Pisces, the Fishes, is a zodiacal constellation located on the ecliptic between Aquarius and Aries. The ecliptic is the path of the Sun across the sky, defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun. There are 13 constellations through which the ecliptic runs. Hold your mouse cursor over the image to see constellation figures, boundaries, and star identifications. Pisces is another ancient constellation comprised mostly of relatively faint stars. The Circlet, however, is an asterism that is easy to pick out. The Circlet represents the head of the western fish in Pisces. In Roman mythology, Pisces represents Venus and Cupid, who changed into fish to escape the monster Typhon. The two fishes have their tails tied together. Along with Aquarius, Capricornus, Cetus and Piscis Austrinis, Pisces is located in an area of the sky dominated by water-related constellations. Pisces is currently the location of the March equinox. This is the point in the sky where the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading into the northern hemisphere of the sky. This usually occurs around March 21, marking the beginning of spring for the northern hemisphere on Earth, and the start of fall for the southern hemisphere. The equinox is also when the length of the day and night are equal and the Sun rises due east and sets due west. The Sun is located in the constellation of Pisces from March 12 to April 18. Alrescha is Alpha Piscium. It shines at an apparent magnitude of 3.82 and is located 130 light-years distant. It is a spectral-class A0 star. Alrescha is also a close binary star with a magnitude 5.23 companion located 1.8 arcseconds away. Alrescha means the "Cord". It represents the knot that ties the two ribbons holding the tails of the two fishes in Pisces. Fum al Samakah is Beta Piscium. It is a spectral-class B6Ve star that shines at magnitude 4.47 and is located 493 light-years away. The star's name comes from an Arabic phrase which means the "Mouth of the Fish." Gamma Piscium is the second brightest star in Pisces. It is a spectral-class G9 III yellow-giant star that shines at magnitude 3.7 and is located 131 light-years from Earth. Gamma Piscium has a high proper motion of 0.75 arcseconds per year. Alpherg, Eta Piscium, is the brightest star in Pisces with an apparent visual magnitude of 3.62. It is located 294 light-years distant. It is a spectral class G7 IIIa yellow-giant star. It also has the Babylonian name Kullat Nunu. Torcularis Septentrionalis is Omicron Piscium, a 4.27 magnitude spectral-type K0III star that is 258 light-years away. 19 Piscium (TX Piscium), located just to the east of the Circlet, is a carbon star and is one of the reddest stars in the night sky. It has a spectral classification of C5II and is located 760 light-years away. Its brightness varies between magnitudes 4.9 and 5.5 which makes it easily visible in small-aperture telescopes. Only one Messier object, galaxy M74, is located in Pisces. Pisces was originally catalogued by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century C.E. It is the 14th largest of today's 88 modern constellations, covering 889 square degrees of sky. North is to the top left in the above image.
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