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would like a guide to help you walk through this guy, please visit learn the
sky.com and check out our online courses. Welcome in this video we will review the
constellation Capricornus, also known as the Sea Goat. The name Capricornus is
Latin for the 'horned goat' and he is the smallest of the twelve zodiacal
constellations in the sky. It is counted among the 88 modern constellations and
was also listed in Ptolmey's 48th listed constellations, which dates back to at
least the second century. The constellation is located in an area of
the sky called the sea or water, which consists of many water related
constellations, such as Aquarius, Pisces, and Eridanus.
Even though Capricorn is the smallest of the zodiacal constellations, it has a
distinctive pattern that makes it easy to identify in the sky. However unless
you live in an area that has very little light pollution it may be hard to point
out because it's stars are only at that of the 3rd magnitude. So if we take a
look at the star pattern right here, this is the official shape of Capricornus, you
might see a triangular shape but I'm often reminded of a boomerang shape. Let's
examine some of the mythologies of Capricornus. Just like all of the legends
and stories of the stars there are a variety of myths, and the cultures that
these stories derive from are just as diverse. I doubt any one person on the
planet knows all of these stories, however we can examine some of the more
well-known stories of Capricornus. According to one Greek legend,
Capricornus was said to be the gate of the gods, also called the portal, and it
was said to be this spot in the sky in which the soul of mortals pass
through after they died. Another Greek legend of Capricornus is that of the
deity called Pan, who is God of the wild and hunting, and the story goes that Pan
and some other gods and goddesses were picnicking along the banks of the Nile
River a long time ago, and what happened is that a monster showed up, Typhon, and he
descended upon the gods and as they were trying to escape they were turning
themselves into animals but Pan couldn't decide what to turn into, he panicked,
which is actually the origin of that word and he ended up turning himself
into half fish and half goat. One final mythology that we will explore is that
of the god Ea from Sumerian mythology. He was said to be the God who brought
culture and science from the sea to mankind. He had the lower body of the
fish and an upper body of a goat, and according to some stories Ea came out of
the ocean every day to watch over the lands, and return to the sea every night.
Without a doubt there are many stories and mythologies that surround the
constellation of Capricornus. Now we'll examine the pattern of Capricornus and
look at it with greater detail and get some practice with how to find it. So
here is a star map of Capricornus, and hopefully you're seeing the triangular
shape of this constellation. I also want you to notice how there's a blue line
running through this constellation. This is known as the ecliptic, and that is the
path of the Sun, and that's how Capricornus and all the other zodiacal
constellations are classified. The Sun passes through them. You can also see
that Aquarius is right above Capricornus, in terms of its position in the sky.
Even though Capricornus is the smallest zodiacal constellation, it has a very
distinctive pattern so it's fairly easy to point out in the sky. If you live in
the higher, northern latitudes, it may not be as visible for as long as at the time
as if you were on the lower latitudes, but here is a picture of what the
constellation looks like, right here, and depending upon the star map the shape of
the constellation pattern may vary. To me the shape looks very much like a
boomerang shape. So here we have a shot of Capricornus and actually a whole
bunch of other constellations including Aquarius, Pisces, Aquila, and Delphinus,
but when you're looking at this picture have your eyes drawn to the center set
of pine trees towards the horizon, and right above these pine trees is that
triangular shape of Capricornus. Take a look at it and see if you're able to
identify this constellation, and if you need a little help here you go. This is
where Capricornus is seated in the sky and notice some other constellations. We
have Delphinus, sitting right here, and we have Aquarius right here, and then we
have the head of Pisces, which is a circle, also called the circle and at
times, that goes off the screen. So if you can start to identify those
constellations you should be able to identify Capricorn. Here is another shot
of Capricorn that I have taken. It's not the greatest shot, or the highest quality,
but it's effective enough. So hopefully you can try to identify the triangular
shape pattern in this picture, and the little bright red dot that happens to be
Mars. So if we're looking at the picture and we outline it,
that is what Capricornus looks like. So that's the triangular shape that you
want to look for in the sky. Let's review over some of the
interesting stars that we can see in Capricornus. So we're back at this
original picture of Capricornus, right above that center set of pine trees in
this picture. You should be looking for a triangular shape, right there, and what
you may notice is that there aren't any really bright stars that are
significantly bright. Nothing that really stands out and the brighter stars in
Capricornus would be right here in this end, and right here, and they're all
pretty much a magnitude of 3 or higher, which means they're pretty bright and
you need a dark sky to see this constellation. So again here's the
triangular shape and then we're going to zoom in and take a look at this star, so
this is Alpha Capricorni. It is an optical double star, and if we take a
look at it and zoom in sometimes it's called Giedi or Algiedi, which is both
Arabic for the word 'kid', which is probably in reference that Capricornus
is half goat, and this is an optical double star, and that means that they're
not, these two stars aren't close together in space they just look like
they are. They're in the same direction, but they're actually really far apart, so
if you get a chance take a look you should be able to tell with the naked
eye that these are two separate stars, but if not use some magnification such
as binoculars or a telescope to help you out with that. Another star of interest
is Deneb Algedi and this is an Arabic name for 'tail of the goat', it's actually
an eclipsing binary star, which means that it's two stars that are going
around each other and that the brightness can change depending upon
where the stars are in their own orbits. Let's take a look at the celestial
objects that can be seen within its boundaries. So if we take a look at this
star map, there's two points of interest that you can pay attention to in the sky.
We have M 30 right here, and then another collection of galaxies, that's not really
easy to see even with magnification, but it's cool to know about. Messier object
30 is a globular cluster that's estimated to be 30,000 light years away.
It has a magnitude of 7.5, so you will need some sort of magnification in order
to see it, but it's worth taking a look at and it's very beautiful to see in the
sky, and when you're looking for it try to find that eclipsing binary star, the
one point of Capricornus, and it's right near that section of the constellation.
Another group of celestial objects that's located in Capricornus is called
HGC 87 and that stands for Hickson compact group, and it's estimated to be
400 million light years away, and what's interesting about this group of galaxies
is that they're very very close together, and their gravity influences each other.
So when you're looking at this you can see a very large elliptical galaxy here,
a face on spiral galaxy, and then you can also see an edge-on spiral galaxy. Here's
another one, another spiral galaxy that you can see face on, and it has these
very high rates of star formation, which tells us that these galaxies are
interacting with each other, and they're very very close. So because these
galaxies are so faint, we're talking 15, 14, 17, in terms of magnitude they can
only be seen with magnification. You wouldn't be able to see these in the night sky,
but it's just cool to know where they're located and the fact that when you're
looking in this area there's a whole collection of galaxies that are right
there. Let's review what we learned about Capricornus the Sea Goat constellation. It is
one that is best seen in the autumn months and it's classified as a zodiacal
constellation, which means that the Sun passes through it. The way to find
Capricornus is knowing where the asterism called the Teapot is and that
is in the constellation Sagittarius. If you can find a Teapot, just know that
Capricornus lies very close to that star pattern. Some of the celestial object
that can be seen include Messier object 30, which is a globular star cluster, and
HGC 87, however you would need a lot of magnification to see that compact group
of galaxies. Thank you so much for watching and I wish you luck finding
this constellation.