Berenice Bobs Her Hair

 You'd better turn your lights off to best view the photos in this post (except for the final two)...

 Yes, it's back to snaps of the stars courtesy of my paparazzi telephoto lens "Starry Night" setting on Camera.  I can tell that you're all just thrilled!  After all, we haven't had one of these since mid-February's Blogorati Stars post.  And this post features brand new photos taken from Hexenhäusli Device's backgarden on 7th April!  How we spoil you.

 Actually, I don't really know what I'm doing with these photos.  I started off with an attempt to get the constellation of Camelopardalis looking more like a giraffe (for that it what it's supposed to be) rather than a clothes horse (which is what it looks like in my Universe book - and pretty much everywhere else).  I think I was relatively successful?  Then I had a go at Cassiopeia and Perseus, but gave up with Auriga as I couldn't stop giving him (although I think he looks like a her in the book) a fat bottom.

 After I'd given up on trying to make the consellations look more like what they are, I started labelling stars with their International Astronomical Union approved names and Bayer designations.  However, I soon got annoyed because poor Camelopardalis only has two named stars: one of which isn't in the photo (Tonatiuh, or HD 104985, is the tip of the giraffe's nose), and the other, Mago (hello, Mago!) is - like 'Petra - too dim to be seen with the naked eye/Camera (but I marked it on the image below anyway).

 All the marked stars in the image above have names except those in the constellation Camelopardalis.  I did add all the names, but it just became a clutter of squiggles, so here is list in case you have nothing better to do than match them up (like me):

 Auriga: α (Alpha) - Capella,  β (Beta) - Menkalinan,  ε (Epsilon) - Almaaz,

ζ (Zeta) - Saclateni, η (Eta) - Haedus,  θ (Theta) - Mahassim,  ι (Iota) - Hassaleh

 

 Perseus: α - Mirfak,  β - Algol,  η - Miram,  κ (Kappa) - Misam,  ξ (Xi) - Menkib,

ο (Omicron) - Atik

 

 Cassiopeia: α - Schedar,  β - Caph,  δ (Delta) - Ruchbah,  ε - Segin,  ζ - Fulu,

η - Achird,  υ² (Upsilon) - Castula

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 Having got over the annoyance of Camelopardalis being a minor constellation, I turned my attention to two more less well known constellations: Canes Venatici and Coma Berenices - and the following little ditty from The Divine Comedy: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (which is based on the book of the same name), the title character of which is named after Queen Berenice II of Egypt who cut off her hair as a votive offering to ensure that her husband returned safely from battle.  The gods placed Berenices hair in the heavens and it became the constellation Coma Berenices.

 Both these constellations are rather pathetically depicted: Canes Venatici as a line between its two major stars, Cor Caroli and Chara; and Coma Berenices as two lines connecting its three major stars, converging at a right angle.  So, as with Camelopardalis, I used the other stars in their constellations' to make them a bit more interesting:

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 In the lower left corner of the original, pre-cropped Canes Venatici / Coma Berenices photo, what should I notice but a trail of lights coming from Nusakan (Beta Coronae Borealis) and heading past 16 & 17 Draconis.  After checking with air traffic control at Northrepps International Aerodrome, I've narrowed it down to either the Nightship (which would explain the smell I experienced while out taking these photos - I thought it was chicken muck that had been spread on the fields) or Brittaline deTarfth on her ancient Electrolux Model 30...

oOo

 And in other slightly less nerdy news, this morning saw the first flower from the batch of Ipomoea purpurea "Kniola's Black" seedlings that I grew from a very exclusive Delargo Seeds collection:

 The poor thing doesn't know whether its coming or going, and got a bit frazzled around the edges (as you can tell by the state of some of the leaves), after an outing to the paysho table on a hot sunny day with a bitterly cold breeze, then back to my North-facing work-room window sill that night, into the red greenhouse for a bit the following day, a retreat to the South-facing kitchen window sill, and then an in-out-in-out between the kitchen and paysho for the last few days.