Pisces Constellation

Pisces Constellation is the 14th biggest constellations in the night sky, and the
4th biggest of the zodiac constellations, taking up an area of 889.417 square
degrees of the northern sky, between latitudes +90° and -65°.

Pisces lies between Aquarius to the west and Aries to the east. The ecliptic and
the celestial equator intersect within Pisces’ constellation and in Virgo.

Pisces is best seen during the month of November in an area of the sky known
as “Water”, or sometimes “The Sea”, along with other watery themed
constellations, such as Capricornus (Sea Goat), Aquarius (Water [or Cup]
Bearer, Cetus (Whale), Delphinus (Dolphin), Eridanus (Great River), and Hydra
(Water Serpent).

Pisces have many objects that locates in itself, such as stars, asterism, and
another deep sky objects, this is some of the objects:
 Stars
1. Alpha Piscium, is a binary star system in the equatorial constellation of Pisces.
Based upon parallax measurements made by the Hipparcos spacecraft, it is located
approximately 311 light-years from the Sun.

2. Eta Piscium, is a binary star and the brightest point of light in the constellation of
Pisces with an apparent visual magnitude of +3.6. Based upon a measured annual
parallax shift of 9.33 mas as seen from Earth, it is located roughly 350 light-years
distant from the Sun in the thin disk population of the Milky Way.
3. Beta Piscium, also named Fumalsamakah, is a blue-white hued star in the zodiac
constellation of Pisces. Its apparent magnitude is 4.40, meaning it can be faintly seen
with the naked eye. Based on parallax measurements taken during the Hipparcos
mission, it is about 410 light-years distant from the Sun. The star’s traditional name,
Fum al Samakah, comes from the Arabic phrase fum al-samakah, which means “the
mouth of the fish.”
4. Omega Piscium, is a star approximately 106 light years away from Earth, in the
constellation Pisces. It has a spectral type of F4IV, meaning it is a subgiant/dwarf
star, and it has a temperature of 6,600 kelvins. It may or may not be a close binary
star system. Variations in its spectrum were once interpreted as giving it an orbital
period of 2.16 days, but this claim was later debunked as false. It is 20 times brighter
than the Sun and is 1.8 times greater in mass, if it is a single star. Counting stars with
Flamsteed numbers, Greek letters, and proper names, Omega Piscium was the
named star with the highest right ascension (akin to terrestrial longitude). Due to the
26,000-year wobble of the Earth's axis, this changed in 2013, when its right
ascension was reset to 0 hours. It is the first star to the east of the Circlet of Pisces,
which represents the head of the western fish in the constellation.
5. Gamma Piscium, is a yellow giant with the stellar classification of G9 III. It is the
second brightest star in Pisces. It has an apparent magnitude of 3.699 and is
approximately 138 light years distant. The star is ten times the size of the Sun and 61
times more luminous. It is believed to be about 5.5 billion years old. The star is part
of an asterism called the Circlet of Pisces, which represents the head of the western
fish in Pisces constellation.Gamma Piscium will not be in the Sun’s vicinity for long.
The star moves three quarters of an arc second across the sky every year.
6. Omega Piscium, is a yellow-white subgiant star with the stellar classification of F4IV.
It has an apparent magnitude of 4.036 and is approximately 106 light years distant
from the Sun. It is the first star to the east of the Circlet of Pisces.The star is
 suspected to be a close binary system. If it is a single star, it is 1.8 times more
massive than the Sun and 20 times more luminous.
7. Iota Piscium, is a yellow-white dwarf with the stellar classification of F7 V. It has an
apparent magnitude of 4.13 and is 44.73 light years distant from Earth. It is larger
and more luminous than the Sun.Iota Piscium is a suspected variable star, and it has
two line-of-sight companions.
8. Omicron Piscium, is a yellow giant star with the stellar classification G8 III. It has an
apparent magnitude of 4.26 and is approximately 142 light years distant. In the
1515 Almagest, the star was listed with the proper name Torcularis septentrionalis.
9. Alpha Piscium, is a close binary star with components separated by 1.8 arc seconds.
The primary star belongs to the spectral class A0p and has a visual magnitude of
4.33, and the companion belongs to the spectral class A3m and has an apparent
magnitude of 5.23. The stars orbit each other with a period of over 700 years.The
primary star has 2.3 solar masses and is 31 times more luminous than the Sun, while
the companion has 1.8 times the Sun’s mass and is 12 times brighter.The name
Alrescha (sometimes Al Rescha, Alrisha, or Alrischa) is derived from the Arabic al-
rišā, which means “the well rope.” The star is also sometimes known as Kaitain and
Okda. Okda is derived from uqdah, the Arabic word for “knot.”. Alpha Piscium has a
combined apparent magnitude of 3.82 and is approximately 139 light years distant
from the solar system.
10. Epsilon Piscium, is an orange giant star belonging to the stellar class K0 III, slightly
larger and more luminous than the Sun. It has an apparent magnitude of 4.28 and is
approximately 182 light years distant from Earth. The star is a suspected occultation
double, composed of two stars with the same magnitude separated by 0.25 arc
second.
11. Theta Piscium, it has the stellar classification of K1 III, which means that the star is
another orange giant. It has an apparent magnitude of 4.27 and is approximately 159
light years distant from the solar system. It is brighter, yet cooler than the Sun.
12. Delta Piscium, is a binary star with an apparent magnitude of 4.43. It is
approximately 305 light years distant from the Sun. It lies two degrees from the
ecliptic and is regularly occulted by the Moon.The primary star in the system is an
orange giant with the stellar classification of K5 III. It is 380 times more luminous
than the Sun and has a radius 43.1 times solar. The 13th magnitude companion is
two arc minutes away and thought to be a K9-class dwarf or merely a star in the
same line of sight.
13. Nu Piscium, is an orange giant with the stellar classification K3IIIb. It has an apparent
magnitude of 4.448 and is approximately 370 light years distant from the solar
system. The star used to have the designation 51 Ceti.Nu Piscium is cooler, yet larger
and more luminous than the Sun. It has a mass 1.9 times solar and a radius 34 times
that of the Sun.
14. Van Maanen’s star, is a white dwarf with the stellar classification DZ8. It is the third
closest white dwarf to the Sun, after Sirius B in Canis Major constellation and
Procyon B in Canis Minor. It is also the nearest known solitary white dwarf.The
stellar classification DZ8 indicates that the star has elements heavier than helium in
its spectrum, which is to say metals.The star was discovered by the Dutch-American
astronomer Adriaan van Maanen in 1917. It has an apparent magnitude of 12.374
and is 14.1 light years distant from Earth. The star is located about two degrees
 south of Delta Piscium.Van Maanen’s star has a mass 63 percent that of the Sun and
only one percent of the solar radius. Its age is estimated to be around three billion
years.
15. 19 Piscium, is one of the reddest stars known. It has the stellar classification of C5III
and is approximately 760 light years distant. The star has an apparent magnitude
that varies between 4.9 and 5.5 magnitudes. It is a variable carbon star, which is to
say a late type star that resembles a red giant (or less frequently a red dwarf), that
has an atmosphere with more carbon than oxygen.
16. 107 Piscium, is a main sequence star with the stellar classification K1V. It is an
orange dwarf about 24.4 light years distant from the solar system. It is a variable
star, exhibiting variations in magnitude from 5.14 to 5.26. Its age is estimated to be
about 6 billion years. The star used to have the designation 2 Arietis. It has two visual
companions.
17. 96 G. Piscium, is an orange main sequence dwarf belonging to the stellar class K2 V.
It has a visual magnitude of 5.75 and is 24.31 light years distant from Earth. It is
about 5.4 billion years old, which makes it slightly older than the Sun.
18. 54 Piscium, is another orange dwarf in Pisces. It has an apparent magnitude of 5.88
and is 36.1 light years distant from the solar system. It has the stellar classification K0
V. The star has a confirmed planet in its orbit, discovered in 2002, and a brown dwarf
was also discovered orbiting it in 2006.54 Piscium has 76 percent of the Sun’s mass,
94.4 percent of the solar radius, and 46 percent of the Sun’s luminosity. It is about
6.4 billion years old.The companion star, the brown dwarf, belongs to the stellar
class T7.5V. It has a mass 50 times that of Jupiter, or 0.051 that of the Sun. It was the
first brown dwarf discovered around a star that had a confirmed extrasolar planet in
its orbit.The planet has roughly the same mass as Saturn and orbits the star at a
distance of 0.28 astronomical units, which corresponds to the orbit of Mercury. It
takes 52 days to complete an orbit.

