Lynx is known best for both the beauty of it’s white-lilac color and the profusion of double stars which number more than fifty according to the “Webbs’ Celestial Objects.”
There seems to be some confusion about the fact that the constellation is also sometimes called the Tiger, which is amusing. The very academic celestial etymologist, Richard Hinckley Allen, in his book, “Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning”, stares with a straight pen and I assume a straight face, “The alternative name, now in disuse, came from the fancied resemblance of the many stars to spots on the tiger”. So academically myopic was Allen, he failed to notice that although a lynx has spots, tigers only have stripes. Such are the vagaries of celestial speculation by scientists too devoted to their school work when they should have their minds out there somewhere in the stars.
|
| Symbol | Lyn |
| Right Ascension |
08:26
|
| Declination | 46 |
| Diameter (°) | 28 |
| Area (square °) | 545 |
| Opposition |
Jan 24
|
| Size Rank |
28th
|
| Brightness Rank |
53rd
|
| Genitive | Lyncis |
|