Cassiopeia

You can’t go through astronomy without talking about constellations, and for me, you can’t go through constellations without talking about my favorite: Cassiopeia. She is is not only a constellation in the northern sky, but also the queen of Æthiopia. Beautiful and proud, she was the wife of king Cepheus, and the mother of Andromeda; who, like her mother, was quite the beauty. She boasted of being more gorgeous than the sea nymphs of Nereids, daughters of Poseidon. This, as usual, enraged the god of raging seas, and he sent the monster Cetus to destroy Æthiopia. In order to save the kingdom, the king consulted the oracle, and was instructed that Andromeda must be sacrificed to Cetus. However, she was rescued by the hero Perseus on his way back from slaying the medusas. This was a happy ending until Poseidon decided that Cassiopeia’s crime must not be forgiven so easily, and opted to chain her in the skies, so she would be upside down at times– a most undignified position.

Lying in the rich Milky Way star fields, the once Queen-of-Æthiopia consists of many deep sky objects, such as nebulae, galaxies and open clusters. Some of the more prominent and major stars in Cassiopeia are Gamma Cassiopeiae— the center, and brightest subgiant star in the W that is 780 lightyears (ly) away. Beta Cassiopeiae is another subgiant or giant star about 54.5 ly distant. With a magnitude of 2.27, it is the second brightest Delta Scuti variable star. Alpha Cassiopeiae is an orange double star, shining at 229 ly away, and represents Queen Cassiopeia’s breast.

Cassiopeia Skychart

Cassiopeia is tied to the sky between the Cepheus, her husband and Perseus, the hero who rescued her daughter. Andromeda is “below” her with the mythical beast Pegasus beside it. Cassiopeia is visible all year in the Northern hemisphere, and is best seen in November. The declination is 62.2 degrees, with a right ascension of 1.01 hours. Next time you look up in the sky, try to find the trapped queen. Then, perhaps, you may quote Rajesh Koothrappali from the Big Bang Theory, “It’s a little hard to see with the city lights, but that W-shaped constellation is Cassiopeia. And she was the mother of Andromeda, who’s over there.”