EMILY LYNE 1ST PERIOD

CASSIOPEIA• Formal name; Cassiopeia

• Common asterisms for constellation; The Queen, Cassiopeia's Chair, Cassiopeia the Queen, The Lady of the Chair

LOCATION • In the night sky (RA/Dec); 1.01 Hrs./62.20 Degrees

• Area of 598 square degrees

• 25th in relative size to other constellations

• Neighboring Constellations; Andromeda, Camelopardalis ,Cepheus , Lacerta, and Perseus

VISIBILITY• Can be seen all year in the northern hemisphere

• This constellation is north circumpolar constellation

• Brightest Stars

I. Schedar (Alpha Cassiopeiae); Magnitude of 2.20-2.23

II. Caph (Betta Cassiopeiae); 2.27

III. Gamma Cassiopeiae ; 2.20-3.40

Visibility fluctuates due to the star rapidly bulging outward along the equator, as a result a disk of lost mass and materials form around the star

GREEK/ROMAN MYTHOLOGY

• Cassiopeia was a queen , married to king of Ethiopia, Cepheus. She was boasting about her beauty and about how no one could rival it. The nereids took offence to this and Neptune told Poseidon. Poseidon ordered her to sacrifice her daughter Andromeda, she was chained to a rock for a sea monster to consume her. Perseus ends up showing up and saves her. Cassiopeia plotted with her daughter's ex-fiancée Agenor to kill Perseus. Perseus used the Medusa's head to turn Cassiopeia, and Agenor. Poseidon didn’t like this so he sent Cassiopeia to the heavens where half of the time she would hang upside down. Her husband was also cursed, for he didn’t stop her from offending the Nereids, and he also was sent with her and has to remain there, all while

listening to her narcissistic claims.

OTHER MYTHS • The Elkskin: Quileute Tribe

Out of a family of five brothers, the oldest four went out elk hunting one autumn. After hiking far onto the

prairie they met a man. The man convinced the brothers that he could attract Elk. The brothers believed the man and before the man left he convinced the brothers to trade arrows with him. After taking the brother's good arrows and giving them badly made arrows the man then left. Then he turned into an elk, and charged back to kill all the brothers .When his older brothers failed to return home, the youngest brother went out to look for them. Tracking his brothers he met the tricky man in the same place his brothers had. The man tried to trick him with the same story but it didn’t work ,so he left . The boy hid and soon the huge elk arrived. The boy shot the elk four times to avenge his dead brothers. After the boy skinned the elk he realized the skin was too big, so he threw the skin into the sky and it became the constellation. The five stars are the five holes the youngest brother used to stretch out the skin

INTERESTING FACTS I. The famous supernova 5N1572( Tycho’s Star) was observed in Cassiopeia

II. Gamma Cas ( Tsi) is an unstable blue subgiant. It throws off shells of gas at unpredictable intervals

III. Rho Cas is one of the most luminous stars in the Milkyway which is 550,000 time brighter than the Sun

CREDITS • http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/Cassiopeia.html

• http://earthsky.org/tonight/cassiopeia-is-shaped-like-an-m-or-w http://www.angelfire.com/space2/cassiopeia/legend.html

• http://www.astronomical.org/constellations/cas.html

• http://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/cassiopeia-constellation/

• http://www.solarsystemquick.com/universe/cassiopeia-constellation.htm

• http://www.skyscript.co.uk/cassiopeia.html

• http://www.astronomytoday.com/astronomy/cassiopeia.html

• http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1713.html

• http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/constellations/cassiopeia.html

• http://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations/

• https://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations

• http://blog.nameastarlive.com/tag/constellation/

• http://www.topastronomer.com/StarCharts/Constellations/Cassiopeia.php

• http://www.brighthub.com/science/space/articles/17410.aspx

• http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/tycho-star.html

• http://alobel.freeshell.org/amateurs.html