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Sagittarius



Sagittarius is a large southern constellation which spans the declination range δ=12°S to δ=45°S. It appears highest in the evening sky in the months around July.

This area of the sky looks directly towards the center of the Milky Way, which is marked by the radio source Sgr A. This makes it the richest of all the constellations for deep sky objects, including no fewer than fifteen open clusters and eighteen globular clusters brighter than tenth magnitude. Among these is M22, the fifth brightest globular cluster in the sky.

Sagittarius is spotted in the sky with an area of dense stars forming a Teapot (shown in image) asterism.

It is also home to the diffuse ninth-magnitude galaxy NGC 6822, also known as Caldwell 57.

Sagittarius is one of the twelve members of the zodiac, and the Sun passes through it each year between mid-December and mid-January.

Sagittarius is usually depicted as a centaur (half horse, half man) holding a bow and arrow. The constellation is of Sumerian origin and was subsequently adopted by the Greeks, leading to some uncertainty over the archer’s identity. According to Eratosthenes, the archer is Crotus, nurse to the Muses and the inventor of archery. However, this association is problematic as Crotus was not a centaur, but rather a satyr.

The constellation was placed in the night sky by Zeus to honor Chiron, the king of the centaurs. Chiron had galloped into a battle where some bad centaurs were attacking Hercules, and a good centaur, Pholus. Hercules was defending Pholus from the bad centaurs by shooting poison-tipped arrows at them. Not knowing that Chiron was there, Hercules shot one of his poison-tipped arrows at him by mistake and hit him. When Chiron fell to the ground, all of the other centaurs galloped away. Because he had been made immortal long before, Chiron did not die. He would have to live in horrible pain forever. Zeus took pity on him and ended Chiron’s great pain by allowing him to die.

Being one of the Zodiac cconstellations, Sagittarius is depicted using the symbol and with the emoji ♐.

The Indian name for Sagittarius in Astronomy and Astrology is ಧನು (Dhanu).

Sagittarius contains:

View Sagittarius in 3D


Source: Wikipedia, in-the-sky.org
Image Courtesy: Sky&Telescope & IAU, Illustration Images linked from Urania's Mirror on Wikmedia Commons by Sidney Hall

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