Visible at latitudes between +70° and −90°. Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month ofNovember. Note: †Mira (ο Cet) is magnitude 2.0 at its brightest.
Cetus annotated with lines (a "stick figure") from a latitude further north (north of its declination), above a horizon, in conditions ideal for observation.
Cetus is not among the 12 truezodiac constellations in theJ2000 epoch, nor classical 12-part zodiac. Theecliptic passes less than 0.25° from one of its corners. Thus the Moon and planets will enter Cetus (occulting any stars as a foreground object) in 50% of their successive orbits briefly, and the southern part of the Sun appears in Cetus for about 14 hours each year on March 27 to 28. Many asteroids in belts have longer phases occulting the north-western part of Cetus, those with a slightly greaterinclination to the ecliptic than the Moon and planets.
As seen from Mars, the ecliptic (apparent plane of the Sun and also the average plane of the planets which is almost the same) passes into it.
Mira ("wonderful",named by Bayer:Omicron Ceti, a star of the neck of the asterism) was the firstvariable star to be discovered and the prototype ofits class, Mira variables. Over a period of 332 days, it reaches a maximumapparent magnitude of 3 - visible to the naked eye - and dips to a minimum magnitude of 10, invisible to the unaided eye. Its seeming appearance and disappearance gave it its name. Mirapulsates with a minimum size of 400 solar diameters and a maximum size of 500 solar diameters. 420 light-years from Earth, it was discovered byDavid Fabricius in 1596.[2]
α Ceti, traditionally called Menkar ("the nose"), is a red-hued giant star of magnitude 2.5, 220 light-years from Earth. It is a widedouble star; the secondary is93 Ceti, a blue-white hued star of magnitude 5.6, 440 light-years away.β Ceti, also called Deneb Kaitos and Diphda is the brightest star in Cetus. It is an orange-hued giant star of magnitude 2.0, 96 light-years from Earth. The traditional name "Deneb Kaitos" means "the whale's tail".γ Ceti, Kaffaljidhma ("head of the whale") is a very close double star. The primary is a blue-hued star of magnitude 3.5, 82 light-years from Earth, and the secondary is an F-type star of magnitude 6.6.[2]Tau Ceti is noted for being a nearSun-like star at a distance of 11.9 light-years. It is a yellow-huedmain-sequence star of magnitude 3.5.
AA Ceti is a triplestar system; the brightest member has a magnitude of 6.2. The primary and secondary are separated by 8.4 arcseconds at an angle of 304 degrees. The tertiary is not visible in telescopes. AA Ceti is an eclipsing variable star; the tertiary star passes in front of the primary and causes the system's apparent magnitude to decrease by 0.5 magnitudes.[3]UV Ceti is an unusual binary variable star. At 8.7 light-years from Earth, the system consists of twored dwarfs. Both of magnitude 13. One of the stars is aflare star, which are prone to sudden, random outbursts that last several minutes; these increase the pair's apparent brightness significantly - as high as magnitude 7.[2]
NGC 246 (Caldwell 56), also called the "Cetus Ring",[7] is aplanetary nebula with a magnitude of 8.0 at 1600 light-years from Earth. Among some amateur astronomers, NGC 246 has garnered the nickname "Pac-Man Nebula" because of the arrangement of its central stars and the surrounding star field.[8]
UGC 1646, which is a spiral galaxy, also lies between the borders of the constellation. It is about 150 million light-years away from us. It can be seen near TYC 43-234-1 star.[9][10]
The spiral galaxy NGC 298 basks in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 298 lies around 89 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus, and appears isolated in this image — only a handful of distant galaxies and foreground stars accompany the lonely galaxy.
Cetus dominates this card fromUrania's Mirror (1825) as if looking up towards the celestial sphere (east is left of frame). Uses the modern custom: celestial maps to be held skywards while facing south.An alike depiction fromCelestial Atlas (A. Jamieson) (1822)
Cetus may have originally been associated with awhale, which would have had mythic status amongst Mesopotamian cultures. It is often now called the Whale, though it is most strongly associated withCetus the sea-monster, who was slain byPerseus as he saved the princessAndromeda fromPoseidon's wrath. It is in the middle of "The Sea" recognised by mythologists, a set of water-associated constellations, its other members beingEridanus,Pisces,Piscis Austrinus andAquarius.[11] Despite this, there are no specific references to the stars of Cetus in Babylonian sources.[12]
Cetus has been depicted in many ways throughout its history. In the 17th century, Cetus was depicted as a "dragon fish" byJohann Bayer, while bothWillem Blaeu andAndreas Cellarius depicted Cetus as a whale-like creature in the same century. However, Cetus has also been variously depicted with animal heads attached to a piscine body.[11]
TheTukano andKobeua people of the Amazon used the stars of Cetus to create ajaguar, representing the god of hurricanes and other violent storms. Lambda, Mu, Xi, Nu, Gamma, and Alpha Ceti represented its head; Omicron, Zeta, and Chi Ceti represented its body; Eta Eri, Tau Cet, and Upsilon Cet marked its legs and feet; and Theta, Eta, and Beta Ceti delineated its tail.[11]
InHawaii, the constellation was calledNa Kuhi, and Mira (Omicron Ceti) may have been calledKane.[13]
^Rogers, John H. (1998). "Origins of the Ancient Constellations: II. The Mediterranean Traditions".Journal of the British Astronomical Association.108 (2):79–89.Bibcode:1998JBAA..108...79R.
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