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Pisces constellation astronomy

A long time ago astronomy wasn’t a science as much as it was an art and type of mysterious magic.  But magic practitioners gave way to men who questioned harder questions, and demanded more precise answers.  These were men such as Isaac Newton, who recognized that other stars are suns just like ours, Galileo who first used a telescope to stare into the heavens, and even people as far back as Ptolemy who formulated the geocentric planetary system around 100 AD. Astronomy stretches to the ends of the endless universe.  So a choice has to be made to zero in on a smaller sub-set of astronomy.  For our purposes, let’s focus on Pisces constellation astronomy.

As large as the universe is, isn’t a constellation too specialized a subject?  A constellation isn’t just some figure in the night sky.  Constellations are made up of a large number of interstellar objects like stars and galaxies.  While we can’t see many stars in Pisces, we do see a very fascinating galaxy.  M74, also known as galaxy NGC 628, is a face on spiral galaxy.  We see all of its arms extending out from its center.  It looks like a spiral to observers from Earth, in other words.  That doesn’t mean we can view it unaided.  And through most amateur telescopes it would appear as small more than a blurry spot.  If the telescope is 12 inches or more aperture, suddenly its seen as a spiral.

Another unique feature of Pisces is that an vital part of the Sun’s path passes through Pisces today, where it did not when the constellations were first mapped.  The sun travels northward over time through Pisces.  It’s a phenomenon, really a time, known as the Vernal Equinox.  When the First Point of Aries was established in ancient times it was east of Pisces.  But over the years it has went west into Pisces.  The drift of celestial objects as seen from Earth is called precession.  All the objects in the universe, including our home planet, go.  Even our sun and the galaxy that contains it travel quite quickly.  The sun and solar system, for example, go at about 220 kilometers per second around the center of the galaxy.  That’s about 1/250th of the way around in all of recorded history.  Not only is the solar system moving, but so is the galaxy itself as well as every object in the night sky.  The constellations have changed over time.  The movement of Aries relative to Pisces reminds us of this fact.

It may not be as wide as the universe, but Pisces constellation astronomy has enough to keep anyone interested for a long time.

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