Pisces the Fishes
An ancient constellation representing a pair of fishes tied
by their tails, the knot being marked by the star alpha. One legend identifies
the constellations with Venus and her son Cupid, who turned themselves into
fishes and swam away from the attack of the monster Typhon.
Pisces was known as a fish to the Babylonians who called it
Nunu, the Persians called it Mahik while to the Turkish astronomers it was
Balik. The Chinese called it Tseu Tsze and the Arab astronomers knew it as Al Samakah.
The constellation’s most celebrated feature is that it
contains the vernal equinox – the point at which the Sun moves across the
celestial equator into the northern hemisphere each year. The point originally
lay in Aries, but has now moved into Pisces because of precession, eventually
it will move onto in Aquarius. It is still called the First Point of Aries.
Pisces can be seen in the autumn, and it is a zodiacal
constellation. None of the stars that form Pisces are very bright
Alpha or Alrisha which means Cord has a magnitude of 3.8 is
actually made of two stars of magnitude 4.3 and 5.2, a small telescope will
show both stars. Alpha is 311 light years away and is an A class star.
Eta the brightest star in Pisces was known to the
Babylonians as Kullat Nunu or The Cord of the Fish. Eta has with a magnitude of
3.6, it lies 350 light years away and is a G class giant star with a
temperature of 4,700’ C
Gamma magnitude 3.7 is a G class stars with a temperature of
4,600’C and is 138 light years away
FL19 or TX Pisces is a deep red irregular variable. One of the reddest stars that can be seen by
the naked eye. TX varies between magnitude 4.9 – 5.5 in a period of between
224-450 days. Its 900 light years distant.
M74 a spiral galaxy called the Phantom Galaxy is
32 million light years away It has a magnitude of only 10 discovered meaning
you would need a telescope to see it. M74 was discovered by Messier in 1780, it is one of the most elusive
of the Messier objects.
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