Sagitta

Sagitta is the third smallest of all the constellations, nestling inside the summer triangle, close to the star Altair at the southern tip of the triangle.

The name ‘Sagitta’ is Latin for arrow, and although it is contains no stars brighter than fourth magnitude, it is apparent through binoculars as a line of stars with a feathered tail.

It contains only one deep sky object of note, the seventh-magnitude globular cluster M71.

There is no sign of the archer who shot this arrow, and accounts vary as to which episode of Greek mythology it might represent. According to Eratosthenes, it perhaps represents the arrow which Apollo used to kill the Cyclopes.

The Ancient Greeks called this constellation Oistos “the arrow”. It was regarded as the weapon that Hercules used to kill the eagle (Aquila) of Jove that perpetually gnawed Prometheus’ liver. The Arrow is located beyond the north border of Aquila, the Eagle. Richard Hinckley Allen proposed that the Arrow could be the one shot by Hercules towards the adjacent Stymphalian birds (6th labor) who had claws, beaks and wings of iron, and who lived on human flesh in the marshes of Arcadia – Aquila the Eagle, Cygnus the Swan, and Lyra (the Vulture) – and still lying between them, whence the title Herculea. Eratosthenes claimed it as the arrow with which Apollo exterminated the Cyclopes. The Romans named it Sagitta.

In the Indian system, Sagitta is knwon as ಶರ (Shara).

Sagitta contains:

• Stars
  • γ-Sge (mag 3.5)
  • δ-Sge (mag 3.8)
  • β-Sge (mag 4.4)
  • Sham (mag 4.4)
  • ζ-Sge (mag 5.0)
  • η-Sge (mag 5.1)
  • VZ Sge (mag 5.4)
  • 11-Sge (mag 5.5)
  • 1-Sge (mag 5.6)
  • ε-Sge (mag 5.7)
  • S Sge (mag 5.7)
  • 15-Sge (mag 5.8)
  • HD 193579 (mag 5.8)
  • HD 190211 (mag 6.0)
  • HD 180242 (mag 6.0)
  • HD 178428 (mag 6.1)
  • HD 177199 (mag 6.1)
  • 18-Sge (mag 6.1)
  • 9-Sge (mag 6.2)
  • HD 191814 (mag 6.2)
  • 2-Sge (mag 6.2)
  • HD 185622 (mag 6.4)
  • HD 191178 (mag 6.4)
  • HD 176776 (mag 6.5)
  • HD 176301 (mag 6.5)
• Open Clusters
  • None
• Globular Clusters
  • Messier 71 (mag 8.4)
• Galaxy
  • None