The Rambling Astronomer

If you thought you knew what a comet was then you may have to think again, astronomers are trying to work out exactly what a comet is!

Another of the small and obscure constellations added to the southern sky by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. Circinus is a compass placed appropriately next to the constellation of Norma the Level, which is also equally obscure.

A faint constellation in the southern sky near the south pole. It was created by Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius in 1598 from the observations of the Dutch explores Pieter Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. It would appear the star atlas Uranometria prepared by Johann Bayer in 1603.

A biblical story with an astronomical ending. These cities were destroyed by a meteor strike.

Cetus was formerly the Kraken from Greek mythology, a large constellation it contains the first variable star to be identified, omicron ceti or Mira the Wonderful.

Although not as bright as his queen Cassiopeia, Cepheus does contain the star delta Cephei that was discovered to be variable in 1784 by the deaf astronomer John Goodricke in York. Today Cepheid variables are used by astronomers to work out how far away clusters and galaxies are.

The scholarly centaur who taught many of the Greek heroes, he was placed in the sky when accidently struck by a poison arrow fired by Hercules. The constellation contains the closest star to Earth apart from the Sun

The bossy queen who started all the trouble for Perseus, Pegasus and the other character from the Greek mythology that figure in the film the Clash of the Titans,

Once part of what was the largest constellation in the sky Argo Navis, Carina the Keel is the brightest of the three parts of the Argo and contains the second brightest star in the sky, Canopus.

A crater discovered under the North Sea which could help astronomers explain certain features on some of the the moons of Jupiter,