Constellation of Capricorn, ancient and mysterious

If you look east from the meridian of heaven, then below the constellation of the Eagle, you can find the constellation of Capricorn. For beginners to watch the night sky, it should be borne in mind that it is more noticeable in the regions of southern regions of Russia. In the boundaries of this zodiacal constellation, the sun sets in January, so it's most convenient to look at it in the summer.

Constellation of Capricorn is very ancient, much older than many other constellations that are in the southern hemisphere of the sky. It stretches between the constellation of Aquarius and Sagittarius. Ancient astronomers, who possessed a very imaginative imagination, placed on this piece of star-filled sky a small kid. Over time, the harmless animal turned into a sea monster: Half Goat, half Fish.

Capricorn - the constellation is very interesting. Its brightest star is Deneb Al Jedi or Sheddi, which in Arabic means "goat's tail". There is also a globular cluster called M30, discovered by the astronomer from France Charles Messier in the middle of the 18th century, but confirmed only twenty years later by the Englishman Herschel. This cluster is extremely dense, formed by the destruction of the central core, surrounded by cooling stars - the red giants. You can observe it even with the help of a small telescope, but it's rather difficult to find without experience.

The constellation of Capricorn does not rise very high above the horizon line, and in the northern and middle latitudes it does not look very good at all. To find it, you need to mentally draw a line from the bottom of the triangle of the constellation Orla - the star Altair. Constellation of Capricorn, photo of which occupies many pages of astronomical publications, is perfectly visible during the second half of summer.

The history of the name of the constellation is quite interesting. When in Ancient Greece astronomers gave names to the stars, the point of the winter solstice fell precisely on Capricorn, the southern tropic was called - the tropic of Capricorn, and the constellation included in the astronomical catalog of the starry sky "Almagest", which was the legendary Ptolemy. "Fish-goat" or the constellation of Capricorn got such a name because of the divine goat Amelfea.

Once upon a time, the goddess Rhea saved her little son Zeus from his angry father - Kronos, the deity of time. The fact is that God predicted a very sad fate: his own son was to deprive him of power. And so Kronos swallowed all the children born to Rhea. The goddess in despair hid the child, and in the diaper wrapped a stone, immediately devoured by a deity. Mother hid the baby in Crete, in a mountain cave. And there Afalfea is a goat, or, according to another version, a nymph - she fed the future thunderer. And the faithful servants of the goddess, with the help of clanking weapons and rumbling on the shields, muffled the crying of a young child and amused him. When Zeus grew up, he, filled with gratitude, raised his wet nurse to heaven, turning him into a star in the constellation of the Auriga. That's how the required constellation appeared.

Since then, the constellation of Capricorn has always been associated with Pan - the patron saint of shepherds and half a goat, lover of fun, nymphs and nature, fun and wine. Once, escaping from a terrible monster named Typhon, the deity rushed into the river, and his goat's legs turned into a fish tail. So the image of the constellation appeared - half a goat, half a fish. By the way, in this cluster of stars is Neptune.