Mythology

The constellation of the Capricornus, also known as the Sea Goat is one of the dimmer
constellations upon the sky. Dating back to a prehistoric time of 3,000 years ago, the story of
Capricornus originated with the Babyonians and Sumerians (2). The Sumerians referred
to the constellation as goat fish. The cultural source of Capricornus comes from Greek
Mythology. Most of the Greek stories relate to one another, I will further explain how the
Greeks relate the Capricornus myth with Amalthea and Pan, the god of the forests.
Amalthea in Greek mythology is
mentioned as the goat who fostered
Zeus as an infant, The
Goat that suckled Zeus when he
was an infant, hiding from his
father Cronos (4). Cronos, the king
of the Titans was married to Rhea
whom were parents to Zeus. Cronus
lived in fear of history repeating
himself from his father, Uranus that
there was a prophecy that one of his children would grow to overthrow him. When Rhea gave
birth to her first child, Cronus swallowed their baby. Cronus devoured their next four children.
By the sixth child, Rhea had a plan. When Cronus asked for the sixth child, Rhea handed
him a stone wrapped in a blanket. He swallowed the stone not knowing he was tricked. Rhea
secretly hid Zeus at Crete with Amalthea, the mythical mother goat and nymphs. When Zeus
became a young man, he returned home to be a servant to his father. He served him a cup of

wine that was a potion which made Cronus throw up his children, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter and
Hestia. They came out as grown adults and soon panicked, they knew they had to flee from their
father before they were eaten again. Zeus and his brothers and sisters fled to Mount Olympus
where they claimed Mount Olympus as their home. They were the young Gods called the
Olympians and declared war on Cronus and other Titans. This began a great war between them.
The constellation of Capricornus relates to Pan, the son of Hermes and Penelope, the
Great God of the forests and meadows through which he forever wandered, playing, dancing
with the nymphs (Kerrod, p.40). Zeus the king of the gods favored Pan, for scaring the Titans
away during the ten year war between Olympians and Titans. The Greeks relate Capricornus to a
pipe playing God named Pan, who was also a strange hybrid creature with goat legs and horns
(Kerrod, p. 40). Typhon, the father of all monsters sought revenge to destroy Zeus. Pan helped
scare the Titans away by blowing his conch shell and later he warned the gods that Typhon, a
monster sent by Gaia to fight the Gods was approaching. (4) As Typhon approached, Pan
distracted Typhon by jumping into the Nile riverand turning the lower part of the his body
into that of a fish (4) Zeus was getting destroyed by Typhon when Pan ended up saving Zeus by
letting out an ear splitting yell, distracting the monster long enough for Hermes, a god of
transitions and boundaries, to put Zeus together and restore him defeating Typhon. Zeus in
gratitude, reserved a place in the sky for Pan.

Constellation
Capricornus is located in the Southern Hemisphere. The Capricornus is one of the
dimmer constellations. The 40th largest constellation. Capricornus measures at 414 square
degrees and contains two stars with known planets. Capricornus sits with the water-bearer

Aquarius, the whale-like sea

monster Cetus, the fishes Pisces
and Eridanus, the river. The
smallest constellation of the zodiac,
through which the Sun passes from
late January to mid-February
(Ridpath, p.75). To find the
Capricornus in the sky, look for the
Summer Triangle and make a line
from Vega through Altair to the
lower Southern sky, the
constellation is best viewed during September around 9pm. During the winter, the Capricornus
constellation is visible. The visibility of the Capricornus is between latitudes 60 degrees and -90
degrees occupying an area of 414 square degrees during the winter solstice. This latitude is
called the Tropic of Capricorn, it is the most southerly latitude at which the Sun is ever directly
overhead (Mechler, Chartrand and Tirion, p.90) originally sliced right through the constellation,
but the line has since shifted to go through the constellation Sagittarius.

Primary Stars
The three bright stars of the Capricornus are the alpha-2 Capricorni, beta Capricorni and
omega Capricorni, these three stars form a triangle making it easier to pick out the constellation.
The brightest star in the constellation is Derab Algedi and Delta Capricorni, Deneb Algedi is a
four-star system 39 light years from Earth. The brightest star, Delta Capricorni A, is a white

giant that belongs to the spectral class A. It has the luminosity 8.5 times that of the Sun. (1) It is
an eclipsing binary star, its a star that varies in brightness due to both radial and non radial
pulsations of it s surface. The goats tail is formed by delta Capricorn, the second brightest star,
beta-Capricorni, also known as Dabih is a multiple star system (8) The belly of the goat, omega
Capricorni is a red giant star with a higher luminosity and magnitude. The location in the
constellation Capricornus, M30 is a globular cluster of stars located about 25,000 light-years
from Earth. This dense cluster is around 75 light-years in diameter and contains 12 known
variable stars. It is actually approaching us at a speed of 164 kilometers per second. M30's large
size and dense structure make it a remarkable object when viewed through binoculars or small
telescopes (6)

Objects of Interest

One of the deep sky objects in the

Capricornus is the Messier 30 globular
cluster. Messier 30 is a globular cluster
approximately 28,000 light years distant
and about 90 light years in size. (1) You
can observe the Messier 30 with a small
telescope. This cluster is dense and
belongs to the concentration class V.
Charles Messier, a French astronomer
discovered the globular cluster in 1764
who described it as acircular nebular without a star. (8) The brightest stars in the cluster are
magnitude 12 red giants. Like Messier 15, Messier 70, and many other globular clusters in the
Milky Way Galaxy, M30 has undergone a core collapse. Its core is now only 0.12 arc minutes in
size, and half of the clusters mass is contained in a spherical radius that is 17.4 light years
across. (1) Besides the Messier 30 cluster, Capricorn has several galaxies, like the wide Spiral
galaxy NGC 6907 having a magnitude of 11.30. The Galaxy Group NGC 7103 has a magnitude
of 15.00. There are five meteor showers associated with Capricornus: the Alpha Capricornids,
the Chi Capricornids, the Sigma Capricornids, the Tau Capricornids, and the CapricornidenSagittarids. (1)