Capricornus is one of the
constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The origins of the earliest constellation ...
s of the
zodiac
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The pa ...
. Its name is
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
for "horned
goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...
" or "goat
horn" or "having horns like a goat's", and it is commonly represented in the form of a
sea goat
The sea goat is a legendary aquatic animal described as a creature that is half goat and half fish.
The constellation Capricornus was commonly imagined as a type of sea goat. This has been done since the Bronze Age within Mesopotamia. Then the B ...
: a mythical creature that is half goat, half
fish
Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...
.
Capricornus is one of the
88 modern constellations
In contemporary astronomy, 88 constellations are recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Each constellation is a region of the sky, bordered by arcs of right ascension and declination. Together they cover the celestial spher ...
, and was also one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Claudius
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
. Its old astronomical symbol is (♑︎). Under its modern boundaries it is bordered by
Aquila,
Sagittarius,
Microscopium,
Piscis Austrinus, and
Aquarius
Aquarius may refer to:
Astrology
* Aquarius (astrology), an astrological sign
* Age of Aquarius, a time period in the cycle of astrological ages
Astronomy
* Aquarius (constellation)
* Aquarius in Chinese astronomy
Arts and entertainment ...
. The constellation is located in an area of sky called the
Sea
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
or the Water, consisting of many water-related constellations such as Aquarius,
Pisces
Pisces may refer to:
* Pisces, an obsolete (because of land vertebrates) taxonomic superclass including all fish
*Pisces (astrology), an astrological sign
*Pisces (constellation), a constellation
** Pisces Overdensity, an overdensity of stars in t ...
and
Eridanus. It is the smallest constellation in the zodiac.
Notable features
Stars
Capricornus is a faint constellation, with only one star above magnitude 3; its
alpha star has a magnitude of only 3.6.
The brightest star in Capricornus is
δ Capricorni, also called Deneb Algedi, with a magnitude of 2.9, located 39 light-years from Earth. Like several other stars such as
Denebola and
Deneb
Deneb () is a first-magnitude star in the constellation of Cygnus, the swan. Deneb is one of the vertices of the asterism known as the Summer Triangle and the "head" of the Northern Cross. It is the brightest star in Cygnus and the ...
, it is named for the Arabic word for "tail" (''deneb''); its traditional name means "the tail of the goat". Deneb Algedi is a
Beta Lyrae variable star (a type of
eclipsing binary
A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in ...
). It ranges by about 0.2 magnitudes with a period of 24.5 hours.
The other bright stars in Capricornus range in magnitude from 3.1 to 5.1.
α Capricorni is a multiple star. The primary (α
2 Cap), 109 light-years from Earth, is a yellow-hued giant star of magnitude 3.6; the secondary (α
1 Cap), 690 light-years from Earth, is a yellow-hued supergiant star of magnitude 4.3. The two stars are distinguishable by the naked eye, and both are themselves multiple stars. α
1 Capricorni is accompanied by a star of magnitude 9.2; α
2 Capricornus is accompanied by a star of magnitude 11.0; this faint star is itself a binary star with two components of magnitude 11. Also called Algedi or Giedi, the traditional names of α Capricorni come from the Arabic word for "the kid", which references the constellation's mythology.
β Capricorni is a
double star
In observational astronomy, a double star or visual double is a pair of stars that appear close to each other as viewed from Earth, especially with the aid of optical telescopes.
This occurs because the pair either forms a binary star (i.e. a bi ...
also known as Dabih. It is a yellow-hued giant star of magnitude 3.1, 340 light-years from Earth. The secondary is a blue-white hued star of magnitude 6.1. The two stars are distinguishable in binoculars.
β Capricorni's traditional name comes from the Arabic phrase for "the lucky stars of the slaughterer," a reference to ritual sacrifices performed by ancient Arabs at the
heliacal rising
The heliacal rising ( ) or star rise of a star occurs annually, or the similar phenomenon of a planet, when it first becomes visible above the eastern horizon at dawn just before sunrise (thus becoming "the morning star") after a complete orbit o ...
of Capricornus. Another star visible to the naked eye is
γ Capricorni, sometimes called Nashira ("bringing good tidings"); it is a white-hued giant star of magnitude 3.7, 139 light-years from Earth.
π Capricorni is a double star with a blue-white hued primary of magnitude 5.1 and a white-hued secondary of magnitude 8.3. It is 670 light-years from Earth and the components are distinguishable in a small telescope.
Deep-sky objects
Several galaxies and star clusters are contained within Capricornus.
Messier 30 is a globular cluster located 1 degree south of the galaxy group that contains
NGC 7103. The constellation also harbors the wide spiral galaxy
NGC 6907.
M30 (NGC 7099) is a centrally-condensed globular cluster of magnitude 7.5 . At a distance of 30,000 light-years, it has chains of stars extending to the north that are resolvable in small amateur telescopes.
One
galaxy group
A galaxy group or group of galaxies (GrG) is an aggregation of galaxies comprising about 50 or fewer gravitationally bound members, each at least as luminous as the Milky Way (about 1010 times the luminosity of the Sun); collections of galaxie ...
located in Capricornus is
HCG 87
HCG 87 is a compact group of galaxies listed in the Hickson Compact Group Catalogue. This group is about 400 million light-years away in the constellation Capricornus.
The group distinguishes itself as one of the most compact groups of galax ...
, a group of at least three galaxies located 400 million
light-years
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...
from Earth (
redshift
In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and simultaneous increase in fr ...
