Having a look around.

 

We start with the famous constellation the Big Bear, also known as the Wagon of Wodan, or the Saucepan, and then we look at a number of the other constellations.

In this constellation we have a look at the double stars Alcor and Mizar. Who can see them both with the naked eye? With the help of the Big Bear we look for the Polar Star, who helps us find true north. Alcor is also known as the seventh sister of the Seven Sisters, or the Pleiades. So we search the Pleiades, and look at them our binoculars, and a telescope. The Pleiades are an Open Cluster of stars.

The Pleiades are found in the zodiacal constellation of Taurus. Looking at the Bull's head, we see it as an Open cluster of stars, also known as the Hyades. This constellation was already known in the New Stone Age, as this constellation rose, the rainy season began, and the planting season.. According to the Greek Sages, the Seven sisters were placed in the sky, by Zeus, to protect them against advances of the great Hunter Orion. (We only see six stars with the naked eye. After all, the seventh sister lives with the Great Bear now, after a falling out with the other 6 sisters. Orion is still hidden behind the horizon, (in October), and only rises around 23:00h. In it we find the Orion Nebula M42 and the Trapezium, four new-born stars.

Orion the great hunter not only hunted for the Pleiades, but also tried for Lepus, the Hare, with the assistance of his hound, Canis Major. In this last constellation we find Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. We let the great hunter Orion be for what he is, and move on to the well-known Greek hero Perseus. Grouped around this constellation we find the constellations of Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Pegasus, the Whale Cetus, the star Algol, and last and least, Cepheus. All of them have a role to play in the story of the hero Perseus and how he met Andromeda. Even the double Cluster of stars, h and X Perseus, have a role as the jewels on the sword of Perseus. The story begins with Perseus being instructed to defeat the monster Medusa, as a ransom for his mother who was taken hostage. Everyone who looked Medusa directly in the eyes turned into stone so that quit was an undertaking. Perseus used his neatly polished shield as a mirror, to not to need to look directly at Medusa, and succeeded in chopping off, the head of the Monster, the head went into a bag, to take along as proof, always handy to have around, such a loose head.

A hero of course has a noble steed to ride on, no, not just a horse, a flying horse, the well-known, winged-horse Pegasus. The constellation Pegasus is connected to the constellation of Andromeda. In the constellation Andromeda we find the Andromeda Nebula, M31, the neighbour of our galaxy, with binoculars we'll see a foggy blob, of 200 billion stars, all together, a galaxy.

Cradling Pegasus and Andromeda we find Pisces, the Fishes, and Cetus the Sea Monster or Whale. To get back to our hero..., after he took Medusa’s head he jumped on his flying Steed and headed for home, halve way he flew over the land of "Ethiopia", what the Ancient Greeks meant by that is, the coast of Israel, all of Egypt, and the area around the Red Sea down south. He looked down from his ride, and saw chained to a rock, in the Port of Jaffa, (that rock is still there), a young lady dressed only in shackles. Even in those days a rare sight, one did not encounter such a thing too often. So Perseus decided to check out what was going on, the young lady did not look to cheerful either on that rock. The young lady in question of cause was Princess Andromeda, the daughter of King Cepheus, and Queen Cassiopeia. The rather vain queen had claimed that her daughter was more beautiful than the daughters of Nereus, the Nereids, as a punishment for bragging like that, Poseidon, (a.k.a. Neptune) sent the sea monster Cetus, to stir up the seas, and caused tidal waves, flooding King Cepheus' lands. However, an oracle had told Cepheus that the monster would disappear if they were to sacrifice Andromeda to the sea monster. A hard choice indeed, Perseus, of course, fell in love with the poor princess, and offered the wailing parents Cassiopeia and Cepheus, to rescue their daughter, and defeat the monster. In return and as a reward he would marry her. The parents agreed, and so Perseus slew the monster.

However, there always is a however, Andromeda was already promised to the brother of Cepheus, (oops they forgot all about that!), Phineus, who came to claim her at the wedding of Perseus and Andromeda. When Cepheus and Cassiopeia broke their promise to Perseus and chose the side of Phineus, a fight broke out.

Perseus took the severed head of Medusa out of the bag, (as I before, said, always useful to have such a head, it also does well with Princesses apparently), and thus turned all of his enemies into stone. Andromeda, of course, chose the side of Perseus, and closed her eyes, later they had many children etc, etc. Because of her loyalty to Perseus, she was later given a place in the heavens by the Supreme god Zeus. The constellation Andromeda is named after her. The other players in the story were also given a spot, it may be noted that Cassiopeia was placed upside down, this because of her vanity. The head of Medusa can be found as the variable star Algol, Arabic for "The Monster" (Al Ghoul).  Many stars have Arabic names. The Arabs took over the Greek names of the constellations, and moved on with the science of Astronomy, where the ancient Greeks stopped. Poseidon, (Neptune) is also “nearby”, as a planet somewhere, in the sky. Check Stellarium. A hero like Perseus has of course, besides the small scythe he used to behead Medusa, a sword. A sword adorned with diamonds, we see them in the sky as the Double Cluster in Perseus, NGC 869 and NGC 884, also called h & X Persei, a nice target for a small telescope.

Here in negative. To save ink.. The story of Perseus helped the ancient Greek sailors to remember a number of constellations that they could use at night to safely navigate from one island to another; it’s a real sailor’s story. There are a total, 88 constellations, all with their corresponding stories, but for the evening we leave you with the story of Andromeda and Perseus.

To conclude some links from websites on which you can find some more background information, about the constellations we have seen this evening.

And of course, questions are also always welcome.

 

Wim.

 

Questions? Mail me: wkv@home.nl

 

Some handy websites:

https://wim.webzwolle.nl/the_sky.html

https://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations/

https://wim.webzwolle.nl/constellations.html

http://stellarium.org/

For your phone: "Ap.": Skyview-lite.

Perseus etc:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Cluster

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praesepe  

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreeft_(sterrenbeeld)  

Andromeda.pdf (webzwolle.nl)

Perseus.pdf (webzwolle.nl)

Orion etc:

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(sterrenbeeld)

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hondsdagen

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zevengesternte  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_(constellation)

 

Ps. Some constellations are Autumn and Winter constellations ( Orion)..

Clear skies!

© Copywrite en zo: Mijn informatie komt uit o.a. Wikipedia en van de IAU. En uit de vele boeken die ik gelezen heb. Dit verhaal is voor privé gebruik. Rechten etc. bezit ik niet. Dus a.u.b.  niet verkopen etc  Bedankt Wikipedia, en bedankt Oude Grieken!

Stretch out your arm.