![]() ![]() ![]() It's less well placed from southern locations but nevertheless can still be seen at latitudes as far as 60 degrees south. The constellation is positioned high in the sky for Northern Hemisphere observers during the winter months. Gemini occupies 514 square degrees of sky and is partly located among the rich star fields of the Milky Way. Project Gemini was also the name of NASA's second human spaceflight program during the 1960's. In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto on photographic plates centered on Wasat (δ Gem). In more modern times, William Herschel in 1781 discovered Uranus near eta Geminorum (η Gem). In Chinese astronomy, part of Gemini represented the White Tiger of the West and another part the Vermillion Bird of the South. In Babylonian astronomy, the twins were regarded as minor gods. When Castor died, Pollux begged Zeus to give Castor immortality, which he did, thereby reuniting the twins together in the heavens forever. The twins were the patron saints of mariners, appearing in ships rigging as the St Elmo's fire phenomena. However, in most versions of the myth only Pollux was Zeus's child. Together the twins were known as the Dioscuri, which means the sons of Zeus. In Greek mythology, Castor and Pollux were twin brothers whose mother was Queen Leda although Castor was the mortal son of King Tyndareus and Pollux the divine son of Zeus. The likelihood is that Bayer simply made a mistake and didn't carefully distinguish which was the brighter star. Some astronomers have suggested that maybe Pollux has since brightened or Castor faded, but both possibilities seem extremely improbable. Surprisingly, Pollux was assigned beta Geminorum by Johann Bayer - the German astronomer who labelled the stars with Greek letters in 1603 - even though it easily outshines Castor. +1.16, Pollux is the brighter while multiple system Castor shines at mag. This bright grouping contains two-standout stars, Castor (α Gem) and Pollux (β Gem). ![]() Its name is Latin for the twins and it's one of the few constellations in the sky that actually looks like what it suppose to represent. Gemini is a northern zodiac constellation and one of the 48 constellations described by second century astronomer Ptolemy. ![]()
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