Directly south of Cassiopeia and Cepheus, the circumpolar constellations with which we became acquainted last month, and almost overhead in our latitudes in the early evening hours of November, lie Pegasus, The Winged Horse, and Andromeda, The Woman Chained.
According to the legend, Cepheus was king of Ethiopia, and Cassiopeia was the beautiful, but vain, queen who dared to compare herself in beauty with the sea-nymphs. This so enraged the nymphs that, as a punishment for her presumption, they decided to send a terrible sea-monster to ravage the coast of the kingdom. The king and queen, upon consulting the oracle, found that the only way to avert this calamity would be to chain their daughter Andromeda to the rocks and permit the monster to devour her.
[Illustration: NOVEMBER--ANDROMEDA AND PEGASUS]
As the story goes, the valiant hero, Perseus, chanced to be riding through the air on his winged horse and saw, far beneath him the beautiful maiden chained to the rocks and the frightful monster approaching to devour her. He immediately went to the rescue, and, after a terrible struggle with the monster, succeeded in overpowering him and thus saved the maiden from a dreadful fate. Perseus and the fair Andromeda were married shortly afterward, and at the end of a happy life the pair were transferred to the heavens. Cassiopeia, the vain queen, was ordered to be bound to a chair and, with the king Cepheus at her side, to be swung continually around the north pole of the heavens that she might be taught a lesson in humility.
The constellation Cetus, representing the sea-monster, will be found to the southeast and south of Pisces, The Fishes, which lie south of Andromeda and Pegasus.
The Great Square in Pegasus is the most conspicuous configuration of stars to be seen in the heavens in autumn evenings. The star that marks the northeastern corner of The Great Square belongs to the constellation of Andromeda and marks the head of the maiden, who is resting upon the shoulders of Pegasus, The Winged Horse. The three bright stars nearly in a straight line outline the maiden's body, Alpha, or Alpheratz, as it is called, being the star in the head, Beta or Mirach in the waist, and Gamma or Almach in the left foot. The last-named star, which is farthest to the northeast in the diagram, was, in the opinion of the noted astronomer Herschel, the finest double star in the heavens. The two stars into which the telescope splits it are of the beautifully contrasted shades of orange and sea green.