Look Up At The Stars
Well, here you have it, the long waited sixth edition of 'Look Up At The Stars', throughout these blogs we've been taking a closer look at constellation and the stories behind them. Why? Well, if you remember from all the previous editions, we had two reasons for that. For one, they are just the most fascinating thing. Two, if you ever find yourself in the Night Court, knowing the stars might come in handy. And three, if you're on a date, you can impress the other person with your knowledge of the galaxy. Because everyone loves a charmer that knows their stars.
The constellation for this week is...
The constellation for this week is...
The Cepheus Constellation
The Cepheus constellation is one of the Greek constellation and can be found in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the 27th largest constellation in the sky and can be found to the upper right of Polaris, the North Star. Cepheus has one star with known planets and contains no Messier objects. The brightest star in the constellation is Alderamin, Alpha Cephei. Many deep sky objects can be found in this constellation, such as the Wizard Nebula, the Iris Nebula, the Ghost Nebula, and the Fireworks Galaxy. They all sound very cool in my opinion!  The constellation contains four formally named stars: Alderamin, Alfirk, Errai, and Kurhah. Cepheus is also home to a red supergiant called Mu Cephei. |
The constellation represents Cepheus, the king of Ethiopia and Cassiopeia’s husband in Greek mythology, if you remember, we learnt about Cassiopeia a little while ago. Zeus placed Cepheus in the sky after his tragic end because he was descended from one of Zeus’ loves, the nymph Io.
Cepheus’ wife Cassiopeia boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids (sea nymphs, one of them the wife of the sea god Poseidon), which angered the nymphs and Poseidon, who then sent a sea monster, represented by the constellation Cetus, to ravage Cepheus’ land. Cepheus turned to an oracle for advice on how to prevent a calamity and the oracle told him that the only way to appease Poseidon was to sacrifice his daughter Andromeda (who we've also looked at) to the monster. Desperate, Cepheus and Cassiopeia did this, leaving their daughter chained to the rock for Cetus to find. Luckily, the hero Perseus found the princess first, rescued her and defeated the monster. Later, he married Andromeda. Perseus and Andromeda were celebrating their wedding when Phineus, Cepheus’ brother, asked that Andromeda be turned over to them, but Cepheus refused them and there was a fight. Perseus tried to fight off all his opponents, but he was sorely outnumbered and had to use the head of Medusa to turn his enemies into stone. Unfortunately, the king and queen did not look away from the Gorgon’s head in time and were turned to stone, too. source: https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/cepheus-constellation/ |