Cancer

Cancer ** Cancer **

Latin Name:
Cancer, meaning crab

Best Seen:
Cancer is best seen in the month of March at around 9:00 PM

Latin -
Cancer joined the dreaded Hydra in battle against Hercules. The swamps of Lerna was home of the Hydra, an enormous water snake with nine heads (one of which was immortal), and with breath that would kill on contact. With the help of Athene, Hercules located the monster's lair, and the ensuing struggle was a standoff. When one head was sliced off, another appeared in its place. Then at Hydra's plea, a giant crab emerged from the swamp and bit into Hercules' foot. Hercules promptly killed the animal and then cut off the Hydra's immortal head, killing it as well. He then dipped his arrows in the Hydra's blood. The slightest scratch from one of these arrows would bring instant death to his enemies. ( http://www.coldwater.k12.mi.us/lms/planetarium/myth/Cancer.html )

Egyptian -
In the Egyptian records of about 2000 BC it was described as Scarabaeus, the sacred emblem of immortality

Babylonian -
The Babylonians believed it to be a tortoise.

Steps To Find Cancer:
Step1 - Go out on an early or mid-spring evening to view Cancer best. It is a spring constellation in the northern hemisphere, visible around 10 o’clock at night. Cancer is composed of dim stars, so it must be a moonless night for your best chance to find it. **Step2 -** Look to the east and find Leo the Lion and Gemini the Twins. These two Zodiac constellations are much easier to find than Cancer and can be used as a guide as it lies between them. Leo is marked by a backwards sickle, a collection of stars that form the lion’s head. Gemini contains two bright stars side by side, Castor and Pollux. Between them lies Cancer the Crab. **Step3 -** Do not expect to see a crab. Cancer is made up of stars that are visible to the naked eye but are not in any way prominent. It will be nearly impossible for a novice to look at the region of the heavens where Cancer is and see a definitive crab. The best way to describe Cancer is as a faint upside-down letter “Y.” **Step4 -** Peer at the Praesepe. This is one of the most notable star clusters in all the night sky and gives Cancer its one outstanding feature. From Earth the Praesepe is visible as a fuzzy and hazy patch. It is made up of hundreds of stars and can easily be seen with a pair of binoculars. Also called the Beehive Cluster, the Praesepe has about 350 stars in it. If you follow a line down through Gemini’s Pollux and Castor it will point to the Praesepe, but not directly. **Step5 -** Scan Cancer for one more feature, the smaller and fainter open cluster beneath the Praesepe. It is known as M67 and is one of the oldest open clusters known to science. It is estimated to be four billion years old and contains some 500 stars. It will take a sharp eye even under the best circumstances to spot it, but the binoculars will enable you to see it as a fuzzy patch. ( http://www.ehow.com/how_4545978_find-identify-zodiac-constellation-cancer.html )

Star Names -
Acubens, Al Tarf, Asellus Borealis, Asellus Australis, Praesepe, Tegmine, Kwan Kei, and Nahn. Al Tarf is the brightest star out of all the stars within the constellation.

Extra Facts -
The Tropic of Cancer was named form this constellation, because of the position of the Sun during the summer solstice. At this time, the sun used to lay within Cancer's borders a few thousand years ago. It still bears that name today even though Earth's precession has caused the point of the summer solstice to move to the border between Taurus and Gemini. Cancer borders with the constellation Lynx.

Self Reflection -
Well, all in all, I thought that this project was pretty fun. It was cool that we were allowed to research on the computers instead of the books. I really don't have a thing for watching the constellations at night, so at first I thought the project was going to be boring. But with the help of my two teachers it actually turned out to be kind of fun researching my constellation. The constellation that I researched was CANCER. Some things I learned while researching were the latin meaning, the mythology behind the constellation, when i can find it, and how I can find it. This was a fun project to do. If I had the chance to do something different it would be to not procrastonate so much. Then I would of had a lot more information in my project. GO LAUVER!