Cassiopeia - The Seated Queen

Learn about the constellation Cassiopeia - The Seated Queen, location, facts, mythology, meteor showers and deep space objects.

Queen of Ethiopia and Andromeda's Mother. It is one of the 88 modern constellations and was also one of the 48 listed by Ptolemy.

Location: Northern Circumpolar 1h RA 60° Dec

Five of the stars of Cassiopeia form a W/S/M shape (depending on their position in the sky), which is one of the most distinctive patterns in the northern sky. Since it is close to the north celestial pole, it remains in the sky all night long in most northern countries.

Cassiopeia Mythology

In Greek mythology, Cassiopeia was a vain queen who boasted about her unrivalled beauty.

Cassiopeia Deep Space Objects

A rich section of the Milky Way runs through Cassiopeia, stretching from Perseus towards Cygnus, and it contains several open clusters, young luminous galactic disc stars, and nebulae.

The Heart Nebula and the Soul Nebula are two neighbouring emission nebulae about 7,500 light-years away.

Two Messier objects, M52 (NGC 7654) and M103 (NGC 581) are located in Cassiopeia; both are open clusters.

Two members of the Local Group of Galaxies are in Cassiopeia. NGC 185 is a magnitude 9.2 elliptical galaxy of type E0, 2 million light-years away. Slightly dimmer and more distant NGC 147 is a magnitude 9.3 elliptical galaxy.

In this table, the observation month represents the month in which the object reaches its highest point in the sky. It can also be viewed a few months before and after depending on your location. Direction is the compass direction in which the object is located, with Z meaning Zenith or overhead.