19. 6 G. Piscium, is a yellow subgiant star with the stellar classification of G8 IV. It has an
apparent magnitude of 6.17 and is 64.8 light years distant from the Sun. It is older
than the Sun and has a similar mass; 98 percent that of the Sun. The star is slightly
larger, with a radius 1.31 times solar. It is believed to be about 7.7 billion years
old.Two planets have been detected orbiting the star. One completes an orbit every
7.1 days, while the other one takes eight years to complete an orbit.
 ASTERISMS
The astronomer Johannes Hevelius divided Pisces into four subdivisions in his
Firmamentum Sobiescianum in 1690:
1. Piscis Boreus – The North Fish
2. Piscis Austrinus – The South Fish
3. Linum Boreum – The North Cord
4. Linum Austrinum – The South Cord

These are some example of the asterisms that locates in pisces constellation:
1. The Circlet asterism is located south of Pegasus constellation, in the western fish of
Pisces. It is formed by the stars Gamma, Kappa, Lambda, TX, Iota and Theta Piscium.
2. Testudo is formed by the stars 24, 27, YY(30), 33 and 29 Piscium. In 1754, the
astronomer John Hill suggested that this region of Pisces should be a separate
constellation, called Testudo, or the Turtle. His proposal was neglected by most
astronomers at the time.

