, ouphs, pious, pisco, pouch.

-5 letters: chip, chis, chop, cops, cosh, coup, cups, cusp, hips, hops, huic, hush, ichs, opus, ouch, ouph, phis, pics, pish, piso, pois, posh, push, scop, scup, ship, shop, soph, soup, spic, such.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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Alternative Orthography: Ophiuchus


Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

4F 70 68 69 75 63 68 75 73

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

=

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

---    .--.    ....    ..    ..-    -.-.    ....    ..-    ...

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01001111 01110000 01101000 01101001 01110101 01100011 01101000 01110101 01110011

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#79 &#112 &#104 &#105 &#117 &#99 &#104 &#117 &#115

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

004F 0070 0068 0069 0075 0063 0068 0075 0073

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

498274758769748785

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Crosswords
3. Expressions: Internet
4. Translations: Modern 		5. Anagrams
6. Orthography
7. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

 

 

 

 

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