Myth of Sagittarius

The Greeks identify Sagittarius as a centaur, horse-human hybrid with the body of a man atop the four legs of a horse. The creature is aiming an arrow toward its neighbor Scorpio. The lore has Sagittarius the Archer shooting Scorpio the Scorpion, which had been sent to kill Orion the Hunter.

Sagittarius is sometimes confused with another centaur, Chiron of the Centaurus constellation.

The Babylonians associated Sagittarius with the god Pabilsaĝ, who had two heads (one human, one panther), wings and was sometimes called "the wild bull with multicolored legs."

In astrology, which is not a science, Sagittarius is the ninth sign in the Zodiac and represents those born between Nov. 22 and Dec. 21.

SagittariusThe Archer

The zodiacal constellation Sagittarius represents the centaur Chiron. Most of the centaurs were regarded in myth as bestial--they were, after all, half horse. However, the ancient Greeks had a great deal of respect for the horse, and so were reluctant to make the centaurs entirely bad. In fact, Chiron was renowned for his gentleness. He was an excellent archer, musician, and physician, and tutored the likes of Achilles, Jason, and Hercules.

Chiron, however, was accidentally shot and wounded by Hercules. The arrow, which had been dipped in the poison of the Lernaean Hydra, inflicted great suffering on Chiron--so great, in fact, that even the talented physician could not cure himself. In agony, but as an immortal unable to find release in death, Chiron instead offered himself as a substitute for Prometheus. The gods had punished Prometheus for giving fire to man by chaining him to a rock. Each day an eagle would devour his liver, and each night it would grow back. Jupiter, however, had at the request of Hercules agreed to release Prometheus if a suitable substitute could be found. Chiron gave up his immortality and went to Tartarus in place of Prometheus; in recognition of his goodness, Jupiter placed him in the stars (Pasachoff, 139).

From the northern hemisphere, Sagittarius may be seen only in the summer, lying low in the south. The Milky Way runs through Sagittarius.

The Constellation Sagittarius:

Sagittarius is an easy constellation to find if you know where Scorpio is.  Once you have found Scorpio, look just to the left of it.  The brighter stars which you see are the constellation Sagittarius.  There are different myths that surround the constellation Sagittarius.  The most popular is the Greek version.  This says that Sagittarius was a well educated and kind centaur (half man, half horse).  He was mistakenly killed by a poisoned arrow by his good friend Hercules.  To honor Sagittarius and to ease Hercules' sadness, Hercules' father Zeus gave Sagittarius a final resting place in the stars.  In the constellation, Sagittarius is poised to shoot an arrow from his bow.

Betelgeuse/Antares:

Up until now we have mainly been looking for constellations.  You are now ready to move on to the next step.  Once you know the constellations you can then look for interesting things to observe within that constellation.

Betelgeuse, pronounced "BeatleJuice," is the funny name of a very bright, very large star in the constellation Orion.  It is so big that if it took the place of our Sun, the Earth would be inside of it.   Think about that.  That is huge!

To find Betelgeuse, first locate Orion.  Betelgeuse is the bright star in its upper left corner.  As you look at it think about what you are seeing.  Notice it has a reddish orange color.  This is caused by its low temperature.  We will learn more about star colors and

what they mean in the next astronomy packet.  I encourage you to not just look at it and then look away, but enjoy looking at it.  Take your time.  Try to remember what the color looks like.  One very good exercise you might try is to look back and forth between Betelgeuse and another star.  Try to see the difference in color between the two stars.

In this packet we are also looking for Antares.  Antares is the brightest star in Scorpio.  In fact, it is the 15th brightest star in the sky.  The name Antares comes from anti-ares.  Ares means Mars in Greek.  This star is the same color and the same brightness as the planet Mars.  This is why the Greeks named it Anti-Mars, or Anti-Ares.  The Greeks were calling it Mars' rival.  To find Antares, look in the constellation Scorpio.  It is near the top of the constellation, and is much brighter than all the other stars in this constellation.  

 

The constellation Sagittarius Betelgeuse:

Antares:

 

 

Sagittarius

Throughout the waterfalls of time, mankind has invented many myths and legends. The purpose of them was to entertain each other but more importantly it was an attempt to explain the natural processes and phenomena that surrounded them.

Many of these mythological characters were projected on to the night sky.

They were basically patterns that resembled the corresponding person or object. Some of these myth based constellations include Perseus and Hercules.

In other words, constellations are patterns

 

 

 An old star chart showing the constellations as the objects that they represent.

of stars in the night sky that resemble a wide variety of people, mythological beasts, animals and man made objects.            

Altogether there are 88 constellations and their boundaries were decided by the International Astronomical Union in 1930. This means that there are no spaces between constellations and they also don’t spill over into another constellation’s boundary.

Each constellation is part of an imaginary shell called the ‘celestial sphere’. This surrounds Earth and as time progresses in the space of a year, the Earth faces a different part of the celestial sphere and different constellations are visible in the sky in each season. Also there are constellations that can only be seen in either the northern or southern hemisphere and there are also constellations that are visible in more than one season. These are known as circumpolar constellations because they appear to rotate around the ‘north celestial pole’ and the ‘south celestial pole’.            

 

The pattern of stars in a constellation isn’t physically fixed in one location, each star in a constellation is at different distances. These distances are measured in a type of measurement called a light year. The distance of other objects in the Universe such as galaxies and nebulae are also measured using this type of measurement. The reason that a group of stars of differing distances appear together is because of line of sight. This means that they appear towards the

The celestial sphere is an imaginary sphere around planet Earth used to explain the emergence of different constellations at different times of the year.

 

same direction but each star is at a different distance. Other things that also share the line of sight of a constellation are galaxies, nebulae, star clusters and double stars. The objects belong to a category called ‘deep sky objects’.

Image copyright Lunar and Planetary Institute

   

 

Assignment # 4

Find the constellation Sagittarius.

Find Betelgeuse.

Find Antares.