Constellation History and Information

CONSTELLATION HISTORY AND INFORMATION CONSTELLATION HISTORY AND INFORMATION INDEX CONSTELLATION PAGE CONSTELLATION PAGE ANDROMEDA 2 ANTLIA 2 APUS 2 AQUARIUS 3 AQUILA 3 ARA 4 ARIES 4 AURIGA 5 BOÖTES 6 CAELUM 7 CAMELOPARDALIS 7 CANCER 7 CANES VENTICI 8 CANIS MAJOR 8 CANIS MINOR 9 CAPRICORNUS 9 CARINA 10 CASSIOPEIA 11 CENTAURUS 12 CEPHEUS 13 CETUS 13 CHAMAELEON 14 CIRCINUS 14 COLUMBA 15 COMA BERENICES 15 CORONA AUSTRALIS 15 CORONA BOREALIS 16 CORVUS 17 CRATER 17 CRUX 18 CYGNUS 19 DELPHINUS 19 DORADO 20 DRACO 20 EQUULEUS 21 ERIDANUS 22 FORNAX 22 GEMINI 23 GRUS 24 HERCULES 24 HOROLOGIUM 25 HYDRA 25 HYDRUS 26 INDUS 26 LACERTA 26 LEO 27 LEO MINOR 27 LEPUS 28 LIBRA 28 LUPUS 29 LYNX 29 LYRA 30 MENSA 31 MICROSCOPIUM 31 MONOCEROS 31 MUSCA 32 NORMA 32 OCTANS 33 OPHIUCHUS 33 ORION 34 PAVO 36 PEGASUS 36 PERSEUS 37 PHOENIX 38 PICTOR 39 PISCES 39 PISCIS AUSTRINUS 40 PUPPIS 41 PYXIS 41 RETICULUM 42 SAGITTA 42 SAGITTARIUS 43 SCORPIUS 43 SCULPTOR 44 SCUTUM 44 SERPENS 44 SEXTANS 45 TAURUS 45 TELESCOPIUM 46 TRIANGULUM 47 TRIANGULUM AUSTRALE 47 TUCANA 48 URSA MAJOR 48 URSA MINOR 49 VELA 50 VIRGO 51 VOLANS 51 VULPECULA 52 Click on the constellation names above to jump to the correct page. Page 1 of 52 CONSTELLATION HISTORY AND INFORMATION ANDROMEDA: Andromeda constellation is located in the northern sky, between Cassiopeia’s W asterism and the Great Square of Pegasus. The constellation was named after the mythical princess Andromeda, the wife of the Greek hero Perseus. It is also known as the Chained Maiden, Persea (wife of Perseus), or Cepheis (daughter of Cepheus). Andromeda was first catalogued by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century. In Greek mythology, Andromeda was the daughter of King Cepheus of Ethiopia and Queen Cassiopeia, who offended the Nereids (sea nymphs) by claiming that she, was more beautiful than they were. The nymphs complained to the sea god Poseidon and he sent a sea monster, Cetus, to flood and destroy Cepheus’ lands as punishment for his wife’s boastfulness. When the king sought advice from the Oracle of Ammon on how to prevent complete destruction of his lands, he was told that the only way to appease the gods and nymphs was to sacrifice his daughter to Cetus. Subsequently, Andromeda was chained to a rock and would have been left to the monster if Perseus had not come along and saved her. The two were later married and had six children, including Gorgophonte, who fathered Tyndareus, the famous Spartan king, and Perses, who was an ancestor of the Persians. In the story, it was the goddess Athena who commemorated Princess Andromeda by placing her image among the stars, next to the constellations representing her husband Perseus and her mother Cassiopeia. ANTLIA: Antlia is a small, faint constellation located in the southern skies. Its name is an ancient Greek word for “the pump.” The constellation was originally named Antlia Pneumatica, to commemorate the invention of the air pump, which it represents. Antlia was created and catalogued by the French astronomer Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the 18th century, along with 13 other constellations introduced by Lacaille to fill the void in some faint regions in the southern sky. Lacaille’s constellations are mostly named after scientific instruments and there are no myths attached to them. Antlia does not have a myth associated with it. It was named after the air pump, Antlia pneumatica, an instrument invented by the French physicist Denis Papin, who is also famous for inventing the steam digester, which preceded the steam engine and the pressure cooker. As depicted by Lacaille, Antlia represents the single-cylinder pump that Papin used in his experiments in the 1670s. The constellation Antlia was first catalogued in Lacaille’s Coelum Australe Stelliferum, published in 1763, after his death. The catalogue included almost 10,000 southern stars, 42 nebulous objects, and 14 new constellations, now known as the Lacaille family. APUS: Apus constellation is located in the southern hemisphere. It is a small constellation that represents the bird of paradise. The name of the constellation is derived from the Greek word apous, which means “footless.” (Birds of paradise were at one point in history believed to lack feet.) There are no myths associated with the constellation. Apus was created by the Dutch astronomer and cartographer Petrus Plancius from the observations of Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick Houtman, and first catalogued by Plancius in the late 16th century. Page 2 of 52 CONSTELLATION HISTORY AND INFORMATION Apus was originally named Paradysvogel Apis Indica by Petrus Plancius, who created and introduced the constellation. Paradysvogel means “the bird of paradise” in Dutch, and Apis Indica is Latin for “indian bee.” Apis, the word for “bee,” was presumably used in error and the constellation should have