 DEEP SKY OBJECTS IN PISCES

1) Messier 74 (M74, NGC 628). Messier 74 is a spiral galaxy seen face-on. It has an
apparent magnitude of 10.0 and is approximately 30 million light years distant from
the Sun. With two very clearly defined spiral arms, M74 is a textbook example of a
grand design spiral galaxy. It is believed to contain about 100 billion stars. M74 has a
low surface brightness and of all the Messier objects it is the one most difficult for
amateur astronomers to observe. It is located 1.5 degrees east-northeast of Eta
Piscium, the brightest star in the constellation. The galaxy was discovered by the
French astronomer Pierre Méchain, who notified Charles Messier of his discovery.
Messier subsequently included the galaxy in his catalogue. Two supernovae have
been observed in Messier 74, SN 2002ap in 2002 and SN2003gd in 2003. SN2002ap
was one of the rare Type Ic supernovae, also known as hypernovae, discovered in
recent years. Hypernovae are supernovae explosions with a substantially higher
amount of energy than regular supernovae, and are believed to be the origin of long-
duration gamma-ray bursts, which are some of the most energetic events observed
in space.In March 2005, an ultraluminous X-ray source was discovered in Messier 74
which emitted more X-ray power than a neutron star in periods of about every two
hours, indicating the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole. The suspected
black hole is believed to have a mass of 10,000 Suns. The X-ray source is designated
as CXOU J013651.1+154547.
2) M74 Group. The M74 Group (or NGC 628 Group) is a small group of 5 to 7 galaxies in
Pisces constellation, the brightest of which is Messier 74. Other members of the
group include NGC 660, a peculiar spiral galaxy, and a few smaller irregular galaxies.
3) CL 0024+1654. CL 0024+1654 is a large galaxy cluster composed mainly of yellow
elliptical and spiral galaxies. The cluster lenses a galaxy located behind it, which
results in arc-like images of the galaxy in the background. The cluster is
approximately 3.6 billion light years distant, and the galaxy behind it is about 5.7
billion light years away.

4) NGC 7537. NGC 7537 is another spiral galaxy in Pisces.It has an apparent magnitude
of 13.9.
5) 3C 31 (NGC 383).3C 31 is a double radio galaxy about 237 million light years away in
Pisces constellation. It has a quasar-like appearance and is listed in The Arp Atlas of
Peculiar Galaxies. The galaxy is a strong radio source. 3C 31 is an active galaxy with a
supermassive black hole at its centre, one that causes the galaxy’s jets to extend for
millions of light years in both directions. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of
13.4 and is approximately 209 million light years distant from the Sun. Four galaxies
located nearby – NGC 379, NGC 380, NGC 385 and NGC 384 – are believed to be
closely associated with it.
6) CGCG 436-030 (PGC 4798). CGCG 436-030 is a spiral galaxy in Pisces.It has an
apparent magnitude of 14.9 and is approximately 400 million light years distant.

7) Pisces Dwarf (PGC 3792). The Pisces Dwarf is an irregular dwarf galaxy that is a
member of the Local Group of galaxies. It has an apparent magnitude of 14.2 and is
approximately 2.51 million light years distant from the solar system. It is suspected
to be a satellite galaxy of Messier 33, the Triangulum Galaxy, located in Triangulum
constellation. Most of the galaxy’s stars were formed about 8 billion years ago and
the star formation rate has been on the decline for the last 10 billion years. Young
hot stars can, However, be found in small clusters in the outer regions of the galaxy.
The Pisces Dwarf was discovered by the Russian astronomer Valentina E.
Karachentseva in 1976.
8) Arp 284 – NGC 7714 and NGC 7715. Arp 284 is a pair of interacting galaxies in Pisces,
discovered by the English astronomer John Herschel in September 1830. NGC 7714 is
a spiral galaxy with an apparent magnitude of 12.2, and NGC 7715 is thought to be
 either an edge-on spiral or an irregular galaxy. A supernova, SN 1999dn, was
discovered in NGC 7714 in September 1999.

9) NGC 474. NGC 474 is a large elliptical galaxy.It is notable for its tidal tails, whose
origin is unknown. The galaxy is approximately 100 million light years distant.
10) NGC 520. NGC 520 is a pair of interacting spiral galaxies about 90.7 million light years
from Earth. NGC 520 has an apparent magnitude of 12.2. It has an H II nucleus.

11) NGC 7459. NGC 7459 is a twin spiral galaxy, with two galactic nuclei only 15 arc
seconds apart. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 15.2. It was first discovered
by the American astronomer Lewis Swift in 1886.
12) NGC 514. NGC 514 is an intermediate spiral galaxy with an H II nucleus. It has an
apparent magnitude of 12.2 and is approximately 95.9 million light years distant
from the solar system.
13) NGC 57. NGC 57 is an elliptical galaxy. It has an apparent magnitude of 12.7. A
magnitude 17 supernova was observed in the galaxy by Koichi Itagaki on June 3,
2010.
14) NGC 60. NGC 60 is a spiral galaxy in Pisces, notable for its unusually distorted spiral
arms. Distorted spiral arms are usually the result of interactions and gravitational
effects of nearby galaxies, but there are no galaxies in the vicinity of NGC 60 to
explain this. NGC 60 has an apparent magnitude of 14.85 and is approximately 500
million light years distant.