BAS Observer September 2017

SEPTEMBER 2017 21 Constellation of the month: Capricornus The constellation Capricornus has the strange common name of ‘the Sea Goat’. It is derived from another bizarre myth that extends back through Greek to even more ancient Sumerian and Babylonian times. Legend has it that the deity Pan, a goat, was placed in the sky by Zeus for his efforts fighting the Titans. But Pan was attacked by a monster, so he jumped into the water to escape and there adopted a fish tail to avoid capture. However, the astronomical objects on display in Capricornus are perhaps less interesting than the legend. The constellation itself is often hard to locate, as it is the second-faintest constellation in the sky, after Cancer, and looks like a rather empty and uninteresting bent triangle hidden amongst many other unremarkable stars. Two faint galaxies worth attempting in a dark sky are NGC 6 9 07 (140 million light-years away) and NGC 6 9 03 (150 million light-years away). The planets You will need to be quick to catch Saturn as it heads towards the western horizon and gets buried in our thick, murky atmosphere. All good things must come to an end some time, and Saturn is about to complete this current pass across our evening sky. Take a look before it’s too late and you have to wait for the next circuit around the Sun. Observing targets: • NGC 6 9 03 – galaxy • NGC 6 9 07 – galaxy • Saturn is about all there is, heading low in the west in western Sagittarius. Saturn