m31.

So one more post tonight. I think I'll periodically come and write posts on the stars.

So the story goes .... Andromeda was the beautiful daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia (which will be my next post I'm thinking – Cassiopeia) who ruled over the Phoenician kingdom Ethiopia. Andromeda was incredibly vane and boasted of her own beauty (taking after her mother), and because of this the Queen Cassiopeia upset the sea god Poseidon who then sent a sea monster named Cetus to terrorize the shores of Cepheus' kingdom. In order to make peace with Poseidon, the King was forced to sacrifice his daughter by chaining her to rocks at the shore of the sea. But just as Cetus was about to take her into the depths of the sea, the hero Perseus (as in, the one who slayed Medusa) happened by and killed Cetus. He later wed Andromeda.

The Andromeda galaxy is a spiral galaxy, one of the showpiece objects of the northern heavens. It is indeed like our own, though much larger (roughly 150,000 light years in diameter). I find myself fascinated by the mythology of the stars, and Andromeda is a beautiful word that Michael Cretu references periodically in his songs. It is linked in the sky to the constellation Pegasus, and the leading star Alpha Andromedae forms the northeastern corner of the Square of Pegasus.

I am going to continue to read about the stars and being fascinated by their presence and their mysteries.