Perseus, resembles the shape of a Greek hero Perseus, when stars in this constellation are imaginarily connected!
Where should I see…
Andromeda and Triangulum, is the constellation which is towards west of Perseus constellation. If you
move your eyes towards east, you will see another constellation named Auriga. In the North of Perseus, you will find Camelopardalis and Cassiopeia while in South Aries and Taurus constellations respectively. Perseus is halfway between celestial equator and North Pole, and so is fully part of Northern Hemisphere.
It covers up 615 square degree area of the sky. Area wise it is 24th largest constellation in the sky.
When and What can I see…
We can gaze at this shape of Perseus constellation from July to March, as seen from India.
All you need is your naked eyes other than clear skies to see 161 stars of this constellations, as they are the one which are brighter than the lower limit of our naked eyes (i.e. 6.5 apparent magnitude) to see faintest stars. The brightest star of this constellation is Mirfak.
Constellations are made up of single, binary (apparent and absolute), multiple and variable stars. Out of total 161 stars of different types, here is the list of 20 brightest stars as per their nature:
| Binary / Multiple Star system |
Variable Stars |
Binary/multiple and Variable Stars |
Single stars |
| Miram |
Menkib |
Mirfak |
– |
| 2 |
4 |
Misam |
– |
| – |
– |
Algol |
– |
| – |
– |
Atik |
– |
| – |
– |
8 |
– |
| 3 |
5 |
12 |
– |
Mythology stories…
As per Hindu mythology, there are no such known stories for this constellation.
Deep Sky Objects…
Alpha Persei Cluster || Open Cluster
California Nebula or NGC 1499 || Emission Nebula
Perseus Double Cluster or NGC 869, NGC 884 || Open Cluster
All the stars that we see naked eyes, all belong to our own, Milky way galaxy (Akash Ganga Tara Vishv). Bright stars can be seen naked eye and faint one through telescope. But the curtain of sky that we see in 2D is actually a huge universe we are talking about, with 3 dimension. There are many nebulous objects visible in every constellations. They differ widely by distances and nature. Like Emission Nebula, Reflecting Nebula, Absorption Nebula, Star Birth Nebula, Supernova Remnants (SNR) and Open Starscluster which are within the disk of our own Milky Way galaxy. Globular cluster are also found, which are in the halo of our galaxy and some most distant objects like galaxies are also visible through telescope. Such objects are defined as “Deep Sky Objects”.
In this constellation there are 152 such different types of Deep Sky Objects observed. Below is the list of 20 brightest Deep Sky Objects:
Little Dumbbell Nebula or M76 or Barbell Nebula || Planetary Nebula
M34 || Open Cluster
NGC 1058 || Seyfert Galaxy
| |
Galaxy |
Open Cluster |
Globular Cluster |
Nebula |
Supernova Remnant |
|
| Naked eye visibility |
– |
H Persei cluster |
– |
California nebula |
– |
|
| Chi Persei cluster |
|
| M34 |
|
| 4
|
|
| Visible through Telescope |
1 |
7 |
– |
M76 (little dumbbell nebula) |
– |
|
|
| – |
– |
– |
3 |
– |
|
|
|
| |
1 |
14 |
– |
5 |
– |
|
NGC 1260 || Lenticular Galaxy
NGC 1265 || Radio Galaxy
Perseus A or NGC 1275 || Seyfert Galaxy
