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Andromeda

Andromeda is one of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy and remains a modern constellation. It is located north of the celestial equator and named after the Greek mythological figure Andromeda, who was chained to a rock to be eaten by a sea monster. Andromeda contains the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, which is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. It is one of the largest constellations and contains several deep space objects visible through telescopes.

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81 views2 pages

Andromeda

Andromeda is one of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy and remains a modern constellation. It is located north of the celestial equator and named after the Greek mythological figure Andromeda, who was chained to a rock to be eaten by a sea monster. Andromeda contains the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, which is the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way. It is one of the largest constellations and contains several deep space objects visible through telescopes.

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pauline g
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Andromeda is one of the 48 constellations listed by the

2nd-century Greco-Roman astronomer Ptolemy and remains one of the 88 modern


constellations. Located north of the celestial equator, it is named for Andromeda, daughter
of Cassiopeia, in the Greek myth, who was chained to a rock to be eaten by the sea
monster Cetus. Andromeda is most prominent during autumn evenings in the Northern
Hemisphere, along with several other constellations named for characters in
the Perseus myth. Because of its northern declination, Andromeda is visible only north of
40° south latitude; for observers farther south it lies below the horizon. It is one of the
largest constellations, with an area of 722 square degrees. This is over 1,400 times the size
of the full moon, 55% of the size of the largest constellation, Hydra, and over 10 times the
size of the smallest constellation, Crux.
Its brightest star, Alpha Andromedae, is a binary star that has also been counted as a part
of Pegasus, while Gamma Andromedae is a colorful binary and a popular target for amateur
astronomers. Only marginally dimmer than Alpha, Beta Andromedae is a red giant, its color
visible to the naked eye. The constellation's most obvious deep-sky object is the
naked-eye Andromeda Galaxy (M31, also called the Great Galaxy of Andromeda), the closest
spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and one of the brightest Messier objects. Several fainter
galaxies, including M31's companions M110 and M32, as well as the more distant NGC 891,
lie within Andromeda. The Blue Snowball Nebula, a planetary nebula, is visible in a telescope
as a blue circular object.
In Chinese astronomy, the stars that make up Andromeda were members of four different
constellations that had astrological and mythological significance; a constellation related to
Andromeda also exists in Hindu mythology. Andromeda is the location of the radiantfor
the Andromedids, a weak meteor shower that occurs in November.
The uranography of Andromeda has its roots most firmly in the Greek tradition, though a
female figure in Andromeda's location had appeared earlier in Babylonian astronomy. The
stars that make up Pisces and the middle portion of modern Andromeda formed a
constellation representing a fertility goddess, sometimes named as Anunitum or the Lady of
the Heavens.[7]
Arabic.[2] It has also been called Persea ("Perseus's wife") or Cepheis ("Cepheus's
daughter"),[2][8] all names that refer to Andromeda's role in the Greco-Roman myth of
Perseus, in which Cassiopeia, the queen of Ethiopia, bragged that her daughter was more
beautiful than the Nereids, sea nymphs blessed with incredible beauty.[9] Offended at her
remark, the nymphs petitioned Poseidon to punish Cassiopeia for her insolence, which he
did by commanding the sea monster Cetus to attack Ethiopia.[9] Andromeda's panicked
father, Cepheus, was told by the Oracle of Ammon that the only way to save his kingdom
was to sacrifice his daughter to Cetus.[10][11] She was chained to a rock by the sea but was
saved by the hero Perseus, who in one version of the story used the head of Medusa to turn
the monster into stone;[12] in another version, by the Roman poet Ovid in
his Metamorphoses, Perseus slew the monster with his diamond sword.[11] Perseus and
Andromeda then married; the myth recounts that the couple had nine children together –
seven sons and two daughters – and founded Mycenae and its Persideae dynasty. After
Andromeda's death Athena placed her in the sky as a constellation, to honor her. Several of
the neighboring constellations (Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cetus, and Cepheus) also represent
characters in the Perseus myth.[10] It is connected with the constellation Pegasus.
Andromeda was one of the original 48 constellations formulated by Ptolemy in his
2nd-century Almagest, in which it was defined as a specific pattern of stars. She is typically
depicted with α Andromedae as her head, ο and λ Andromedae as her chains, and δ, π, μ, Β,
and γ Andromedae representing her body and legs. However, there is no universal depiction
of Andromeda and the stars used to represent her body, head, and chains.[13] Arab
astronomers were aware of Ptolemy's constellations, but they included a second
constellation representing a fish at Andromeda's feet.[14] Several stars from Andromeda
and most of the stars in Lacertawere combined in 1787 by German astronomer Johann
Bode to form Frederici Honores (also called Friedrichs Ehre). It was designed to honor King
Frederick II of Prussia, but quickly fell into disuse.[15]Since the time of Ptolemy, Andromeda
has remained a constellation and is officially recognized by the International Astronomical
Union, although like all modern constellations, it is now defined as a specific region of the
sky that includes both Ptolemy's pattern and the surrounding stars.[16][17] In 1922, the IAU
defined its recommended three-letter abbreviation, "And".[18] The official boundaries of
Andromeda were defined in 1930 by Eugène Delporte as a polygon of 36 segments. Its right
ascension is between 22h 57.5m and 2h 39.3m and its declination is between 53.19° and
21.68° in the equatorial coordinate system.[3]

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