Cassiopeia

Plug her in.

Actually, the actress who played Cassiopeia.

Nope.

The one with the owl, Bubo.

No. Judy Valker, who played Andromeda.

Yeah.

And Sean Phillips, who played Cassiopeia.

Oh, wow.

And eventually, Perseus joined the other members of this spectacularly dysfunctional family in the sky.

Cassiopeia in her chair, Cepheus nearby, Andromeda stretching away toward Pegasus.

And Perseus beside her, still carrying the gorgon's head.

The constellation doesn't remember the discus.

Just look.

Sometimes the correct astronomical technique is stop zooming in.

NGC 869 and NGC 884 are two open star clusters sitting side by side in Perseus, near the border with Cassiopeia.

Together, they're known as the double cluster.

Perseus.

Cassiopeia.

Pegasus.

Characters from myths seem to stretch across the sky itself.

Her mother did the boasting.

Queen Cassiopeia declared that she, or in some versions her daughter, was more beautiful than the Nereids, the sea nymphs.

The Nereids were not amused.

Neither was Poseidon.

The sea god sent a monster to ravage the kingdom, and eventually an oracle delivered the solution: sacrifice Andromeda.

Not Cassiopeia, who made the boast.

Not Cepheus, the king.

Andromeda.

The heavens above, and in this case very high above, host several noteworthy stars and constellations which we've highlighted this week.

Below the star Deneb, directly overhead at 10 minutes of 8:00 this evening, we outlined the king and queen yesterday, Cepheus and Cassiopeia by name, high in the north and northeast.

The queen is the brighter, easier to recognize of the two, and can be found by using the outer edge of the Big Dipper's bowl, extending that line almost straight up to find the North Star halfway up in the north, then continue on that line high in the northeast where the queen's zigzag or W-shaped pattern appears similar in brightness to the Big Dipper.

As the queen's throne tipping upside down, you'll see its tall back as an extension to the lower line on the W.

It appears as an upside-down house or perhaps an ice cream cone, though this celestial figure represents King Cepheus, the square perhaps his head, and the triangle as his crown.

Now looking to his lower right, a W or zigzag pattern of stars marks his partner, the queen, Cassiopeia.

With some imagination, perhaps you can turn this into her throne, tipping upside down.

Tomorrow, a few more details on the royal couple on Night Sky.

I'm your host, Diana, and together we'll explore the cosmos one tale at a time.

Last episode, we met Cassiopeia, the queen whose boast offended the gods, unleashed a sea monster, and earned her one of the most creatively humiliating punishments in Greek mythology.

Her W-shaped constellation is an easy pattern to recognize.

Tonight, we turn to the man standing quietly beside her.

Cepheus is a much dimmer constellation, a modest little house-shaped pattern just northwest of Cassiopeia.

While she grabs all the attention, he tends to disappear into the background, which is rather fitting because that's more or less what he does in the myth as well.

He was there for every step of the disaster.

He simply followed the advice he was given and nearly lost everything because of it.