The Rambling Astronomer

This is the story of Algol 'The Winking Demon Star ' in Perseus as explained by the deaf astronomer John Goodricke in York

Our story starts in the year 1596 when a David Fabricius a Dutch pastor and astronomer was looking at the constellation of Cetus the Whale, these are of course in the days before the telescope was invented. He noticed a star of the 3rd magnitude, this was Mira the Wonderful.

Delta Ursa Majoris or Megrez which means the base of the bear’s tail or root of the ber’s tail is the faintest of the stars that make up the part of Ursa Major that is referred to as the plough which is one of the best known groups of stars in the sky,

Beta Taurus or El Nath which means the ‘butting one’, in the times of ancient Greece was a star shared by both Taurus and Auriga.

Shaula or lambda Scorpii is the star that marks the sting of the scorpion. The name Shaula means the ‘Stinger’ With a magnitude of 1.6 Shaula is the second brightest star in the constellation of the Scorpion. Yet lambda is only the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet. This rather throws the system introduced in 1603 by Bayer on his Uranometria star atlas into some confusion.

Gamma in Crux the Southern Cross is also known as Gacrux, it's the star at the top of the cross. Its 87 light years away and has a magnitude of 1.6 its a red M3 giant class star with a temperature of 3,300,C. Its the only red giant in the crux shape all the other three stars are blue white in colour and therefore much hotter and younger. It is the nearest red giant to the Sun.

Gamma or Alhena Gemini which means the ‘Shining One’ it is often described as shinning with a bright sharp light.
There are some suggestions that Alhena together with the stars eta, mu, nu, and xi may have been part of the Babylonian constellation of the camel.

The brightest star in Aries is Hamal which means ‘The Head of the Sheep’. In addition on some Arabic star charts the star is called Al Nath the butting one. Interestingly this is also the name of beta Taurus which astronomers use today.

Alpha Canes Venatici or Cor Caroli is the brightest star of the hunting dogs that was created by Johannes Hevelius who invented 10 new constellations in the 1670s. It is formed of stars that can be found beneath the handle of the Plough or Big Dipper of which it once formed part off.

Alpha or Alphard which means the ‘Solitary One’ is the brightest star in the constellation of Hydra the Water Snake , this is also the largest constellation in the sky.