been named Avis, which means “bird.” The constellation was also called Apis Indica in Bayer’s Uranometria, while other astronomers, like Johannes Kepler, referred to it as Avis Indica, as Kepler did in his Rudolphine Tables in 1627. As a result of the confusion, Avis Indica was renamed to Apus, and Apis, the constellation representing the bee, became Musca, the fly. French astronomer Lacaille called the constellation Apus in his chart of the southern skies published in 1763, but both Apis and Avis continued to be used well into the 19th century. AQUARIUS: Aquarius constellation is located in the southern hemisphere. It is one of the 12 zodiac constellations. The constellation’s name means “the water-bearer” (or “cup-bearer”) in Latin. Aquarius lies in the region of the sky which is sometimes referred to as the Sea, because it contains a number of other constellations with names associated with water; Pisces (the fish), Eridanus (the river), and Cetus (the whale), among others. Like other zodiac constellations, Aquarius was catalogued by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century. Aquarius contains the famous supergiant star Sadalsuud (Beta Aquarii) and a number of notable deep sky objects: the globular clusters Messier 2 and Messier 72, the asterism Messier 73, the Aquarius Dwarf Galaxy, Atoms for Peace Galaxy (NGC 7252) and two well-known nebulae: the Saturn Nebula and the Helix Nebula. Aquarius is depicted as a young man pouring water (or alternatively, nectar) from an amphora into the mouth of the Southern Fish, represented by the constellation Piscis Austrinus. Aquarius is usually associated with Ganymede, the son of King Tros, in Greek mythology. Ganymede was a beautiful Trojan youth who caught Zeus’ eye, which prompted the god to disguise himself as an eagle (represented by the constellation Aquila) and carry him off to Olympus to serve as cup-bearer to the gods. In a different story, the constellation represents Deucalion, son of Prometheus, who survived the great flood along with his wife Pyrrha. In Babylonian mythology, Aquarius is identified as GU.LA (the great one), the god Ea himself and, in Egyptian tales, the constellation was said to represent the god of the Nile. AQUILA: Aquila constellation is located in the northern sky, near the celestial equator. The constellation’s name means “the eagle” in Latin. The constellation represents the eagle of the Roman god Jupiter in mythology. It was first catalogued by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century. Aquila is home to two very famous stars, Altair and Tarazed, as well as to several interesting deep sky objects: the planetary nebulae NGC 6803, NGC 6804, NGC 6781 and the Phantom Streak Nebula (NGC 6741), the open clusters NGC 6709 and NGC 6755, and the dark nebula B143-4. In Greek mythology, Aquila is identified as the eagle that carried Zeus’ thunderbolts and was once dispatched by the god to carry Ganymede, the young Trojan boy Zeus desired, to Olympus to be the cup bearer of the gods. Ganymede is represented by the neighbouring constellation Aquarius. Page 3 of 52 CONSTELLATION HISTORY AND INFORMATION In another story, the eagle is found guarding the arrow of Eros (represented by the constellation Sagitta), which hit Zeus and made him love-struck. In yet another myth, Aquila represents Aphrodite disguised as an eagle, pretending to pursue Zeus in the form of a swan, so that Zeus’ love interest, the goddess Nemesis, would give him shelter. In the story, Zeus later placed the images of the eagle and the swan among the stars to commemorate the event. The name of the brightest star in the constellation, Altair, is derived from the Arabic al-nasr al-ta’ir, which means “flying eagle” or “vulture.” Ptolemy called the star Aetus, which is Latin for “eagle.” Similarly, both Babylonians and Sumerians called Altair “the eagle star.” ARA: Ara is a small constellation located in the southern sky. Its name means “the altar” in Latin. The constellation represents the altar used by Zeus and other Greek gods to swear a vow of allegiance before they went to war against Cronus and the Titans. In another Greek myth, Ara represents the altar of King Lycaon of Arcadia. Ara was one of the 88 constellations listed by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century. There are several myths associated with the constellation. In one of them, Ara represents the altar on which Zeus and other gods vowed to defeat the Titans and overthrow Cronus, who ruled the universe. Cronus was one of the 12 Titans who had deposed his father Uranus, the previous ruler. When a prophecy said that the same fate would befall Cronus and he would be defeated by one of his own children, to prevent it from happening, he swallowed all his children – Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon – all of them future gods and goddesses.

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