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Capricornus (or Capricorn) is usually translated as "The Sea Goat" or "The Goat-Fish", although the name literally means horned goat, or perhaps ibex.
The constellation is ancient, and was one of the earliest members of the zodiac, perhaps transferred to the heavens from far older earthly concerns.
One respected student of the Near East, Professor Willy Hartner, late director of the Institut für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften (Institute for the History of Natural Science) at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt, has postulated that the ibex was an early constellation, which was later broken up to form Capricorn and Aquarius. [See "The Earliest History of the Constellations in the Near East and the Motif of the Lion-Bull Combat", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 24 (1965) pp 1-16.]
Hartner's Diagram 1a shows the heavens as they would have appeared in 4000 BC in Mesopotamia. He argues that a much larger constellation, The Ibex, was in place where we now have Aquarius and Capricorn.
Considering its importance, Capricornus is rather faint; the asterism of a
horned animal isn't terribly evident, and the Bayer stars are generally third to fourth magnitude.
Alpha Capricorni is known as Al Giedi or Algedi (the goat
or ibex).
This is a double star, alpha1 and alpha2
Capricorni. Alpha2 is the primary, although they only make an
optical pair. Each star is however a visual binary (see below for details).
Beta Capricorni is called Dabih, from the Arabic Al Sa'd al
Dhabih meaning "The Lucky One of the Slaughterers". This name
indicates that the star served to signal the beginning of a winter
ritual, possibly the very ones depicted on the pottery examples shown above. For the sun would have been in this constellation at the winter solstice three to four thousand years ago; were they beseeching the gods to bring back the Spring?
Delta Capricorni is the brightest star of the constellation (as well as
an eclipsing binary). The Arabs called delta and nearby gamma Capricorni "The Two Friends".
Beta Capricorni is a wide visual binary with a nice colour
contast, yellow and blue: 3.2, 6.1; PA 267º, separation 205".
The only variable worth noting is delta Capricorni, which is an
eclipsing binary (2.81-3.05) with a period of 24h32m47.2s.
For a closer appreciation of Capricornus, visit the Binocular Section.
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© Richard Dibon-Smith.