0.0296). It contains a large
elliptical galaxy
An elliptical galaxy is a type of galaxy with an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless image. They are one of the four main classes of galaxy described by Edwin Hubble in his Hubble sequence and 1936 work ''The Real ...
, a face-on
, indicating that it is
interacting with one or both members of the group. Furthermore, the large elliptical galaxy and the edge-on spiral galaxy, both of which have
active nuclei, are connected by a stream of stars and dust, indicating that they too are interacting. Astronomers predict that the three galaxies may
merge millions of years in the future to form a giant elliptical galaxy.
History
The constellation was first attested in depictions on a cylinder-seal from around the 21st century BCE,
it was explicitly recorded in the
Babylonian star catalogues
Babylonian astronomy collated earlier observations and divinations into sets of Babylonian star catalogues, during and after the Kassite rule over Babylonia. These star catalogues, written in cuneiform script, contained lists of constellations, ...
before 1000 BCE. In the
Early Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
the
winter solstice
The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter ...
occurred in the constellation, but due to the
precession of the equinoxes
In astronomy, axial precession is a gravity-induced, slow, and continuous change in the orientation of an astronomical body's rotational axis. In the absence of precession, the astronomical body's orbit would show axial parallelism. In partic ...
, the December solstice now takes place in the constellation
Sagittarius.
The Sun is now in the constellation Capricorn (as distinct from the astrological sign) from late January through mid-February.
Although the solstice during the northern hemisphere's winter no longer takes place while the sun is in the ''constellation'' Capricornus, as it did until 130 BCE, the
''astrological sign'' called Capricorn is still used to denote the position of the solstice, and the latitude of the sun's most southerly position continues to be called the ''
Tropic of Capricorn
The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reac ...
'', a term which also applies to the line on the Earth at which the sun is directly overhead at local noon on the day of the December solstice.
The planet
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 time ...
was discovered by German astronomer
Johann Galle, near Deneb Algedi (δ Capricorni) on 23 September 1846, as Capricornus can be seen best from Europe at 4:00 in September (although, by modern constellation boundaries established in the early 20th century CE, Neptune lay within the confines of Aquarius at the time of its discovery).
Mythology
Despite its faintness, the constellation Capricornus has one of the oldest mythological associations, having been consistently represented as a
hybrid of a goat and a fish since the
Middle Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pr ...
, when the
Babylonians
Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. 1 ...
used "The Goat-Fish" as a symbol of their god
Ea.
[
In ]Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...
, the constellation is sometimes identified as Amalthea, the goat that suckled the infant Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek relig ...
after his mother, Rhea, saved him from being devoured by his father, Cronos. Amalthea's broken horn was transformed into the cornucopia
In classical antiquity, the cornucopia (), from Latin ''cornu'' (horn) and ''copia'' (abundance), also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers ...
or "horn of plenty".
Capricornus is also sometimes identified as Pan, the god with a goat's horns and legs, who saved himself from the monster Typhon
Typhon (; grc, Τυφῶν, Typhôn, ), also Typhoeus (; grc, Τυφωεύς, Typhōeús, label=none), Typhaon ( grc, Τυφάων, Typháōn, label=none) or Typhos ( grc, Τυφώς, Typhṓs, label=none), was a monstrous serpentine giant an ...
by giving himself a fish's tail and diving into a river.
Visualizations
Capricornus's brighter stars are found on a triangle whose vertices are α2 Capricorni (Giedi), δ Capricorni (Deneb Algiedi), and ω Capricorni. Ptolemy's method of connecting the stars of Capricornus has been influential. Capricornus is usually drawn as a goat with the tail of a fish.
H. A. Rey has suggested an alternative visualization, which graphically shows a goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...
. The goat's head is formed by the triangle of stars ι Cap, θ Cap, and ζ Cap. The goat's horn sticks out with stars γ Cap and δ Cap. Star δ Cap, at the tip of the horn, is of the third magnitude. The goat's tail consists of stars β Cap and α2 Cap: star β Cap being of the third magnitude. The goat's hind foot consists of stars ψ Cap and ω Cap. Both of these stars are of the fourth magnitude.
Equivalents
In Chinese astronomy
Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty, being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categorized in the tw ...
, constellation Capricornus lies in '' The Black Tortoise of the North'' (北方玄武, ''Běi Fāng Xuán Wǔ'').
The Nakh peoples called this constellation Roofing Towers ( ce, Neģara Bjovnaš).
In the Society Islands
The Society Islands (french: Îles de la Société, officially ''Archipel de la Société;'' ty, Tōtaiete mā) are an archipelago located in the South Pacific Ocean. Politically, they are part of French Polynesia, an overseas country of the F ...
, the figure of Capricornus was called ''Rua-o-Mere'', "Cavern of parental yearnings".
In Indian astronomy
Astronomy has long history in Indian subcontinent stretching from pre-historic to modern times. Some of the earliest roots of Indian astronomy can be dated to the period of Indus Valley civilisation or earlier. Astronomy later developed as a di ...
and Indian astrology, it is called Makara
''Makara'' ( sa, मकर, translit=Makara) is a legendary sea-creature in Hindu mythology. In Hindu astrology, Makara is equivalent to the Zodiac sign Capricorn.
Makara appears as the vahana (vehicle) of the river goddess Ganga, Narmada, a ...
, the crocodile.
See also
* Capricornus in Chinese astronomy
* Hippocampus (mythology), the mythological sea horse
* IC 1337, galaxy
Citations
;Citations
;References
*
*
*
*
*
External links
The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations: Capricornus
Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (medieval and early modern images of Capricornus)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Capricornus
Constellations
Southern constellations
Constellations listed by Ptolemy