Cetus
Origin
Cetus is Latizined for Greek “Ketos”, the name of a sea monster. In Greek mythology Cetus was sent by Poseidon to terrorize the coasts of Ethiopia after feeling insulted by the queen Cassiopeia who declared that she was more beautiful than his water nymphs. The king, on the instruction of an oracle, intended to sacrifice the princess Andromeda in order to stop the beast, but the hero Perseus slew it before it could get to her.
Bright Stars
Bright stars in Cetus include Diphda (Beta Ceti, magnitude 2.24), Baten Kaitos (Zeta Ceti, magnitude 3.92), and Menkar (Alpha Ceti, magnitude 2.82). Another interesting star in this constellation is Mira, Mira, a star with a highly variable brightness that varies from invisibility to the brightness of the northern Pole Star.
Photo of the constellation Cetus produced by NOIRLab in collaboration with Eckhard Slawik, a German astrophotographer.
The annotations are from a standardized set of 88 western IAU constellations and stick figures from Sky & Telescope. Please find here a non-annotated version of the image.
Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani
Latin name
Cetus
English name
The Sea Monster
Pronunciation
SEE-tus
Abbreviation
Cet
Notable Objects
Notable objects in Cetus include Messier 77, a large active galaxy about 50 million light-years away, and IC 1613, a nearby galaxy just 2.4 million light-years away.
