This means it lies along the path the Sun travels in the sky during the year. Gemini is one of the 48 constellations first cataloged by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century. It represents the twins Castor and Pollux, two Greek heroes who were among the men Jason led on his voyages on the Argo.
According to myth, they were actually half-brothers and not really twins. They shared the same mother, Leda, but had different fathers. Castor's father was a king of Sparta called Tyndareus, while the father of Pollux was Zeus himself. In Babylonian times, the stars Castor and Pollux were known as the Great twins.
Gemini contains two of the most famous stars in the sky, Castor and Pollux. Pollux is the brighter of the two. With a magnitude of 1. It is an orange giant star located about 34 light years from our solar system.
Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Carolyn Collins Petersen. Astronomy Expert. Carolyn Collins Petersen is an astronomy expert and the author of seven books on space science. She previously worked on a Hubble Space Telescope instrument team.
Facebook Facebook. Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Petersen, Carolyn Collins. How to Find the Gemini Constellation. How to Find the Aquarius Constellation. How to Find the Phoenix Constellation. How to Find the Capricornus Constellation. How to Find the Andromeda Constellation. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for ThoughtCo. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. To help visualize this remarkable sextuplet stellar family, picture three waltzing couples on a giant ballroom floor.
Two couples representing Castor A and B move around each other a few feet apart, while the third pair representing C dances in a far corner of the room and very, very slowly circles the first two couples. Some consider Gemini to be the "Times Square of the sky," because it seems to entertain all sorts of interesting events. Since the ecliptic crosses its boundaries, the sun, moon and planets can cross through Gemini.
Up until , the summer solstice occurred within Gemini's boundaries when the sun passed near the star Eta Geminorum on June 21 the solstice point has since shifted west into the constellation of Taurus. Not far from Eta, Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus — and in , right next to the star Delta Geminorum, a tiny speck of light was identified as Pluto once the ninth planet, now classified as a dwarf planet. The best meteor display of the year — the Geminids — appear to radiate from this part of the sky in mid-December and finally, Gemini is home to M35, considered to be one of the most beautiful star clusters.
Dimly visible to the eye under favorable conditions, a good telescope shows it as a striking pattern of stars forming curves and festoons. Along with astronomy, George had a great fascination for trains, and once, he likened the stars of winter to watching a passing train at a railroad crossing.
As you look down one end of the tracks, you can see the singular headlight of the approaching train; steam locomotives can have their headlight on the smokebox door or up near the funnel. In the sky, George likened the brilliant star Capella, in Auriga, the Charioteer as the locomotive headlight.
Appearing above the northeast horizon around 10 p. And at the end of the train, we of course have the caboose accompanied with a pair of taillights moving with the receding train off into the distance, before finally disappearing. And to George, those "taillights in the sky" were Pollux and Castor, marking the very end of the precession of winter stars, finally disappearing beyond the northwest horizon at dusk on the first night of summer.
He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N. Originally published on Space.
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