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.
The
constellations 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
Alpha
or Alrisha which means rope or knot with 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 is known as Al Kargh or outpouring of
water with a magnitude of 3.6 , it lies 350 light years away and is a
G7 giant star with a temperature of 4,700’ C
Gamma
magnitude 3.7 is a G8 class stars with a temperature of 4,600’C and
is 138 light years away
FL19
or TX Psc 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment