Swim At Your Own Risk.

[David_leeD.061001]

When we left off last week, we were sailing deeper into the Autumn Ocean, where we found Sculptor stranded way out in the middle of the waters. This week, we are going to continue north, but steering a little to the east, towards the western shore of the Celestial River of Eridanus. But we must be very careful in this area, for it is known that a great sea-monster calls this part of the sea it's home....and it will defend it viciously!!

In modern times, the constellation of Cetus has often been identified as a whale, but this doesn't really agree with history. As we now start our journey into the fascinating & complex myth surrounding a certain great hero, and investigate the several constellations intertwined into this story, the actual history of Cetus will be unraveled.

Our Cetus dates back to antiquity, and this is our first clue as to the true nature of Cetus. The earliest history we can find surrounding this area of sky dates from the Mesopotamian culture around the year 1400 B.C., when the "Mother-God" & Goddess of salt-water, Tiamat resided in these stars. This name has even earlier roots in the Sumerian society of about 3000 B.C., where "Ti" translates as "Life" & "Ama" as "Mother". Tiamat, unlike Cetus, was actually a gentle creature, who was brutally slain & hacked to pieces by a lesser god, Marduk. Her cohort, Kingu, was also slain. Realizing what horrible thing he had done, Marduk used her rib-cage to create the great vault of the heavens & the rest of her body to create the earth. The tears from her eyes became the sources of the two rivers of life...the Tigris & Euphrates. Drops of Kingu's blood mixed with the earth & gave rise to the first people.

Although it is almost sure that Tiamat was pictured as some sort of non-human creature, we must remember that she was a KIND creature. Only much later, when other religions replaced the ones followed by these early societies, was she made to appear as an evil, demonic, dragon-like entity. And so here is our first hint at the creature residing in the stars of Cetus.

Now we will jump ahead to about the year 1000 B.C., at a time when the ancient Greek empire was rapidly expanding, along with their immense system of mythological tales which are still enjoyed today. The name Tiamat had been lost in history & the original gentle Mother-God in these stars had now been replaced by Ceto, which was a hideous amphibian creature sent by Poseidon to wreak havoc upon the inhabitants & land ruled by King Cepheus, which was Aethiopia, AKA Abyssinia...roughly in the same area as present-day Ethiopia, the Sinai Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, & parts of Israel. It seems that the king's mate, Queen Cassiopeia, let it be widely known that she was the most beautiful female in existence...even more so than the enchanting sea-nymphs, the Nereids. This greatly upset the nymphs, who complained to Poseidon, the god of the seas. He listened to them well...after all, one of the nymphs, Amphitrite, was his wife!!

And so, Ceto continued his devastation for a time, reducing the once great kingdom into a desert wasteland. Cepheus was powerless to stop the monster, so eventually he sent some villagers to one of the local temples for guidance. Here lived the Oracle of Ammon, who could provide only these words..."This monster has been sent to punish Cassiopeia for her vain boast. Bid her sacrifice her daughter Andromeda to the sea-serpent, then will the nymphs remove the curse from your homes." But now we are getting into the part of the myth dealing with other constellation figures, & that will have to wait for later. To put it briefly, the oracles advice was followed, but before the chained maiden lost her life to the monster, a great hero arrived atop his winged stallion & saved the day....and they lived happily ever-after.

Ceto wasn't exactly killed by the hero (although limited versions of the story suggest that), but was instead turned to stone by catching a glimpse of the Medusa's head which the hero was holding in front of him. Even today, if you journey to the region of the Levant (Mid-East), you can still see the eroded rocky remains of the monster, just outside the harbor of Jaffa, Israel.

Ceto is probably a corruption of the Latin word Keto, who was an even more ancient goddess, one who personified the many dangers of the sea. Keto roughly translates as "sea-monster". Through a series of interpretations & mis-interpretations in many works of literature from the 9th century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D., Ceto eventually became Cetus. These works include even the great poets & authors of Homer & Apollonius Rhodius. Seems even the great writers can never agree on certain translations. There was a brief attempt in the 17th century to re-depict Cetus as the whale which swallowed Jonah. But this movement didn't last long & very few groups now accept the idea that the constellation actually symbolizes that certain animal.

So, by misunderstanding & mistake, we wound up with a sea-monster called Cetus, which is commonly mistaken for a whale. But by examining history, we can see that Cetus is far from the gentle creature that we know as the largest members of the Cetacean group. And ironically, we see here an entire family of usually gentle animals, including Porpoises & Dolphins, that received their scientific name, Cetacean, from a much more modern interpretation of a word that was misinterpreted in the first place....go figure.

One other thing about Cetus has been incorrectly noted before, particularly with the "It's a Whale" crowd. Some drawings have shown Cetus facing the wrong way...the head towards the west. The ones who have tried to turn it into a whale pictured the part of Cetus that stretches up towards Aries as the big tail that real whales often raise up out of the water. To unravel this misconception, all we need to do is look at the star-names within Cetus, and there are many of them. A decent translation here will draw the creature out just as it is suppose to be, as pictured on the great almanacs of Bayer & Bode.

Alpha---Menkar, from either the Arabic word Minxar, meaning "nostril", or Minqar, meaning "snout". Sometimes incorrectly called Menkab, which means "shoulder", so that name doesn't fit right.
Beta----Deneb Kaitos, meaning "tail of Cetus". Sometimes you will see, just like on the map provided, this star called Diphda, from the Arabic word Difda, meaning "frog". Surely that is a mistake. I can find no reference at all to a frog having once been in this area.
Delta---Phycea, from the Arabic word Phuka, meaning "like seaweed", probably referring to the color of the monster.
Zeta----Baten Kaitos, meaning "belly of the sea monster".
Eta-----Deneb Algenudi, meaning "southern tail".
Iota----Deneb Kaitos Shemali, meaning "northern tail of Cetus".
Pi------Al Sadr al Ketus, meaning "chest of Cetus".

Now you can take this list & a good star chart, and trace out the shape of Cetus with historical accuracy. And just for giggles, let's look at a couple more that hint back to different constellations that other cultures once seen in these stars.

Theta-----Altawk, meaning "the necklace".
Tau-------Durre Menthor, meaning "scattered pearls".
Phi 1-4---Collectively called Al Nitham, meaning "string of pearls".

All of these stars were once part of 2 constellations pictured here by certain groups in Arabia. One was a complete necklace of pearls, while the other was a broken strand of the gems.

Gamma-----Kaffaljidhm, meaning "the reaching hand", and refers to yet another constellation pictured here by Arabs which was a hand reaching into this area, stretching from the Pleiades.

Cetus is able to boast a few more niceties in the observing arena than the previous two constellations we have looked at. We are still in the depths of the Autumn Ocean, but Cetus just happens to be the 4th largest constellation in the sky...so it can hide alot of faint fuzzies within it's boundary's.

The most famous object in Cetus, in fact one of the most famous in the entire sky, is the long-period pulsating variable Mira. As far as we can say definitely, Mira was either the first, or second, variable that was ever noted. (You'll find out the other one in a later installment. ) David Fabricius, a disciple of Tycho Brahe, noted a "new" star here on August 13, 1596, but declared it a nova. In 1603, it was seen, measured and cataloged by Johann Bayer in his "Uranometria" as a 4th magnitude star, and labeled Omicron Ceti. The true nature of the star would have to wait until Johann Phocylides, of Holland, discovered it again in 1638 and observed it the following year also, deriving a period of about 11 months. Johann Hevelius observed it from 1659 to 1682, inserted it in his monumental work, "Prodomus Astronomiae", and christened it "Mira", "the Wonderful".

Mira goes from a "normal" peak of anywhere between 3rd & 4th magnitude, to a minimum of below 9th mag., in about 165 days. The cycle varies somewhat by several days and the brightness itself varies, although rarely. The star will go up to the 2nd mag. about twice per century & was observed in 1779 to approach the 1st magnitude. The exact cause is a mystery, but Mira is known to have 2 companions, both very dim. One is quite far from Mira, but the other is very close, & this may be the catalyst that creates the variations in it's cycle.

One other very interesting star in Cetus is both a visual binary & a variable. But UV Cti holds a much more interesting honor. The 2 red dwarfs are among the smallest & faintest stars known. Only their closeness of 9 light years (6th place) makes the 12.5 & 13.0 mag. stars visible at all. They can be split in a medium size amateur telescope & the dimmer one is the classic example of a "Luyten's Flare Star". Studies have shown that this star brightens about 1/2 mag., for a VERY brief time, about every 12 hours. However,a couple of times a century, it has been known to get as bright as mag. 6.8. The flares are roughly the same size as the ones on our own sun, but they are occurring on a star that has less than 1/10th of it's mass.

There are several fine galaxies in Cetus, the best of which are M77, NGC1073, NC309, NGC247, & NGC615. IC1613 also lives here and is one of those extremely faint, extremely sparse irregular dwarf galaxies, such as the Fornax System & the Sculptor System. It may be a satellite of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. There is also a pretty good planetary nebula to be found here, which is NGC246.

Of the very few really great multiple stars in Cetus, only UV Ceti & 13 Ceti need mentioning. The first one has already been taken care of above. The latter pair is fairly bright, but extremely tight. At maximum separation, which is about 0.35", the two can be split in a good 12" scope, however, at minimum, they are all but out of reach for ANY amateur size scope. But don't despair, if you can't split them, just look again in about 3 years. With one of the shortest periods known, right under 7 years, it doesn't take long for them to switch positions.

Finally, Cetus lays claim to 4 meteor showers, none of which will cause too much excitement. The Tau Cetids peak on June 27th & are the constellations best, as far as ZHR is concerned. They average about 4 per hour. The Eta Cetids peak in the 1st week of October & are almost non-existent. However, about 1 or 2 times per night during this time they have been known to produce EXTREMELY bright fire-balls, many estimated at over mag. -15. The October Cetids hit their humongous maximum ZHR of 1 in the 2nd or 3rd week of October. They were first confirmed in 1916 & seem to have been more active back then. The last of the bunch, the Omicron Cetids, were first identified at Jodrell Bank in 1950. They peak between May 14th & 25th, with a nice ZHR of about 20. But don't expect to see any of those. The Omicron's are a daylight-only shower & that ZHR is for radio-echo detection.

Well, the tales have gotten a little longer, but I hope you like to read. We only just BARELY touched the greatest one of all in this installment. The remainder of the story that Cetus was involved in will be split amongst about another half-dozen constellations within the next year. Be sure & save each one of these if you want to put them all together when I'm finished with this humongous myth.

Until then, since we have safely avoided the sea monster for a long while, we'll continue our travels through the Autumn Ocean, next week visiting a young man who so impressed the most powerful of all gods, that he gave him a permanent job in the heavens, living in luxury with a sole responsibility of making sure that the god's cups were always filled to the brim. He was immortalized in one of the oldest continually recognized constellations in the sky. To visit him, however, we must fill our sails with a great wind, steer hard to starboard, & race back across the seas, for he is rapidly disappearing into the dusky twilight of the western sky.


Cetus--Cet--Ceti---The Sea Monster

1231 Square Degrees---Rank 4th in area

Number of stars above Mag.3---Three

Best visible between latitudes +55/-65.

Brightest Stars:

-Beta----(Deneb Kaitos)------------2.0---004335/-175912
-Alpha---(Menkar)-------------------2.5---030217/+040523
-Omicron-(Mira)----------------------3.0---021921/-025839---(Normal Maximum)
-Eta-----(Deneb Algenudi)----------3.4---010835/-101056
-Gamma---(Kaffaljidhm)-------------3.5---024318/+031410
-Tau-----(Durre Menthor)-----------3.5---014405/-155622
-Iota----(Deneb Kaitos Shemali)---3.6---001926/-084926
-Theta---(Altawk)--------------------3.6---012401/-081058
-Zeta----(Baten Kaitos)-------------3.7---015128/-102005

Multiple Stars:

-Gamma---3.6/6.2/02.3"----024318/+031410
-Nu---------5.0/9.1/07.9"----023553/+053536
-13---------4.9/12.5/24.5"---003515/-033533
-37---------5.2/7.9/48.4"----011424/-075522
-UV---------12.5/13.0/0.7"---013855/-175716

Variable Stars:

-Mira----------021921/-025839
-UV------------013855/-175716

Deep Sky:

-NGC1073-------024342/+012300---(Galaxy)
-NGC157--------001454/-391100---(Galaxy)
-NGC309--------003448/-082400---(Galaxy)
-NGC247--------004706/-204600---(Galaxy)
-NGC246--------004704/-115222---(Planetary Nebula)
-NGC615--------013506/-072000---(Galaxy)
-NGC908--------022306/-211400---(Galaxy)
-NGC1087-------024624/-003000---(Galaxy)
-IC1613---------010454/+020800---(Dwarf Galaxy)
-M77-------------024242/-000100---(Galaxy)




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