Perched near the waist of the ill-fated princess Andromeda lies a majestic spiral galaxy. Visible to the naked eye under moonless, dark skies, the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the closest galaxies to our own Milky...
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
The Pegasus
[PEG-uh-suss] Pegasus was the winged horse best known for his association with the Greek hero Bellerophon. The manner of the horse's birth was unusual, to say the least. Its mother was Medusa, the Gorgon, who in her youth...
The Little Horse
The Little Horse[eh-QUOO-lee-us] This insignificant constellation, second-smallest in the sky, first appeared among the 48 constellations listed by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century AD. It was unknown...
The Ursa Major
[URR-suh MAY-jur] Undoubtedly the most familiar star pattern in the entire sky is the seven stars that make up the shape popularly termed the Plough orBig Dipper, part of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The...
The Sirius
From Orion, look south and to the east to find brilliant Sirius, as if one really needs directions to find the brightest star in the sky. Its name comes from the Greek word for “searing” or “scorching,” certainly appropriate...
The Phoenix
[FEE-nix] A constellation representing the mythical bird that supposedly was reborn from its own ashes. It is the largest of the 12 constellations invented at the end of the 16th century by the Dutch navigators Pieter...
Sunday, September 14, 2014
The Fornax
[FOR-naks] An obscure constellation introduced by the Frenchman Nicolas Louis de Lacaille after his trip to the Cape of Good Hope to observe the southern stars in 1751–52. It lies tucked into a bend in the riverEridanus.Lacaille...
The Lyra
[LYE-ruh] A compact but prominent constellation, marked by the fifth-brightest star in the sky, Vega. Mythologically, Lyra was the lyre of the great musician Orpheus, whose venture into the Underworld is one of the...
The Cygnus
[SIG-nus] A popular name for Cygnus is the Northern Cross, and indeed its shape is far larger and more distinctive than the famous Southern Cross. In its cruciform shape the Greeks visualized the long neck, outstretched...
The Pegasus
[PEG-uh-suss] Pegasus was the winged horse best known for his association with the Greek hero Bellerophon. The manner of the horse's birth was unusual, to say the least. Its mother was Medusa, the Gorgon, who in her youth...
The Cepheus
[SEE-fee-us] Cepheus was the mythological king of Ethiopia. He was deemed worthy of a place in the sky because he was fourth in descent from the nymph Io, one of the loves of Zeus – and having Zeus as a relative was always...
The Capricornus
[CAP-rih-CORN-us] Capricornus is an unlikely looking creature, with the head and forelegs of a goat and the tail of a fish. The constellation evidently originated with the Sumerians and Babylonians, who had a fondness...
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