When is cetus visible

It lies in a region of the sky called the Water. Other water-related constellations in this area include Eridanus the river , Aquarius the water bearer , and Pisces the fish. Cetus is one of the constellations cataloged by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century. It was named after the sea monster sent by the god Neptune to devour Andromeda in Greek mythology. Andromeda was chained to a rock as a sacrifice to the monster.

Cetus was turned to stone when Perseus showed the monster the head of the gorgon Medusa. Today, this constellation is also sometimes identified as a whale.

To some, it represents the whale that swallowed Jonah in the famous Bible story. Cetus contains several well-known stars. The most famous is probably Mira, the first variable star to be discovered. Cetus is also home to many Deep Sky Objects.

It has an Active Galactic Nucleus AGN which is obscured from view by intergalactic dust, but remains an active radio source. It is located approximately 52 million light years away and is seen edge-on from Earth. Next to Messier 77, NGC is a largest member of a galaxy group — measuring , light years in diameter — that also includes NGC and several smaller irregular galaxies. It has a diameter of about , light years. The galaxy is a known radio source.

Of all the stars in Cetus, the very first you must look for in binoculars is Mira. Omicron Ceti was the very first variable star discovered and was perhaps known as far back as ancient China, Babylon or Greece. The variability was first recorded by the astronomer David Fabricius while observing Mercury. Now aim your binoculars at Alpha Ceti. Menkar is an old and dying star, long past the hydrogen and perhaps even past the helium stage of its stellar evolution. Hop down to Beta Ceti — Diphda.

Oddly enough, Diphda is actually the brightest star in Cetus, despite its beta designation. For some reason, it has gone into an advanced stage if stellar evolution called core helium burning — where it is converting helium directly to carbon. Are you ready to get out your telescope now?

Then aim at Diphda and drop south a couple of degrees for NGC Sitting right up in the eyepiece as a delightful oval, the NGC is has a very proper galaxy structure with a defined core area and a concentration that slowly disperses toward its boundaries with one well-defined dark dust lane helping to enhance a spiral arm. Most entertaining! Talk about bright! The constellation is one of the original constellations that was devised by the Ancient Greco-Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy who lived between 90 A.

There are 15 stars that make up the main constellation. The hipparcos satellite scanned and detailed stars. There are stars that can be seen with the naked eye in the constellation on a very clear night sky. Cetus is not a member of the Zodiac group of twelve constellations that appear when the Sun sets. Cetus is an equatorial celestial constellation. Cetus lies south of the Ecliptic which is different to the Celestial Equator.

The Celestial Equator is the projection of the terrestrial equator into space. The Ecliptic is the path that the Earth takes round the Sun.

The Earth is titled at The Zodiac constellations are based on the Ecliptic. There are 51 Extrasolar Planets Exoplanets in this constellation that are detailed on this site. There is a dedicated page for exoplanets in Cetus. The current largest star so far identified in the constellation of Cetus is Mira.

There are 1 deep space objects that were identified by Charles Messier in this constellation. There are 41 non-Messier deep space objects that are covered on this site and the list is below. You can't just go to one location and arrive at the constellation because the constellation is made up of stars at different locations and different distances.

The nearest main star in the constellation is at a distance of The average distance to the main stars is The image below was generated using Night Vision , a free to use and download application by Brian Simspon. The caveat of these stars are that they are catalogued on this site. If you know of a star that is nearer or further then do let me know in the comments and I'll add it to the site.

Thestars mentioned are from the Hipparcos catalogue or have been added because of their special status. The furthest star that is located in the constellation is HIP and it is The furthest figure is derived from either the or Hipparcos star catalogue parallax figure and it has been known to produce distances that are wrong. The brightest star in Cetus is Diphda and is located about