Constellations · Constellation · Piscium · Psc
Constellation
Pisces
Two fish tied together by their tails — Venus and her son Cupid, turned into fish to escape the monster Typhon. The spring equinox lies here now.
- Genitive
- Piscium
- Area
- 889 square degrees · 14th of 88
- Brightest star
- Alpherg · magnitude 3.62
- Naked-eye stars
- 148 brighter than magnitude 6.5
- Highest at midnight
- early October
Myth
Aphrodite and Eros tied themselves together with a cord so as not to lose each other as they plunged into the Euphrates.
Look for
Under Pegasus, the Circlet is a ring of faint stars that marks the western fish.
Did you know
Precession slid the spring equinox out of Aries into Pisces around 70 BC. It reaches Aquarius in about six centuries — the “Age of Aquarius”.