Abbreviation: Cas
English Name: The Cassiopeia Queen
Genitive: Schedar, sometimes spelt Shedar or Shedir.
Hemisphere: Northern Hemisphere
Location: Between the constellations of Andromeda and Cephus.
Visible between latitudes: +90 and -20 degrees
Best season: Autumn
Seen in three season: Summer, Autumn and Winter
Best seen in: November
Seen between: Circumpolar (This constellation of Camelopardalis stays in the Sky all the year.)
Right Ascension (RA): 01 hour
Declination (DEC): +60 degrees
Area (square degrees): 598 (25th)
Cassiopeia (The Cassiopeia Queen)
- The five leading stars make up a W-shape or M-shape pattern, on the opposite the Big Dipper (Ursa Major).
- Easy to recognisable due to it helping by the `W` shape, formed by five bright stars.
- Cassiopeia contains several Open Clusters resolvable in binoculars.
Messier Objects
- M52 – Open Cluster, visible with binoculars – covering an area about one-third the size of Full Moon, although a telescope is needed to see some individual stars.
- M103 – There are about 40 member stars within M103; two of which have magnitude +10.5, and magnitude +10.8 red giant, which is the brightest within the cluster.
Features of interest
- NGC 457 – Open Cluster; appearance has been compared to an owl’s eyes pattern, with two brightest stars marking the owl’s eyes.
- NGC 663 – also Known as Caldwell 10 (C10) is young Open Cluster of about 400 stars.
- Two galaxies are in Cassiopeia by Andromeda to the south; NGC 147; also known as Caldwell 17 (C17), and NGC 185; also known as Caldwell 18 (C18).
Names Stars
- Schedar (Alpha Cas) (sometimes spelt Shedar or Shedir)
- Caph (Beta Cas)
- Ruchbah (Delta Cas)
- Segin (Epsilon Cas)
- Achird (Eta Cas)
- Marfak (Theta Cas)
- Marfak (Mu Cas)
Others
- Photo of the constellation – Cassiopeia, as it appears to the naked-eye. (Lines have been added for clarity.)
- Sky Chart – Cassiopeia
- List of stars in Cassiopeia.
Back to The 88 Constellations Lists page.