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The constellation contains 85 stars of naked eye visibility. [6] [7] The brightest star in Gemini is Pollux, and the second-brightest is Castor. Castor's Bayer designation as "Alpha" arose because Johann Bayer did not carefully distinguish which of the two was the brighter when he assigned his eponymous designations in 1603. [8]
Castor and Pollux are the two "heavenly twin" stars giving the constellation Gemini (Latin, 'the twins') its name. The stars, however, are quite different in detail. Castor is a complex sextuple system of hot, bluish-white type A stars and dim red dwarfs, while Pollux is a single, cooler yellow-orange giant.
Castor [a] and Pollux [b] (or Polydeuces) [c] are twin half-brothers in Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri or Dioskouroi. [d]Their mother was Leda, but they had different fathers; Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. [2]
The constellation is distinguished by its two brightest stars, Castor and Pollux, which symbolize the heads of the Gemini twins. To spot Geminid meteors, you don't need to look directly at the ...
This full moon is also called the long night moon because it’s set to rise a few nights after the longest nights of the year. The Winter Solstice occurs on Dec. 21 every year and marks the day ...
Castor appears singular to the naked eye, but it is actually a sextuple star system organized into three binary pairs. Although it is the 'α' (alpha) member of the constellation, it is half a magnitude fainter than 'β' (beta) Geminorum, Pollux.
Iota Geminorum (ι Geminorum, ι Gem) is a solitary [9] fourth-magnitude star in the constellation Gemini. In the sky, it forms an isosceles triangle with Castor and Pollux, and is located less than a degree from the 5th magnitude stars 64 and 65 Geminorum. [10]
In Greek mythology, Gemini is associated with the myth of Castor and Pollux, a pair of twins conceived by different fathers. Zeus, who seduced Leda and conceived Pollux while Tyndareus, the king of Sparta and Leda's husband, conceived Castor. When Castor died, because he was a mortal, Pollux begged his father Zeus to give Castor immortality ...