Cassiopeia, the Seated Queen, is the W-shaped constellation of the northern sky, standing opposite the Plough across the pole and never setting for most of Europe.
At a glance
| stars in the figure | 5 |
|---|---|
| nearest star of the figure | Caph, 54.7 light-years (16.8 pc) |
| farthest star of the figure | Cih, 549 light-years (168 pc) |
| depth | the farthest is 10 × farther than the nearest |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Cassiopeia
In Greek myth Cassiopeia was the vain queen of Ethiopia, wife of Cepheus and mother of Andromeda, set in the sky on her throne. Her five bright stars, Caph, Schedar, Cih, Ruchbah and Segin, make a W or M depending on the hour, since the figure circles the pole and turns over through the night. Schedar is an orange giant; Cih is a hot, fast-spinning star that throws off gas.
The constellation lies in the Milky Way and holds the remains of two famous exploded stars: Tycho’s supernova, seen as a new star in the age before telescopes, and Cassiopeia A, among the youngest remnants known in the Galaxy, whose explosion went unrecorded. Northern observers can use the W, with the Plough, to find the pole between them.
What you see in the piece
From Earth the W reads as a single shape. Flown out to, Caph sits close by and Cih lies far behind, and the zigzag stretches into a line of stars at very different depths.
Questions
How do you find Cassiopeia?
Look north: Cassiopeia is the W of bright stars on the opposite side of Polaris from the Plough, and from northern mid-latitudes it is up all night, every night.
How far away are the stars of Cassiopeia?
They range from Caph, 54.7 light-years (16.8 pc), to Cih, 549 light-years (168 pc): the farthest is 10 × farther than the nearest.