Constellation Vulpecula The Fox is a northern constellation bordering Cygnus, Lyra, Hercules, Sagitta, Delphinus and Pegasus. It was introduced by Johannes Hevelius in 1690 and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Vulpecula spans 40 degrees of the zodiac in the Signs of Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.

Vulpecula Constellation Stars

2000	2050	Star	Name	Sp. Class	Mag.	Orb
24♑39	25♑21	1 Vul		B4	4.76	1°00′
29♑30	00♒12	α Vul	Anser	M1	4.40	1°10′
07♒02	07♒44	13 Vul		B9	4.57	1°10′
10♒51	11♒32	15 Vul		A4	4.66	1°00′
14♒13	14♒55	QR Vul		B3	4.79	1°00′
15♒21	16♒03	23 Vul		K3	4.52	1°10′
25♒36	26♒18	31 Vul		G7	4.56	1°10′

Vulpecula Astrology

Robson

VULPECULA ET ANSER. The Fox and the Goose.

History. Formed by Hevelius in 1690, and now usually abbreviated to Vulpecula.

Influence. It gives a cunning, voracious and fierce nature with a keen mind. ^[1]

x

Allen

Vulpecula cum Ansere, the Little Fox with the Goose.

Smyth wrote that this is

a modern constellation, crowded in by Hevelius to occupy a space between the Arrow and the Swan, where the Via Lactea divides into two branches. For this purpose he ransacked the informes of this bifurcation, and was so satisfied with the result, that the effigies figure in the elaborate print of his offerings to Urania. He selected it on account of the Eagle, Cerberus and Vultur Cadens. “I wished,” said he, “to place a fox and a goose in the space of the sky well fitted to it; because such an animal is very cunning, voracious and fierce. Aquila and Vultur are of the same nature, rapacious and greedy.”

The two members are sometimes given separately; indeed the Anser is often omitted. Flamsteed’s Atlas shows both, but separates the titles; and Proctor arbitrarily combined both in his Vulpes. Astronomers now call the whole Vulpecula.

Its inventor saw 27 stars here, but Argelander catalogued 37, and Heis 62. They come to the meridian toward the end of August.

Although I have elsewhere found no named star in Vulpecula, and its general faintness would render it doubtful whether there ever has been one, yet the Standard Dictionary says of it under the word Anser:

a small star in the constellation of the Fox and the Goose;

and the Century Dictionary has much the same. This may have been α, the lucida, a 4.4‑magnitude just west of the Fox’s head. ^[2]

References

1. Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, Vivian E. Robson, 1923, p.67.
2. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Richard H. Allen, 1889, p.473-474.