![]() Perseus rescued the princess, and all lived happily … and the gods were pleased, so all of these characters were elevated to the heavens as stars.īut – because of her vanity – Cassiopeia suffered an indignity. Cetus was about to devour her when Perseus the Hero happened by on Pegasus, the Flying Horse. To pacify the monster, Cassiopeia’s daughter, Princess Andromeda, was left tied to a rock by the sea. Her boast angered Poseidon, god of the sea, who sent a sea monster (Cetus the Whale) to ravage the kingdom. Pridefulness, in mythology, is never wise. It’s said that she committed the sin of pride by boasting that both she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than Nereids, or sea nymphs. In skylore and in Greek mythology, Cassiopeia was a beautiful and vain queen of Ethiopia. This is the realm of night sky they identified as Cassiopeia. In the 1930s, the International Astronomical Union ( IAU) – an organization of professional astronomers – decided to define boundaries and officially name 88 constellations. That’s when he used a Roman letter – the letter H – to name the other cluster. Then, it’s said, he ran out of Greek letters. Johann Bayer (1572-1625) gave Chi Persei – the cluster on the top – its Greek letter name. Stars have Greek letter names, but most star clusters don’t. They are named from two different alphabets, the Greek and the Roman. Stargazers smile when they peer at them through their binoculars, not only because they are beautiful, but also because of their names. These clusters are familiarly known to stargazers as H and Chi Persei. These are open star clusters, each of which consists of young stars still moving together from the primordial cloud of gas and dust that gave birth to the cluster’s stars. This object is called the Double Cluster in Perseus. If you have a dark sky, look below Cassiopeia in the northeast on these autumn evenings for a famous binocular object. The Dipper is circumpolar at 41 degrees north latitude and all latitudes farther north. The Big Dipper and the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia circle around Polaris, the North Star, in a period of 23 hours and 56 minutes. Every March, when the Dipper is ascending in the northeast, getting ready to appear prominent again in the evening sky, Cassiopeia can be seen descending in the northwest. ![]() So when Cassiopeia is high in the sky, as it is on evenings from about September through February, the Big Dipper is low in the sky. That is, the two constellations lie on opposite sides of the pole star, Polaris. Before dawn, look in the northwest.Ĭassiopeia is opposite the Big Dipper in the northern sky. These stars – the brightest ones in Cassiopeia – are Schedar, Caph, Gamma Cassiopeiae, Ruchbah and Segin.Īround the middle of the night during the autumn months, Cassiopeia swings above Polaris, the North Star. And some old star maps depict the queen sitting on the chair, marked by five stars. You still sometimes hear the old name for this constellation: Cassiopeia’s Chair. Please donate what you can to our annual crowd-funding campaign.Ĭassiopeia represents an ancient queen of Ethiopia. Like these night sky articles? Help EarthSky keep on showing you what’s up there tonight. and Canada, Cassiopeia is circumpolar, meaning above the horizon all night long. She’ll be higher up in the northeast as autumn unfolds. Look for the Queen starting at nightfall every September. Cassiopeia looks like the letter W (or M). The shape of this constellation makes Cassiopeia’s stars very noticeable. Cassiopeia the Queen in autumnĪny late summer evening and throughout northern autumn, Cassiopeia the Queen can be found ascending in the northeast after nightfall. ![]() If you have a dark sky, look below Cassiopeia for a famous binocular object. You can find Cassiopeia the Queen in the northeast around the month of September.
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